Richard Bowker: Speech to National Rail Conference

But one thing hasn’t changed: we are still in the fight of our lives and it’s still a fight we can and must win. I still believe that. We owe it to our customers - over one billion passengers in 2003, and Jaguar Cars, P&O, Asda and Scottish Coal to name but four freight customers. We owe it to taxpayers; we owe it to our colleagues in government who are investing now more heavily than at any time before; we owe it to private investors and shareholders who keep faith with the industry, despite public turmoil, and continue to invest.

And we owe it to ourselves. Our performance levels don’t do justice to anyone at the moment - including us. You know that; I know that. No point in pretending otherwise. No point in being defensive and no point in blame. Whilst recognising that the last few months have seen some evidence of improvement, which is really good and encouraging, we all know 80% or thereabouts is not good enough. That’s a simple fact.

But we can fix it. We have already started to do that. What characterises all successful campaigns is that they are waged in the name of conviction, of a shared belief and they are won together.

The West Coast isn’t being modernised by individual effort; the new trains and power supply upgrade programme for the southern region isn’t being rescued by individual effort. Swindon Platform 4, Cherwell Valley resignalling, gauge enhancement to Felixstowe, the redoubling of the Cornish Main Line between Probus and Burngullow and all the other smaller but vital schemes aren’t being delivered through individual effort. I could go on, but we all know that none of the work that this railway needs will ever be completed by individual effort. That has been the situation ever since Trevithick, Stephenson and Brunel and its how it will always be in the future.

The new-era franchise contracts weren’t created by the SRA alone. We did it with you. Not despite you; not to you. With you. That doesn’t mean we agree at every twist and turn. How could it? This room is a snapshot of a wider industry “jam packed” with people who are passionate; passionate about being the best contractor; about giving the best customer service; about being the best train builder or running the best kept station. About being the best in each of their fields, not for its own sake- but for the customers of, and investors in, the railway. That pride is what drives planners, engineers, drivers, Managing Directors, on-board customer staff. But not for its own sake. The railway is greater than the sum of its parts. From time to time we lose sight of that. And when we do, we’re a lesser industry. 200 years ago next week, Trevithick created a steam locomotive that could beat the speed of a horse for the first time. It was a stunning achievement. But it wouldn’t have changed the world as it did if he’d kept it to himself and if others hadn’t picked up that thread of opportunity and taken it on. So it is with us today. What starts with an idea in one place can quickly become an unstoppable programme that impacts upon a great number of people in many different places - especially when it becomes common cause amongst those involved.

So for example, in the last year we’ve seen a radical possessions strategy, the creation of which was led by the SRA, but put into practice by thousands of colleagues up and down the West Coast. We’ve seen the launch of a new era of franchise model. The team at National Express and Greater Anglia will be its pioneers. The refranchising programme itself is now proceeding apace and it is vital that we keep this momentum up. We secured considerable credit from the City for delivering a decision, and securing closure, on Greater Anglia bang on programme. We know we must keep that up and replicate it.

We’ve seen the creation of a longer term planning framework with the publication of the Network Utilisation Strategy. The first of the route strategies are for the first time ever being put in place. More are in development. The Regional Planning framework which will look at the longer term is also gathering momentum.

Now these may be ideas that started in the SRA but they now involve a great number of people in the railway and its stakeholders beyond. Wherever I go now, I find local and regional stakeholders who feel more and more engaged to tackle problems and deliver solutions.

Let’s just think about those words - “tackle problems and deliver solutions”. Isn’t that why we’re in this business, this Railway Family at all? To tackle problems and deliver solutions? Surely it is. It’s not mutually exclusive from running a profitable company- in fact it’s essential to doing it on a sustained basis; it’s not mutually exclusive from planning excellence; or from engineering pride. Delivering solutions isn’t a “nice to have” - it’s why we get up in the morning.

But those solutions come from working together. Sometimes it’s complex. More often than not it isn’t. Every time I see Tim Shoveller, now the Operations Director of Midland Main Line, I am reminded of the essential role the Thunderer whistle plays in train dispatch. Tim’s formula for effective train operation, which itself is excellent customer service, is attention to detail, complete focus, clear and consistent management, oh, and about a fiver for every whistle.

The future lies in working together; no surprise in that. Now we have the chance to demonstrate a commitment to that which will not come again for some time. The review that Alistair announced a few weeks ago and that he has talked about this morning, is a real review. And it is a real opportunity. Not to take our eye off the ball and stare at our navel, but an opportunity, 10 years after privatisation, to think and to be honest about what works and what doesn’t. To think about what could work better and what can be done to change what doesn’t work. A real review means just that - otherwise what value would there be to be had from doing it?

Government won’t forgive us if we don’t rise to the challenge and neither will our customers. And make no mistake we have been handed a challenge. This isn’t something for someone else to fix without us. It’s for us to contribute solutions; for us to be bold and responsible and honest.

Our colleagues at the Department for Transport, at the Treasury and the rest of Government want answers. They acknowledge the progress we’ve made towards repairing a fragmented industry, bringing order to trauma. The product of that progress is all around us; new franchising contracts, West Coast gripped, new trains getting gripped. But these are the start of a railway revival not the end; they are a platform for delivery, not delivery itself. The Government acknowledges too the central role that the industry must play in the review. That is why Alistair has asked me to make sure that the industry voice is clearly and consistently heard and understood, as this review is undertaken. One industry, with a cohesive, clear view of its own destiny and capabilities. Whether you say it to Alistair Darling, or Kim Howells, or officials or me, or anyone else for that matter is not of itself that important. What is important is that it is said clearly and consistently.

In some areas there may be structural change; in others not. But across this industry we need one kind of change more than any other - and it’s ours alone to implement. That change is cultural change and the first thing that needs to be “integrated” in this railway is our culture: our attitude, our belief, our values, and our goals. Because without cultural integration any structural change will be a waste of time.

So what does “cultural integration“ mean? Well, it means an end to a default culture of blame; an end to territorialism, an end to passing the parcel of responsibility. We all have rights and we all have responsibilities. Every time we exercise a right, we need to make sure that we understand what impact it has on our responsibilities. The right to disagree in public is tangible enough, but what of our responsibility to investors, customers and our colleagues? How are those responsibilities discharged by a running commentary on the actions of others with whom we might disagree but with whom we have ultimate common cause?

The answer is simple: they’re not. We all have a stake in this industry: public and private sectors alike. This railway is a public private partnership; a public service that is publicly specified and privately delivered. The role of the private sector is vital to the future of Britain’s railway. Only the most unreconstructed would disagree. But the role of the private sector is in delivery. The rights of the private sector need to be safeguarded and its responsibilities need to be unambiguous.

The biggest, single safeguard of private sector confidence is a railway that functions for its customers and its investors; a railway that works properly, that is being properly delivered. That’s what instils confidence in the private sector and what delivers is the collective actions of an industry working together.

There are, of course, many more people with rights than there are those with responsibilities. All of us here have the latter, though we are often criticised by those who don’t. That’s fine; that’s life. But let us show that our responsibilities are what drive us. Collective responsibility is what underpins the railway. When it comes to delivering the service, how can you separate the responsibilities of a signaller from those of a driver? Or those of an operator from those of a rolling stock leasing company? Yet too often we seem to. And it makes us a lesser industry.

There are no isolated decisions in the railway; no circuit breaker between the work of a planner and its impact on a contractor. But too often we act as if there is. Neither is there a gap between the way in which we conduct ourselves and the faith our investors have in us- public or private; but again, too often, we act as if there is. As I know only too well, there are lonely decisions but there are no isolated ones. There is a oneness to the railway that is unique. That oneness is the holy grail of successful delivery, irrespective of how many bits are involved and, as I said a moment ago, no amount of structural change will compensate for a lack of that oneness- it’s got to come from within us.

What is “delivery”? Well, one thing is certain- your delivery is my delivery and my delivery is yours. John Armitt’s delivery of the West Coast is Chris Green’s delivery; Alstom’s delivery is Angel Trains’s delivery; a maintenance engineer’s delivery is daily delivery and our collective delivery is delivery to customers.

But that virtuous circle of delivery is too fragile at the moment; too vulnerable to being broken. And too often it’s vulnerable to the perception that self-interest is the thing that breaks it. When we have a problem on the railway - as every industry of our complexity and size is bound to have - we do seem to have the ability to magnify it, to amplify it for the convenience and advantage of our critics; rather than fixing it for the benefit of our customers.

The new trains programme on the Southern Region is a fine example of chaos in retreat. There was not a plan, but there is now; there was no end point but now there’s an objective and process. There wasn’t a meaningful budget, there is now. It’s a story of an industry working together to fix a problem - admittedly one created by our predecessors. But fixing it we are. There’s lot’s to do, but it is getting fixed.

If we are to put this right, we must embrace change, together. Embracing change is indistinguishable from driving change. Someone recently accused me of a bit of a belligerent tone when talking about those who want change and those who don’t. I find that strange. Anyone who thinks we are doing everything right is seriously mistaken. We are still young as a privatised industry, perhaps even immature, with an industry structure that we all know is too complex and burdensome.

So we have the chance now, without anyone taking their eye off the delivery ball for one second, to put in place change that will guarantee our course for a bright future as well as increase the pace of getting there. Its an opportunity we must grab, together.

Of course there are crucial questions such as what kind of change and why, where, to whom, and when and so on? Let me make it clear from my own perspective; I am not interested in brass plaques - I’m only interested in outcomes. I am not interested in organisation for its own sake, only in delivery. Delivery to customers, all our customers. And we share that, surely.

So the remedy isn’t in someone else’s hands, it’s in our own. Everything we say and do is said and done in the glare of public scrutiny - as we all know. Every failure makes better copy than any success and every disagreement makes better headlines than harmony. But doing our job isn’t newsworthy. It might not be fair but it is fact. And we’re better than that. 19,000 trains a day for a billion passenger journeys last year. Freight at ever higher levels. That’s some achievement; but getting it done again and again and again, reliably and consistently - that’s an achievement to be proud of.

Changing culture is central to this sustained delivery. To change our culture we have to be honest about what we’ve done well and what we could do better. That includes the SRA. We have learned a lot as an organisation in the last two years and those lessons are driving change; the focus on outputs rather than process, the way we consult, the way we need to ensure we take people with us.

And just like the rest of the industry feels proud of their achievements, we’re proud of what we’ve done. Take refranchising. A pretty dreadful process has been transformed. Greater Anglia took 12 months from start to preferred bidder, one month then to financial close and a further 2 months to the start of operations. Exactly what we said we’d do. We’ve also taken around 20% out of the cost to the SRA of letting these contracts. Next year, the running costs of the SRA will in real terms be 10% less than this year yet we will deliver substantially more by way of output.

But leadership means being able to admit when you get it wrong as well as being confident about the things you know to be right. There is no room in this industry for a culture of “I know best” - not from individuals or from organisations. Every organisation in this room - and our colleagues beyond - can start the process of cultural integration now. There is no barrier to that other than our own will and our own hunger for change.

We should all hate the fact that there are too many trains with graffiti, seats un-repaired, floors un-washed and information systems not working. If not where’s our hunger? The industry review will allow us to consolidate that cultural change and to enshrine it, but it won’t cause it.

So together we can be bold. Bold when we ask difficult questions about our industry; for example about safety - because for every rational question there’ll be 20 howls of “how dare you?” But ask those questions we must. This review must tackle the whole question of the railway as a system, in terms of safety, standards, operations, risk, value and affordability. If it does not, it will not have succeeded in its objectives.

Let’s take safety. Safety is not mutually exclusive with performance, they are two sides of the same coin. Safety is not a trade off with private sector involvement. Safety must be in the bricks and mortar of the industry, but it is vital that we take a common sense and risk based and proportionate approach to it. Anything else would be irrational.

It’s 200 years since Pen y Darren; 200 years since the birth of locomotion; 200 years of an industry that captivates and motivates all of us who work in it; Nigel Harris described the railway as Britain’s greatest gift to the world. More than anything else I think that sentence captures the profound emotions that the railway triggers in passengers, staff and observers. That emotional attachment is the glue that holds us together. But we have a chance to strengthen that bond by proving to government and investors and customers that our emotional commitment is matched by our commitment to delivery.

Working for the railway doesn’t mean working for individual organisations, it means working for our customers. It’s their railway; working in the railway means working in the public interest- because it’s everyone’s railway. I love the fact that so many people when asked who they work for will say ‘I work for the railway’. I know all about brand differentiation and company loyalty, but working in the railway is a great job and its great that people are proud of that job, of that brand. Making the railway work is the best job of all. Customers have the right to expect a railway that is properly delivered; we have the responsibility to see that it is. Together. We’ve started this job, and we’ve got to finish it.

I have a suspicion that 2004 will be the year of the railway just as it was 200 years ago. There is no doubt that Britain’s railway is a vital part of the nation’s very economic and social fabric. I believe passionately in this industry and in the people that work in it. And in 2004, we have the chance to contribute solutions that will work. Alistair I know will forgive me for saying that whilst Governments specify the outputs required from such a vital national asset, they need others to deliver them. We have those people, they’re in this industry. In 2004, we must all step up to the plate and deliver like never before. The very soul of this industry depends on it and so do our customers. So on February 21st, pause for a moment, think about Richard Trevithick. He did his bit; now we’ve got to do ours: change and deliver -to ensure that the railway Trevithick kick-started 200 years ago has a future, and not just a past.

Thank you.