Great Western Coffee Shop

I'm running a conference with this title next Saturday 8th March at the 'Steam' museum in Swindon. We'll be looking at different (better?) ownership structures for the railways. Lord Berkeley will be talking about his idea of turning Network Rail into a sort of co-op similar to Foundation Trusts for hospitals, where anyone can join and vote the Board members in (or out). Christian Wolmar (transport journalist) will be speaking on 'where we are and how we got here', and others will be suggesting ideas for a 'Social Enterprise RoSCo' and other topics.
Booking fee of ^5 to 'Railway Children' charity. 10.30 - 3.30.
Further info email <t.pearce@party.coop> or call 079 7042 1590

Hi - welcome to the forum.

Goodness - it's the meeting / campaign season at the moment - I'm just back from Taunton this afternoon - but I will be there next Saturday; looks like a strong panel of interesting speakers!

Just to report on the event:

A CO-OP STRUCTURE FOR NETWORK RAIL?

Important issues were raised and interesting ideas explored at the conference ^Social Enterprise and the Railways^ which was held at the ^Steam^ museum in Swindon on Saturday 8th March, and the ^Railway Children^ charity benefited by ^220.

A succession of star speakers was headed by eminent transport journalist Christian Wolmar who reminded an audience made up of rail and transport professionals, co-operators, and ordinary rail enthusiasts just how and why the railway system was broken up by the Tories under John Major (essentially they wanted to cripple the unions and the Treasury had run out of things to privatise) and now, following mergers, takeovers and the collapse of Railtrack, was only just getting itself back together again.

Christian pointed out, however, as did other speakers, that serious issues of accountability and governance, especially of Network Rail, still remained to be addressed before the system would be capable of meeting the needs and challenges of the 21st century.

Norman Watson, a business development worker from Cardiff with much experience in the social enterprise and co-operative sector, related to an audience still somewhat uninformed about these types of enterprises how many successes had been achieved in Wales. From Tower Colliery down to small local workshops there were dozens of enterprises still in business providing employment and services after many years operating under employee ownership.

Jon McColl, chief operations officer for the HCT Group, explained how a group of businesses owned by a charity could run transport services (including several London bus routes) across London and in the North of England. The HCT Group took issues of transparency and public accountability very seriously, and these were built in to the ethos of the business. HCT did not have shareholders to pay, and could thus plough back surpluses into improving the services.

The morning was wound up by local MP Dave Drew (Stroud) who in an impassioned speech hammered home the theme that in view of the threat of impending climate change it was essential to address the issues of energy efficiency and  sustainable transport with all speed - future generations would not forgive us if the mess was left for them to clear up.

As the morning had been devoted to the situation ^as is^, the afternoon^s session was devoted to new and co-operative approaches to these problems.

Labour peer Lord Berkeley, Chairman of the Rail Freight Group, opened the session by explaining a radical proposal for the transformation of the governance of Network Rail into something resembling a ^Foundation Hospital Trust^. This would have open membership (a good co-op principle) and elections to a ^Supervisory Board^ with representation from all  types of stakeholders - ordinary passengers and rail freight users, train operating companies, unions, local and regional authorities, and other bodies. The Supervisory Board would oversee the activities of the NR management board, guiding strategy and operating a remunerations policy.

Another new idea was outlined by Alex Lawrie of Somerset Co-operative Development. The agency was working with Parry People Movers who manufacture a form of lightweight tram which operates on existing (but segregated) rail lines without external overhead lines. Alex and PPM were exploring with other agencies the possibilities of supporting local and community rail transport operators by entering into leasing arrangements to enable them to run everyday passenger transport services.

The afternoon session was wound up by Peter Hunt, CEO of ^Mutuo^ and former General Secretary of the Co-operative Party. Peter gave the audience a round-up of different forms of governance for mutual, co-operative and social enterprises, with the pros and cons of each. The audience was reminded of Winston Churchill^s dictum that ^Democracy was the worst way of running things, except for all the others^, and that public services were suffering a crisis of public confidence that only democracy and public accountability could address.

Geraint Day, Co-op Party NEC member and chair of the day^s proceedings, said ^It was a real pleasure to take part in this event. We hope that something positive will come out of today^s discussions and we will be working to make that happen^.

Dave Wetzel, Vice Chair of Transport for London (TfL) said of the event  "This exciting conference heard not only how to improve rail services but also new  ideas for introducing democratic control through co-operative forms of ownership of rail companies. David Drew MP for Stroud also highlighted the need for Annual Land Value Tax to be used to fund the expansion of rail services and improvements to Britain's canal system."

The event was organised by the South West Regional Council of the Co-operative Party and sponsored by the Midcounties (S) Co-op Party. Booking fees went to the ^Railway Children^ charity which benefited to the tune of ^220.

 

More on Alex Lawrie in the link below.
http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=677.msg2442#msg2442

Many thanks for that report.  As one of the audience, I found it a very useful day, although I was disappointed that the PPS to Ruth Kelly, Transport Minister (Anne Snelgrove, MP for Swindon) had pulled out.   Didn't find out till I got there. Very interesting to hear and speak with David Drew, MP, but he wasn't the government's representative in the same way.  Som excellent other contacts  ;)

Just returned from a trip by rail to Lapland - very instructive from a rail perspective though I have to say that FGW's sleeper cars are much preferable to DB's 'CityNightLine' service.The Swedish 'Inlandsbanan' - a tourist summer-only service and possibly the longest heritage railway line in Europe - was a great experience with the train (a couple of diesel railcars) slowing down for reindeer on the track and stopping for a photo opportunity on the Arctic Circle.

Found on the mat on return: a bunch of cards and stuff relating to the Co-op Party's new campaign 'The People's Rail' which sprang from the conference in March. Very gratifying.

Go to <www.peoplesrail.org.uk> for details. Hope readers can support it.

Readers will be interested to know (if you haven't already seen the news) that the recent AGM of Network Rail passed a motion to set up a review of the company's governance. I suspect (though I don't know for sure) that this was down to Lord (Tony) Berkeley, who is a member of NR and who spoke at our conference.This is our opportunity, though it is only  the first (but vital) step.