Transport for Wales Board Meeting Minutes - 16 May 2024

16 May 2024

10:00 - 17:00

Venue - Llys Cadwyn and Teams

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

Gareth Evans (Welsh Government), Jeremy Morgan, and Gareth Pembridge (Observer, items 1 to 7).

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting.

Alan McCarthy (Unite) and Andrew Morgan gave their apologies.

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

None.

The minutes of the TfW Board meeting 18 April 2024 were approved as a true and accurate record. The Actions Log was noted.

A recent conference highlighted the impact of climate change on health and safety on both people and assets. The Board discussed the need to understand the risks and to bring health and safety and climate change risks together.

This morning’s service disruption caused some delays on the CVL network but communication through announcements and guards on the train were constant and effective.

Leyton Powell joined the meeting.

The Board received and noted an overview of the Health, Safety and Resilience report contained in the pack.

• The initial Customer Safe Behaviours steering group meeting identified target areas for enhancement and provided awareness and continuous development to achieve the group’s objectives. The steering group will continue to meet every eight weeks.
• The lithium battery storage area underwent a site visit by the South Wales Fire and Rescue Service to assist in the development of emergency response procedures for Canton Depot.
• The HAZOP study register has been completed along with the finalisation of the operational plan for the Cardiff Bus Interchange.
• Overall positive results across each safety performance metric.
• An emergency exercise at Caerphilly tunnel took place which focused on testing communications equipment and road rail unit deployment. Several risks were identified with discussions taking place with Network Rail on mitigations.
• Work on reviewing occupational services continues with a recent meeting with RCTCBC and an imminent site visit to see how their processes work.

The Board discussed risks around trespassing in relation to level crossings and previous discussions around intervention. The Board were informed that ORR reviewed the issue last year and that it will be discussed at the next Health, Safety & Wellbeing sub-committee meeting [Action Nicola Kemmery and Leyton Powell].

The Board noted the Strategic Risk Register and Threat Level Report. The Board were updated on the CVL Transformation risk management process and welcomed the confidence in having a better grip of risk on the programme since taking over the process from AIW.

One new ‘issue’ has been added to the risk register around waste segregation where clarity is being sought from the Welsh Government on whether trains should be treated as a workplace. The issue was raised at the last Steering Board.

The Board was joined by Derek Walker (Future Generations Commissioner (FGC)), Heledd Morgan (Director: Implementation and Impact, Office of the Future Generations Commissioner), Natalie Rees (Head of Sustainability and Climate Change, TfW) and Louise Moon (Heritage and Sustainable Impact Manager, TfW).

The FGC provided background and context to his role and the Office of the Future Generations Commissioner.

The FGC passed on his thanks to TfW for a positive working relationship including TfW’s participation in the leadership academy. The FGC commented that although TfW is formally named in the Well-being of Future Generations Act (2015) (the Act), he recognises TfW’s voluntary compliance since the organisation’s inception.

The FGC recognises the alignment between what TfW and the Office of the Future Generations Commissioner are seeking to achieve and how the organisations work together to achieve that goal.

The Board were updated on the implementation of the FGC’s strategy ‘Cymru Can’ and the five accompanying missions urging public bodies to take action to shape a positive future; and the FGC’s current and future priorities. A discussion took place on how the FGC will help shape and support some of the more difficult issues around climate change and carbon reduction. The FGC stated his desire to being an ally to named bodies in the Act to meet outcomes and the advantages of having a 'birds eye view' of the Welsh public sector which allows him to identify areas for improvement and future opportunities.

Natalie Rees provided an overview of TfW's on-going work to comply with the Act and the change in focus of TfW's sustainable development projects from delivery to impact, and participation in the FGC's Leadership Academy. The Board and the FGC were also updated on a recent internal audit report which focussed on TfW's embedding of the Act. The report provided 'reasonable assurance' and a plan is in place to address the report's recommendations. A maturity matrix has also recently been completed which was commended by the FGC and shared with the other public bodies as good practice.

Louise Moon gave a presentation to the Board and the FGC on a recent project which measured social value. The FGC welcomed the project and its outcomes and asked that it be shared with other public bodies. The project is also being used internally to develop a methodology for measuring Metro benefits.

The Board and FGC discussed how the FGC can assist with TfW's messaging around modal shift. It was agreed that TfW will give a presentation to the FGC on the T-network [Action Lewis Brencher/Natalie Rees].

The Board received an overview of the Chief Executive Officer's report:

• Rail performance continues to improve with noticeably more carriages on services to Manchester. The start of the last rail period was challenging because of non CVL weather related infrastructure issues but improved with strong performance towards the end of the period. However, unit shortage is still presenting problems and the Board were updated in the current rolling stock risks including Class 150s experiencing some maintenance issues in the run-up to being replaced by Class 756s.
• Work continues to deliver the 'T-network' which remains the biggest strategic issue. The Board were informed that good progress has been made on passenger revenue growth, but challenging targets have been set for this year. This will be aided by a new soon to be appointed Marketing Director with the role centred on driving up passenger numbers, revenue and maximising market share.
• Development of the bus agenda continues as work continues with operators and local authorities on both plans for future franchising and the bridge to franchising. The work is increasingly joined up around a clear plan from now through to the start of franchising.
• Feedback on handling the recent football events has been very positive. Other Train Operating Company Managing Directors have been asking to visit TfW to view the process. The recent poor media coverage on TfW's handling of events disappointing as it was based on a Senedd Committee report from events some time ago and since then, performance has significantly improved.
• The Board discussed the need for a session on how the Metro will be operated and dealing with perturbation [Action JM].
• Cardiff Interchange is complete, but challenges remain around bringing it into service. External help has been brought in from TfGM, along with a challenge session from an external industry expert.
• REDACTED.
• EIS performance continues to improve. However, the need to permanently energise Treherbert and Canton and complete the signalling and track upgrade at Cardiff Queen Street to allow tour trains per hour is becoming more important.
• REDACTED.

The recent Ttw Rail Ltd board meeting focussed on performance and revenue, strategy to deal with cost of sales, discount ticketing, airline-style tares and yield management.

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The Board were updated on discussions with Welsh Government tor 2024/25 funding, the on-going external audit tor the 2023/24 accounts and budget development tor 2025/26.

The Board noted that a paper on OLR will be tabled at next week's Steering Board and shared with the Board [Action Jeremy Morgan].

Alexia Course, Roger Evans and Mike Whitten joined the meeting.

The Board had a detailed discussion on Pullman Rail Ltd. REDACTED.

Alexia Course, Roger Evans and Mike Whitten left the meeting.

Zoe Smith-Doe and Michael Pearce joined the meeting.

The Board noted progress against the business plan milestones for quarter one 2024/25.

An update was given, and further discussion took place on the development of published key performance indicators. Further work has been done around introductory text and trend graphs.

Lee Robinson and Huw Morgan joined the meeting.

The Board were updated on the status of fflecsi services. The Board noted that the 16 local fflecsi schemes across six local authorities have carried almost 135,000 passengers since inception. Future schemes are being developed by local authorities as part of network development plans which are supported by TfW and facilitated by the App platform, booking system and the call centre managed by TfW.

The Board were reminded of the benefits to the customer of TfW taking over the procurement of the Traws service. The Board noted that the network overall grew demand by 19% in 2023/24, with TfW procured contracts achieving 24% growth, including 65% on two routes - the T1 and the T10. 2.26 million passenger journeys were made across the network of 14 routes, with on bus revenue up by 9%. Ticket sales through the App increased by 67% and new on bus payment channels such as pay as you go have taken away some of the barriers to travel.

Work is underway to identify further opportunities for revenue growth through marketing, ticketing and improved Sunday services. Lessons from Traws are also being applied for the ongoing bus franchising work. Lee Robinson and Huw Morgan left the meeting.

Dan Tipper joined the meeting.

Treherbert energisation is due next week which will complete TAM energisation.

The Class 756 entry-into-service programme is stable with current estimates of September 2024.

The Board were further updated on key achievements during the period including: Aberdare and City Line Stations - improved performance within the month against the Entry into Service timescales for the 2 June timetable; removal of the National Grid Power consumption limitations on the OLE system; and Taffs Well Depot hand over to TfWRL for initial operational use in June 2024 remains on programme.

The Board welcomed recent progress.

The recent Steering Board focussed on rail performance, public facing KPIs, OLR, finance and budget, waste segregation, the CEOs report, bus franchising, communications around Cardiff Interchange, and risk management.

There being no further business, the Chair thanked all attendees for their contributions and closed the meeting.