Transport for Wales Board Meeting Minutes - 16 March 2023

16 March 2023

09:30 - 17:00

Venue - Llys Cadwyn

 

Scott Waddington (Chair), Alun Bowen, Heather Clash, Nicola Kemmery, Vernon Everitt, Alison Noon-Jones, Sarah Howells and James Price.

In attendance: Jeremy Morgan; Natalie Feely (items 1 to 3); and Leyton Powell (item 2).

 

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting including Natalie Feely who had been nominated as TU observer by the TUC.

 

1a. Apologies for Absence

None.

 

1b. Notice of Quorum

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

 

1c. Declarations of Interest

None.

 

1d. Minutes and Actions of Previous Meeting

The minutes of the TfW Board meeting 16 February 2023 were approved as a true and accurate record.

 

1e. Safety Moment

Approaching Spring, more people are out and about and TfW becomes more at risk of trespassing.

 

1f. Customer moment

Not having facilities for storing bikes, such as for meetings, becomes an active travel barrier. Need to look at ways to encourage business and retail to put things in place to store bikes if we are encouraging people to use active travel.

 

2. Safety performance

Leyton Powell joined the meeting.

An attempted cable theft took place on the network which impacted operations and damaged the fuel tank of a passenger service. A security review is underway.

REDACTED

Work continues to develop Emergency Planning including on the potential loss of energy and an Incident Care Team review.

The Board were updated on the recent Class 175 thermal events and were informed that no one was harmed. The root cause has been identified as debris such as dried leaves building up in a section of the engine bay close to the exhaust system. As a result of the initial incidents, more frequent and detailed cleaning was introduced. The supplier’s maintenance would appear to have been at fault in this respect. A meeting is due to take place with the ORR with the potential for a safety notice to be served. The Board stressed it’s concern over the likely maintenance issues which led to the thermal events. It was agreed that lessons need to be learned and disseminated to relevant stakeholders [Action Leyton Powell].

There were three SPaDs in Rail Period 11 which is one above the predicted figure. Appropriate action has been taken.

Leyton Powell left the meeting.

 

3. Strategic update

3a. CEO report

REDACTED

Progress on advancing the bus agenda continues with a particular focus on ensuring TfW is ready to support the Welsh Government and local authorities moving towards franchising. This has included agreeing a new high level bus governance structure jointly with the Welsh Government as well as continued conversations with local government working together. Internal arrangements are also being made to further strengthen TfW’s position.

The Board discussed the challenge and opportunity of building a multi-modal network. The Board were informed that this will require further evolution of the operating model but without the need for any further significant structural changes bit with a focus on processes and working together.

Rail Performance has continued to be subject to continued management attention including at the most senior level at the TfW Rail Ltd Board. The performance dashboard showed a mixed performance for Rail Period 11 mainly due to difficulties in resourcing the number of trains required due to fleet changes. The last couple of weeks have been particularly challenging due to the class 175 thermal events.

The Board reviewed Active Travel Fund spend. The last month has seen a significant amount of work both in terms of improved business as usual to try and ensure as much of this year’s allocation of active travel grants to local authorities is spent, but also in terms of plans to improve the quality and reach of schemes in the future. The Board agreed that a joint report between TfW and the Welsh Government should be commissioned on how to manage the fund in the future [Action Geoff Ogden].

The Board discussed the upcoming Treherbert blockade due to the ongoing CVL Transformation works. The Board requested that alternative language is used as ‘blockade’ can be viewed as very negative. 

The One Tenancy project went live on the weekend of 4/5 March. The Board were informed that whilst there was careful planning and execution and the team have worked diligently to deliver it, there had been several issues to work through. However, most issues are now closed and meaning that people can now begin to share information more easily across the business and communicate more sensibly.

The Board reviewed ticketless travel figures and requested a paper on tackling fare evasion to be brought to a future meeting. [Action AC].

 

3b. Finance and governance

There has been a significant focus on financial year-end including securing the addendum to the original 2022/23 Welsh Government funding letter, ensuring capex spend and managing any potential Active Travel Fund underspend.

The Board were also updated on fuel hedging, the work of the Investment Committee, development of the Enhanced Control Environment and the TfW Business Plan which the Welsh Government is reviewing.

REDACTED

 

4. Sub-committees

The recent Customer Experience and Communications Committee meeting focussed on several updates from across the portfolio including complaints handling, issues around rail replacement services, and use of tools to systemise some of the on-going work. The Committee had noted a step change in terms of delivery.

The Board were informed that the Major Projects Committee will review its terms of reference. The recent meeting considered a summary of all the regional Metro schemes, the A465 scheme, bus transformation, CVL, Cardiff Central enhancements, Cardiff Crossrail, Cardiff Bus Interchange, and the Burns Commission including SW Mainline.

 

5. Subsidiary Boards

The recent TfW Rail Ltd Board meeting considered performance, reliability, reducing cancellations, planning for future, commercials, finances, pay and REDACTED, and customer insight.

Last month’s Pullman Board meeting focussed on safety, finances, and company vision/strategy.

 

6. Steering Board

The recent TfW Steering Board was mainly focussed around the TfW budget.

 

7. Board effectiveness

The Board noted plans for a Board Effectiveness review and Board Development Plan.

 

8. Confidential

The Board were updated on latest development around Welsh Government and local government representation on the Board.

 

Dan Tipper joined the meeting.

 

7. Business Plan

Zoe Smith-Doe joined the meeting. Initial feedback from the Welsh Government on the draft 2023/24 Business Plan has been positive.

Zoe Smith-Doe left the meeting.

 

8. 2023/24 Budget

The Board were introduced to an updated version of the 2023/24 budget. The discussion largely focussed on the Rail services funding gap and discussions with the Welsh Government to find a resolution including efforts to drive up and ensure accountability for increasing revenue.

 

9. CVL Transformation

The Board were updated on progress with CVL transformation including a reworked plan for TAM A commissioning; the Treherbert blockade; plans for commissioning the Integrated Control Centre at Taffs Well; earthing and bonding; signalling; overhead line electrification; design and entry into service.

Dan Tipper left the meeting.

 

10. Active Travel update

Matthew Gilbert joined the meeting. Latest outturn projections are suggesting an Active Travel Fund underspend of between £762,000 and £4.3m. The Welsh Government has approved alternative spend options to the value of £8.5m as underspend mitigation including £1.7m already committed to the class 153 project.

Matthew Gilbert left the meeting.

 

11. Risk Register

Leyton Powell joined the meeting.

The Board were updated on minor changes made to the Strategic Risk Register. The Board noted that as part of promoting a risk aware culture across the organisation, over the next few months the Risk Management team will be providing staff training consisting of 90-minute Introductory Risk Management training and more advanced risk management training for risk owners.

The Board noted the risk report.

 

The Chair brought meeting to an end and thanked everyone for their input.