By South Western Railway, Jane Lee, First Group (15 mins).

The Chairman welcomed Jane Lee from FirstGroup to the meeting and invited her to address Members to give a brief presentation on the new rail franchise. 

The presentation covered the following points:

·         Stakeholder engagement during the bid.

·         FirstGroup is a leading surface transport group.

·         FirstGroup is one of the largest rail operators in the UK.

·         MTR is a leading rail operator.

·         Change is coming to South Western Railway…

·         …as we deliver a £1.2bn investment for our customers.

·         More seats across the franchise…

·         …with increased frequency, better weekend services and quicker journeys.

·         Making ticketing more intuitive.

·         Investing in your stations.

·         Stakeholder engagement.

·         What this means for passengers on the Windsor Lines.

·         Working with you.

In the ensuing discussion the following points were noted:

v  That more detail would be available soon.

v  That the FirstGroup had spoken to approximately 120 stakeholders regarding their thoughts of the current franchise and their aspirations for the future which was incorporated into the bid.

v  That it was already a good business / brand that FirstGroup wanted to build on and make better.

v  That it was more an evolution rather than a revolution.

v  That the franchise would start on the 20 August 2017 and would last seven years.  

v  Will invest £1.2bn (for customers).

v  Time savings would kick in from December 2018.

v  The consultation starts before the end of the year.

v  52,000 extra seats into Waterloo.

v  750 new carriages being ordered for the Windsor line, Reading line and surburban network. 

v  That consistency was wanted across the service.

v  Would start to come into service in 2019 and would all be in service by the end of 2020. 

v  Improved wifi.

v  Charging points to be installed at every seat.

v  Real-time whilst on trains.

v  Journey times to be reduced across the franchise.

v  New half hourly service between Farnham to Guildford and Weymouth to Portsmouth.

v  400 Sunday services being added.

v  Ticketing would be made more intuitive – mobile phone barcode tickets, smartcard scheme, flexible season tickets, a direct debit monthly season ticket, delay repay to be introduced.  .

v  £90m station investment programme.

v  1,500 new car parking spaces plus 60 electric charge points at stations.

v  Work with stakeholders to progress new plans for new stations.

v  Going to have Regional Development Managers and Commercial Development Managers.

v  Plan to set up a South Western Transport Partnership.

v  Network Rail Alliance  - hope to have in place by day 1.

v  Annual Stakeholder Survey – to find out how the franchise is doing.

v  Working with you – membership of relevant tourist boards, keen to promote destinations in addition to London, new website and customer app, Sales Manager to focus on business direction, customer loyalty scheme, Partnership and Events Manager, special promotions, extended advanced fares and plan to have at least 50 station adoptions.

The Chairman stated that Windsor needed more tourists to come to Windsor by train / via French Brothers / Ascot in order to reduce traffic.  It was also noted that the signal points had not been adjusted with regard to the extended carriages at Datchet which were causing problems.

Sunil Kalia stated that he found the quarterly spreadsheet produced by Wyatt Gates to be very helpful. 

It was questioned whether more parking would be made available at Riverside.  Helen Price informed everyone present that the car parking was going to be replaced by houses in the Borough Local Plan.

The Head of Communities and Highways, David Scott, stated that he did not feel the 2020 date to be a viable one.

The Chairman highlighted that there were no ticket barriers in Horton and Wraysbury and the Sunnymeads which was causing issues on the train.  It was noted that there was also no parking at the Sunnymeads.  The Chairman went onto explain that the locals were keen for ticket barriers to be installed.  Jane agreed to take these comments back to see what could be done.