Passenger Focused Franchises

08 November 2006

On 8 November 2006 Passenger Focus hosted a conference entitled ‘Passenger Focused Franchises‘ to discuss the new Cross Country, East and West Midlands franchises. The event took place at the Radisson SAS hotel, Queensway, Birmingham between 10.30am and 3.30pm.

Speakers included:

• Rail Minister and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport Tom Harris MP

• Shadow Transport Minister Stephen Hammond MP
• Robert Smith, Director of Centro
• Rail journalist Christian Wolmar
• Martin Edwards, Programme Director for the Network Rail Birmingham Gateway Project.

Key topics for discussion on the day included:

• findings from Passenger Focus’ research into passengers’ priorities in the Midlands
• the role of local and regional knowledge in the franchise process
• how the new Midlands franchises will impact on regional transport plans
• progress to date for renewing Birmingham New Street station.

A highlight of the day was the Q&A discussion entitled ‘What do passengers get from franchises?’, during which delegates were be invited to ask questions of our panel of expert speakers.

You can now download the following documents relating to the conference:

• Final programme for the day
  
• Speech by Tom Harris MP to the conference
• Passengers’ priorities for new franchises – Anthony Smith’s presentation
• Local and regional input into franchises – The PTE perspective – presentation by Robert Smith (Centro)
• A world class station for a world class city – presentation by Martin Chambers (Network Rail)
• Final delegate list – based on attendance on the day
• Feedback received from delegates