TfW Rail Limited Board Minutes - 31 March 2023

31 March 2023

09:00 - 14:00

Venue: St Patrick’s House

James Price (Chair); Peter Strachan, Heather Clash, Jan Chaudhry, Alexia Course and Marie Daly.

In attendance: Jeremy Morgan.

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting.

None.

A quorum being present, the Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and declared the meeting open.

None declared.

The minutes from the meeting 3 March 2023 were approved as a true and accurate record. The latest Actions Log was noted. The Board discussed examining the merits of distributing valleys rolling stock [Action Jan Chaudhry Van der Velde].

The Board discussed a recent incident at Canton depot resulting in the baskets of two machines coming together with damage being inflicted to one of the welded baskets. None of the operators or linesman were injured but works were stopped a thorough review took place.

The Board discussed the ‘On Time to 3’ target in the context of the tripartite agreement signed in 2022 by TfW, Network Rail and AIW outlining joint initiatives and solutions to improve performance on the railway in Wales and the Borders.

The Board discussed the recent thermal events on the class 175 units which led to the entire fleet being withdrawn from passenger service. No passengers or staff were injured and no smoke entered any of the passenger saloons with fire protection working effectively. The Board were provided with detailed analysis of maintenance issues at the CAF depot. CAF have been written to and a recovery programme in now underway with an enhanced regime for maintenance in place. The Board were informed that the incidents and response tested the resilience and professionalism of staff, particularly the controllers and resource managers, who have done an excellent job holding the train service together. The Board thanked the team its response to the incidents.

The Board were informed that until the Class 175 issues, train service delivery in period 12 was generally satisfactory and whilst many of the KPIs finished the period in the red, the majority had improved over the previous period and customer satisfaction remained stable.

Several issues are on the immediate horizon that will test the resilience of staff, particularly the Treherbert blockade and continuing rolling stock shortages.

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The Board discussed on-going issues with the delivery and potential reliability of the Class 197 fleet with a range of issues being investigated including ad-blue range. The Board agreed that CAF should be encouraged to achieve a delivery target and that the Board should be updated at each meeting [Action Alexia Course].

The Board were informed of a new flow of freight on the Cambrian Line which may become permanent and that if access rights are granted, could impact the final phase of the WCB timetable uplift plan. The Board agreed that the issue should be discussed with the Welsh Government [Action Alexia Course].

The Board noted the report with performance indicators trending in the right direction.

The Board noted the report and agreed several minor amends.

Stephanie Raymond joined the meeting.

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The Board thanked the team for the hard work to close out the financial year.

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The Board were updated on plans to create a high-level five-year-plan, external audit arrangements, passenger accounts-related processes and reconciliations, and the work of the Fixed Assets ‘Policies / Processes’ workstream.

The Board noted the report. Stephanie Raymond left the meeting.

The Board noted the commercial review and were updated on revenue - including the impact of recent marketing campaigns, demand, journey segmentation, ticketless travel, scan rates and gateline coverage. REDACTED. The Board also noted that scan rates may be understated due to issues with the conductor’s hand-held devices.

Lewis Brencher joined the meeting to provide a marketing update in the context of recognising the significant revenue growth challenge in terms of growing the demand for rail services in the short and longer term. Although recent marketing campaigns have resulted in positive outcomes, the current and future revenue challenges require further innovation. The Board were updated on plans to base future campaigns on segmentation, the use of TfW’s own digital channels - particularly the TfW app, and the key priorities, challenges, opportunities and next steps.

James Price and Heather Clash left the meeting. Peter Strachan took over the Chair.

The Board endorsed a set of recommendations to modernise the B2B service to enable future growth, based on rebranding, digitalising, improving products and services and changing the operating model.

The Board noted a paper providing a high-level summary of recent work to review the stations operating model, specifically around plans to create a more agile workforce across gatelines and ticket offices (TOs). The Board welcomed the update but requested that more pace is injected into the work. The Board noted that there were encouraging trends in improving gateline compliance against target and weighted service coverage levels but that the weightings should be reviewed [Action Alexia Course and Marie Daly]. The Board also requested that discussion are held with the ORR around implementing an off-site monitoring system [Action Marie Daly].

The meeting ended and the Chair thanked everyone for their contributions.