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West Midlands AGM 2017

Saturday, 22nd April 2017


Guest speaker: Christian Wolmar

Christian - Railfuture's Honorary President and well-known transport journalist - was to have spoken at our 2016 AGM (23rd April 2016 in Edgbaston) along with Nigel Harris but unfortunately both had to cancel at short notice (Nigel because of an impending hospital appointment for an operation, Christian because he discovered a diary clash at virtually the last minute).

We were very pleased that Christian wes able to make it to our event in 2017, and give a highly entertaining presentation with his thoughts on what would happen to Britain's railway.

We hope to have another high-profile guest speaker for our AGM in 2018.

The Railfuture West Midlands AGM is held in April each year. It is the one occasion when all branch members can all get together, vote for the committee and discuss issues of importance. It's also an opportunity for members to raise formally any issues about running the branch or topics you’d like the committee to take up, for instance campaigns that Railfuture should actively pursue.

Members who would like to nominate themselves or someone else for the committee or to raise a motion for discussion should contact the West Midlands Branch Secretary for a Nomination and/or Motions Form – steve.wright at railfuture.org.uk or by post to Railfuture West Midlands, 6 Barron Road, Birmingham, B31 2ER or telephone 0121 475 4005.

Railfuture West Midlands AGM 2016


At very short notice Railfuture Director Jerry Alderson stepped in to present (with many photographs of good and bad rail experieces) and lead a discussion on 'Improving the Rail Passenger Experience' - a topic on which the Parliamentary Transport Committee is urgently seeking views, to incorporate into a report later in 2016.

The presentation made use of research that Railfuture had conducted on railway international best practice as part of its Go Compare project.

The slides can be viewed HERE or downloaded (3.5MB).

It gave everyone an opportunity to put forward views and hear other members' views on what makes for an enjoyable journey. The Transport Committee are seeking views covering the whole journey experience for passengers, including:

  • Information provided before, during and after rail journeys, including at stations, in trains and via National Rail Enquiries, operators' websites and online apps
  • Ticketing, including overcoming obstacles to delivering network-wide "smart-ticketing" and part-time season tickets
  • In-train facilities, including on-journey Wi-Fi and power
  • Performance measures in relation to passenger experience, including passenger survey methodologies
  • Mechanisms to hold operators to account for poor performance and spread the best practice across the industry.

For more details about Railfuture West Midlands please e-mail: steve.wright at railfuture.org.uk.