High Level Output Statement and White Paper – outlining a 30 year vision for UK rail

25 July 2007

PLEASE NOTE: THIS EVENT HAS MOVED FROM 23 JULY

On Wednesday 25 July Anthony Smith, Passenger Focus chief executive, will take part in the panel discussion at the High Level Output Statement and White Paper – outlining a 30 year vision for UK rail conference.

The event will take place at Chuch House Conference Centre in Westminster, London and the panel session starts at 3.20pm and finishes at 4.05pm. Speakers include:

• Chris Green, Chair, Railway Forum
• Lord Berkeley, Chair, Rail Freight Group
• Richard Brown, CEO, Eurostar
• Dr David Quarmby, Director, Colin Buchanan
• Anthony Smith, Chief Executive, Passenger Focus
• Ian Brown, Managing Director London Rail, TfL 

The High Level Output Statement (HLOS) will have huge implications for passengers.

The 2004 White Paper, The Future of Rail, proposed a number of changes to simplify and clarify the governance of the railway. One of the key changes was to make the Secretary of State for Transport responsible for setting the strategic direction for the railway in England and Wales and determining the level of funding it receives from Government.

The next step towards this will take place this month with the publication of two documents by the new Secretary of State Ruth Kelly. The first of these, the High Level Output Specification (HLOS), will specify the outputs the Secretary of State wishes to secure over the period 2009-2014. It will set out targets for performance (in terms of PPM), safety, and capacity (both in terms of passenger kilometres and the maximum level of overcrowding).

We have fed into the specification through our research on passenger priorities
and focus groups looking at wider issues such as attitudes towards the
environmental aspects of rail.