The Case for Rail webinar
FIT held the latest in its series of webinars on Thursday 21st November on the topic of the case for rail.
Watch the webinar here
Context
Rail is the backbone of the transport network, enabling large numbers of people to be moved efficiently and offering the best opportunity to replace longer distance car trips and short haul flights with low carbon travel. Yet the UK rail network in many places is overcrowded, expensive and unreliable, suffering from years of underinvestment and fragmentation. The oversight body Great British Rail has not come forward with any significant reforms. The new government has pledged to renationalise nearly all passenger rail services within five years.
This webinar discussed how we can get more people out of cars and planes and onto trains, while ensuring there is enough new investment in rail capacity to accommodate them.
This was one of a series of webinars showcasing the work funded by the Foundation for Integrated Transport (FIT). This webinar included presentations from FIT grantees the Campaign for Better Transport, Greengauge 21 and FIT Fellow Georgia Guerra, with panellists from Green Alliance and the Community Rail Network, chaired by FIT Trustee Martin Clarke.
Speakers:
Michael Solomon Williams – Head of Campaigns, Campaign for Better Transport
Michael is Head of Campaigns for Campaign for Better Transport, advocating for integrated sustainable transport at the national level and in local contexts across England and Wales, with work including rail, tram, bus, shared transport, active travel and planning policy. Collaborating with the transport industry, giving the public a voice and influencing policymakers, recent successes include the £2 national bus fare cap, saving the London Day Travelcard, and influencing the new government’s rail fares policy. Joining Campaign for Better Transport in 2022, Michael previously worked in NGOs, music and social cohesion.
Jim Steer – Director, Greengauge 21
Jim is the founder of Greengauge 21. Jim is a chartered civil engineer and has extensive experience in transport strategy and planning.
Jim has led multiple major projects in Britain and Ireland, USA, and other countries worldwide. His experience encompasses planning, appraisal, policy and business strategy; advising national and regional government and state agencies, and corporate entities. Jim has played a major role in urban transit planning and he initiated Britain’s high-speed rail programme.
Giorgia Guerra – FIT Fellow
Born and raised in Rome, Italy, Giorgia is the Department for Transport’s lead on the performance assessment policy of Train Operating Companies. Having moved to the UK in 2019, she has a strong academic background with Masters degrees in European Cultures and International Relations. Her experience in the rail sector includes the contractual and commercial design of incentives for train operators; and major change programmes, such as the long-term plan for deployment of digital signalling across the UK network and delivery strategy for High Speed 2. She is fluent in four languages, including Russian, and takes a strong personal interest in environmental issues, international politics, and music.
Panellists:
Rosie Allen – Policy Adviser, Green Alliance
Rosie joined Green Alliance in 2022, since then she has authored reports on modal shift, improvements to the bus network as well as reflections from the National Food Strategy. She is the lead on public transport policy. Prior to this she was a civil servant. She holds an LLB in Politics, Philosophy and Law.
Gary Shipp – Sustainable transport projects coordinator, Community Rail Network
A trained teacher by profession, Gary started his career within environmental, outdoor and special needs education. His passion for promoting sustainable travel and car-free living led to a role with Sustrans, firstly as a project officer working with schools in Brighton and Hove, before moving into regional and then national management roles. Now at Community Rail Network, Gary’s role is to support members in their efforts to improve the integration of rail with active travel, public, shared and community transport, and build local and national networks to support this work.