February was Business Plan workshop month at the ORR and we enjoyed a series of lively debates and heard many views from a wide range of participants from across the road and railway industries at the five events we held across GB.
Our Chief Executive John Larkinson got proceedings off to a good start at the first event in our London office, where he explained what we plan to do from April 2019 to March 2020.
Safety Director Ian Prosser took over at the next two events in Birmingham and Bristol, followed by Graham Richards, Director of Railway Planning and Performance in Leeds, and finishing off with Russell Grossman, Director of Communications representing the London office and Catherine Williams, Deputy Director, Rail Markets and Economics representing the Glasgow office at the event there.
At each event we laid out what we are planning to do across our four strategic objectives - Health and Safety, Better Rail Customer Care, Value for Money from the Railway and Better Highways – and while the presentations were of interest to the attendees, the discussions that were sparked were even more valuable.
Listening to different perspectives
Being in different cities exposed us to a wide range of views as people from within the industry and suppliers questioned how our plans would work locally and suggested areas we should consider for future work.
At each of the days, the discussion really helped us to understand the thoughts and feelings of local industry colleagues and their views on the impact of our previous work in the regions – including what we could do better next time!
The views we heard were all of huge value and will help us review the Business Plan, not only for this year but in years to come.
On behalf of the ORR, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who took the time and trouble to attend and share their views.
To be an effective regulator we need to know what the industry thinks. That is part of the reason we have offices in locations across England and Scotland, and events like this add to our depth of knowledge – we’ll be back to hear more soon.