A railway where everyone can get on board
The cost-of-living crisis has prompted significant passion and conviction across the country. Rail is no exception, where we have reached something of a stalemate. If industrial disputes become too prolonged, the employeremployee bond will be eroded irrevocably. Like everyone else, I want parties to reach a resolution that can provide both rewards and reform. Frankly, we risk losing valuable time. Every minute spent on this battle, is a minute lost to the big issues which won’t go away. Net zero, skills investment, safety, technology, and crucially, asset integrity; rail needs to be able to refocus attention on all of these. They are critical to our railway providing good quality, affordable and accessible transport to all people, now, and in the future.
We have to get real about the economic challenges we face. The propensity to travel, work, shop, and get out; these are all made more difficult as the cost-of-living crisis bites us all. Yet there is no reason why our railways cannot be part of the solution. Rail can help us grow; just as it will contribute to the future. It can generate prosperity that can help to empower those that need support. Whether that is better healthcare, social care, education, employment or wider opportunities, rail can provide. Rediscovering that belief, backed up of course, by the right relations and framework, has to be key.
The sector reform agenda is a good opportunity to get more of this right, but we should not dawdle. Refining the industry’s arrangements is logical, and can yield a railway which is greener, easier to work with and more affordable to more people. But there is so much our railways can be getting on with, right now, to improve the overall proposition. We do not need to wait. At the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) we have been helping industry and many governments get to these answers quicker, together. We have a hub of resources aimed at helping protect and enhance the health and wellbeing of the workforce, We use data to allow companies to pinpoint risks and we work with our trade union colleagues to build clearer business cases for interventions.
Our research unlocks the potential to run longer and faster freight trains, our research increases the payload of each train, our research reduces emissions, but we also free up space on the network to run extra trains, more quickly.
We are helping rail get more from its data, anticipate risks sooner, leading to better and safer trains and better stations. RSSB want to work with everyone to help our railways solve the shared problems we face together, inclusively. This saves time, money and gets the best outcomes for rail workers and users.
The skill and professionalism of the workforce in Network Rail, the train and freight operators and right across the industry, means we enjoy one of the safest railway systems in the world. As we face up to difficult questions ahead, let’s ensure our industry stays part of the answer, and that we build a railway where everyone can get on board.