Reforming Our Railways: Putting the Customer First – April 2012

04 May 2012

In March 2012 the Department for Transport published the above named Command Paper.
It sets out the Government’s vision for the railways, alongside the objectives and policies that are needed to realise that vision.  It applies to England and Wales – setting a strategy for Scotland being a matter primarily for the Scottish Government.

The document has two core themes: how to make life better for passengers and how to reduce the demand on taxpayers. It is part a response to the ‘Rail Value for Money’
(McNulty study1) and part ‘direction of travel’ for the High Level Output Specification2 (HLOS) expected later this summer.

This is a brief summary of the document. Its aim is to give a flavour of some of the core issues from a passenger perspective rather than provide a detailed analysis of the issues or a synopsis of Passenger Focus’s own opinions.