116 pages - lots of interesting reading with something for everyone. Here is Mark's introduction.
I should start this report by thanking Matthew Golton who was Interim Managing Director for GWR▸ , while I worked as Interim Managing Director for South Western Railway. Matthew did a great job, and the following pages show how much he was able to achieve and how well our stakeholder family appreciated how he kept things going throughout the pandemic.
He has now secured a new post as Managing Director for Transpennine Express and I am sure you will want to join me in wishing him the best of luck for that new role.
This has been a further year of restrictions and regulations that none of us could foresee. In the summer, we were delighted to see demand for rail travel quickly begin to rise, particularly for leisure. The subsequent second lockdown meant that we once again returned to key worker and essential travel only.
As I write this, restrictions are starting to ease again and we look forward to welcoming customers back this summer, and on into the future. We have a roadmap to recovery which will help drive customer confidence and kick start the return to modal shift.
Rail is not just an important driver to economic recovery it is also an essential part of the solution for decarbonisation.
We know that creating and sustaining jobs and improving the environment through public transport and active travel are key aspirations for the communities we serve. We recognise the role we have to play in building back better and we are ready to work with industry partners, and with you, our stakeholders and customers to make sure we deliver services that meet changing demands.
We have shown that we can do that during the pandemic. Not only have we kept services going, but we have also kept our improvement programme going, GWR has never been a standstill franchise, and I am determined that we never will be.
Best wishes
Mark Hopwood CBE
Managing Director
