Rail Franchise performance meeting minutes - 10 December 2015
Transport Scotland attendees: Andrew Mackie (AM), Paula Somerville (PS)
ScotRail attendees: John McLachlan (JM), Sam Price (SP), Rob Shorthouse (RS), Kenny McPhail (KM)
1. Minutes of previous meeting
Minutes from previous meeting agreed.
2. Actions arising from previous meeting
Organogram – Ongoing. March 7th now due date for organisational change.
On-time Railway Groups - Action closed.
First Class offerings on c380 fleet (E&G and Ayrshire) - SR to advise. AP - SR
International Rail Summit - Information has been provided by SR.
Delay Repay breakdown - Action closed.
CO 23.2, Sustainability Innovation Fund - OHC to write formally to Stewart Cahill regarding this. AP - TS
CO 22.2, Install new TVMs (100 replacements and 26 new) - Action closed.
CO 29.11 - New capability to load NEC/SPT products on Scotrail Smartcard - Action closed.
PO Stranraer - This will be taken forward at the financial meeting. Action closed.
Integrated Ticketing, Caledonian Sleeper/Scotrail - This is being taken forward at the fares and marketing meeting. Action closed.
CO 17.7, Colour coded timetables. Posters are being put on SR's website and SR plans to have colour coded timetables for busy routes in place by March 2016.
Passenger Counts - Action closed.
SQUIRE statistics published quarterly - TS's webpage will be updated with quarterly results.
Canopies - There is a cross-alliance focus on this and it is for SR to manage. TS and SR will continue to work collaboratively.
SQMS - Action closed.
CO 32.6, live disruption map - This is due to go ahead in March 2016.
CO 20.2, Online website - AM will provide an extract of the relevant delivery plan of the Abellio bid. AP - AM
CO 10.3, Customer experience, catering provision - Ongoing action.
CO 24.6 - Train facilities available for charities - SR will confirm to TS what charities it will make payments to. AM said it would be beneficial if this can tie in with charities that would have benefited from using the train facilities. It was agreed that SR will give this payament to the charities it has invited to the training days.
CO 6.2 - Strategic Rail Delivery Group - It was proposed that Alliancing should be part of the Agenda item. The CO notes that the Group will be a cross-industry advisory panel comprising key stakeholders from across the industry. TS will get back to SR on this.
TUC Women's Committee - Action closed.
3. Service delivery performance (Schedule 7.1)
Period 8PPM was 83.3% against the target of 89%. TS noted that Ministers are looking at performance with close scrutiny.
SR advised that David Dickson has been given responsibility across the alliance for Performance.
Borders performance - TS is looking closely at performance and capacity issues on the Borders route.
TS to get back to SR on the Train Plan. Meeting arranged for 17 December. AP - TS
4. Service quality performance (Schedule 7.3)
Discussed under item 2.
5. Financial obligations and undertakings (Schedule 12)
Revenue Protection - SR advised that an administration cost will take affect for passengers without tickets when exiting the barrier. SR confirmed that there will be a period of educating people to purchase their tickets before they board introducing a punitive regime targeted at persistent fare evaders.
6. Provision of Schedule 13 information
No issues raised.
7. Summary of all Committed Obligations delivered to date
Client & Communications - AM asked for information to be provided every three periods. RS will look into this. AP - RS
A stakeholder equality group will be delivered this month.
c158S - AM noted this was flagged red and asked if there were any risks? SR confirmed that the red was for internal purposes only.
CO 24.2, Apprenticeships - PS noted that this CO breaks down apprenticeships by 4 Engineering, 2 Customer Service, 2 Tourism and 2 Hospitality. JM will ascertain if SR's apprenticeships are broken down as stated in the CO. AP - JM
CO 24.4, Equality as a core competency in the appraisal process - SR confirmed that equality as a core competency is a part of its Time With Your Manager appraisal process and that this has been rolled out to all its employees.
CO 24.14, Scholls programme - Abellio's bid document does not specify the number of school visits that should take place each month wheras the Franchise Agreement specifies 4 schools per month. JM and SA are in discussions regarding the number of school visits that shall take place. AP - JM/SA
SMART - SR anticipate a national event taking place around spring time.
8. Pending variations
Amendment Agreement - SR has not received a confirmed version of the FA yet. AM wil chase up to provide SR with a confirmed copy. AP - AM
20th March is the first date that the first three units will come into service. TS is comfortable with timescale and this can be signed off. AP - SR/TS
Financial variations, Forth Road Bridge, extra services - SR noted that there are immediate effects and tail effects that extra services have on its business. It advised that due to crowding on some services, it may not necessary collect all revenues as gates may need to be plunged to alliviate crowded platforms. It also noted customer satisfaction may be adversely affected, particularly given that passenger surveys will take place sandwiched betweenthe Forth Road closure and the commencement of Queen Street works and this could negatively impact the survey results. SR also asked if a wooden dollar could be applied to SQUIRE to the Fife area during the Forth Road closure? SR noted that the programme of the c158s may also be affected if closure of the Forth Road bridge runs on and PPM may also be negatively impacted. AM noted his appreciation of the huge efforts that SR has gone to on delivering extra services during the Forth Bridge closure and that the afected KPI's to be considered and discussed at Monday's Quarterly forum. AP - TS
DB Schenker - SR advised that costs are very high due to areas such as having conductors and only using rolling stock for a very short term period. AM asked for options of having additional rolling stock for a short term and over a longer period to ascertain how cost effective this would be. Post Meeting Note - Action captured in more detail at Quarterly Forum of 14/12.
9. Progress of Priced Options
PO 1, Service to Berwick - TS noted that this should take place post Queen Street works. SR has track access rights until December 2016 and will need to secure them on a longer term basis though there is no guarantee it will acquire these rights.
10. Communications
Delay in passenger correspondence replies (implications for overall satisfaction KPI) - TS advised SR that there has been an influx in Ministerial correspndence lately due to delays or a lack of reply from SR to customer complaints. TS asked that KPIs on customer service be included as part of the Franchise Performance reporting pack. AP - SR
RS advised that SR will draw up a programme with Nick Wade at TS to include up to pre-election period for the 1st year anniversary.
RS will speak to Ann ray about communicating to customers during disruption. AP - RS
11. AOB
The next meetng which was due to take place on 7 January wil be pushed back a wekk to 14 January 2016, to allow time for the Franchise Performance report to be drafted.