By Andy Bagnall, Director General, Rail Delivery Group

Even those slightly less obsessed with news than me (I keep telling myself it’s just a healthy curiosity) couldn’t have failed to notice when Matt Hancock recently stood up in the House of Commons to introduce the Government’s White Paper on the Future of Health and Social Care.

An announcement like this would’ve caught my attention at any time. Right now, though, given everything that’s happened in the UK in the last twelve months it made me stop and focus on what the Government was doing and why they were saying they were doing it. On a more personal level, given how imminent the Rail White Paper now is, I’m spending a lot of time thinking about large-scale reform.

I was struck first by the different starting points. With the NHS, it’s hard – less than a decade on – to find anyone willing to speak up for the reforms made by the Coalition Government in 2012. But in rail, the model (or, at least, the model in place pre-pandemic) actually delivered a great deal in the first decade and a half and had only gradually lost its fitness for purpose, to the point where many – obviously including RDG – had been calling for reform.

Listening to what the minister said, I was struck by the objectives for the White Paper he chose to emphasise. He talked about the need to bring different parts of the system closer together, recognising their interdependencies and creating the conditions for far greater collaboration. He talked about empowering those who work in the system. About a focus on outcomes and of the need to embrace technology and innovation. Above all, about the need to serve people.

It’s not much of a leap to apply similar objectives to rail reform. Although the scale of the NHS is far greater than even the railway, they are both complex public services, and they matter – not just to the people who use them but the people who don’t.

Rail needs more collaboration. We need frontline managers to be empowered to make decisions that benefit customers. We need contracts with a far greater focus on outcomes rather than tight specifications – contracts which drive collaboration between track and train. We need a model that incentivises the adoption of tech and innovation – based on the up-to-date data and insight of what our customers’ needs are. And, if we are to genuinely serve our customers, we need root and branch fares and retail reform. We need the Rail White Paper to set out a clear direction of travel in each of these areas.

Of course, there are also clear differences with NHS reform to what I believe is the right way forward for rail. The minister talked about accountability and how “medical matters are matters for ministers”. Of course, rail matters are matters for ministers too. The railway needs government to set out its objectives – not just for rail but for how rail can contribute to wider objectives (economic, social, environmental…). It needs government to be clear how much money is available to deliver those objectives.

But I strongly believe we need a new, genuinely independent national rail body – equally balanced between infrastructure provider and service operator - to take forward the job of developing the strategy to deliver those objectives, and to provide the clear accountability that’s essential. In the past, this has all got a little fuzzy, with the DfT overseeing and over-specifying operators’ franchises and the ORR overseeing Network Rail’s regulatory targets, making a consistent approach to delivering clear strategic objectives much more difficult and making difficult issues much easier to avoid. And with Ministers left having to manage the political fallout.

We don’t know yet if the Rail White Paper will propose a new national rail body, what form it will take if it does and how it will be accountable. But any new body needs to be free from day to day interference from government – we’d certainly be cautious about the language Matt Hancock used like “give direction” and “intervene when necessary” if applied to rail.

This doesn’t mean ministers should set the objectives and the funding and then walk away for five years – clearly that wouldn’t work, as ministers can’t avoid getting involved more frequently and we must be conscious of, but not wholly driven by, the political cycle.

But rail is not just a minute by minute operation, it’s a decade by decade industry, and the best way of securing its future is through a clear strategy that tackles the biggest issues systematically. Decisions taken – for whatever reason – without a clear sense of their strategic value or cost are often bad ones, and the railway has paid the price for this too many times before.

Much of this should be a lot clearer very soon, as we shouldn’t have to wait too much longer for the White Paper to be published. Like many people in rail, I’m champing at the bit to get going – why not, when we have the opportunity to shape a whole industry’s future for decades to come?

By Andy Bagnall, Director General, Rail Delivery Group

It’s easy, on a cold February morning in lockdown, to focus on where we are now. The drumbeat of news alerts, texts and WhatsApp messages on our phones throughout the day intertwined with video calls and virtual meetings. In rail, for our colleagues on the front line, it’s less virtual: keeping key workers moving but with much less hustle and bustle than there used to be.

It can be hard to be optimistic in these times, but I am. I encourage you to be too. There will be life after Coronavirus and it will be better. The railway can have a huge role to play, working in partnership with other sectors.

Like many industries over the last 12 months, rail has adopted new ways of working – but still we keep the country connected. The railway has been taking doctors, nurses and other key workers on their journeys to and from work while also moving tonnes of supermarket goods so that shelves remain stacked.

Looking beyond the pandemic, it is clear to me that we must build on what we have and go forward, not back. The railway thinks in years and decades, not weeks and months, and I have every confidence that passengers will return. It will take time and the patterns of travel will be different, but if we make the right decisions now, the railway will once again grow – just as it did after previous pandemics and world wars.

Before this crisis, rail companies eagerly awaited the outcomes of the Williams review and the government’s white paper about reform of the railway. Coronavirus has not dampened that desire to do things differently. If anything, the pandemic has brought into sharper focus the need to ensure that reform of the railway delivers for Britain.

It’s easy for some to search for simple ideas from the past, like changing ownership. When we submitted our proposals for reform, we focused on what mattered to people: how to make travelling by train better by being more customer focused, more joined up and more accountable. That’s why we called for the franchising system to be replaced with new private sector contracts built around the needs of different customers and a new public arm’s length body to join up the system, all underpinned by reform to make fares easier.

These changes would see the railway building on the positives of recent years and addressing the shortcomings of the existing system. Private sector and public sector working together more effectively to create a railway that is better for customers, communities and the country.

With both sectors working together in a new, more effective partnership, we can upgrade the railway more efficiently. We can speed up the introduction of thousands of new carriages, backed by private sector funding. We can improve customer service so that we have some of the most satisfied customers of any major European railway. With the right decisions about regulation by the public sector, we can make choosing and buying fares easier so that more and more people can find a good deal and take the train – good for them to get where they want to go but also better for the environment than travelling by car, for example.

We can build back better, both as a railway and as a country. To do that, we need to keep the best of both sectors, within a new rail system - an evolved partnership between public and private.

This is the most certain way to deliver the future we need. A better-connected Britain, where green rail journeys can be easily made on a network that supports businesses and job creation in every corner of the country. If we get the right reforms, the railway will recover, helping the country to recover. There is a lot to be optimistic about.

One of the biggest consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, aside from the tragic loss of life, is the toll it has taken on our mental health.

The months of social isolation; of normality being stripped back to its bare essentials; of spending longer than ever before in front of a screen. And that’s not even to mention the children who’ve spent far too long away from their friends. People’s mental health has been impacted in ways we have never seen before and yet it’ll be months, maybe even years before we see the true effects. The mental health system in the UK was already buckling under the weight of demand and waiting lists will continue to grow as people begin to seek the support they need.

And that’s why days like Time to Talk Day are so essential.

Life after Covid-19 won’t go back to ‘normal’. Those who have spent months isolated from their friends and family won’t necessarily be cured as soon as they are allowed to reunite. Those with existing anxieties will have had those exacerbated by the fear of getting sick from being around other people. And we must work to educate ourselves on how to have those difficult conversations and be there for those who might just need us.

What is mental health?

Mental health is complex. It is defined by the World Health Organisation as “a state of well-being in which the individual realises his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community”. We all have mental health, in the same way we all have physical health. It exists on a spectrum and is never constant. Poor mental health could be a diagnosable illness, such as depression or anxiety, or bipolar disorder, or obsessive compulsive disorder. These may require treatment and for some there is no cure, just lifelong management. But poor mental health can also be a response to a trauma, to loss or to change. And sometimes, there is no obvious reason. And sometimes it isn’t obvious at all. Some people can be seen to be functioning completely normally, and yet under the surface they are struggling with demons unbeknown to the rest of the world.

The role of the workplace in facilitating these conversations

RDG’s Mental Health Awareness Group was set up in May 2019 and their work has always been guided by three principles:

1. Develop mental health awareness in the RDG workplace
2. Enable open conversations, challenge stigmas and help everyone to feel comfortable when talking about their wellbeing
3. Build on the support we already have in place, and make it easy for people to find it when they need it

Developing mental health awareness is an ongoing process – we are getting there but we still have a long way to go. We must continue to educate ourselves and each other and invest in supporting people to have these conversations. Manager training will play a role in this, but sometimes we must accept that people won’t want to talk to their managers, so we must ensure everyone feels enabled to have these conversations in case they are needed to support a colleague.

Mental health conversations aren’t easy. Sometimes they are difficult to navigate and can be incredibly triggering. We have to ensure there is a network of people who understand if you call them and say ‘I just had a really tricky conversation’.

At RDG we have trained Mental Health First Aiders. They aren’t trained to diagnose; they are trained to listen. To be the first source of support when a colleague decides they are ready to open up. In the same way as a physical first aider would stem the bleeding until the ambulance arrives, an MHFA is there to listen and signpost to that next level of support. But MHFAs aren’t just there in times of crisis. First aid doesn’t have to be an emergency, it can be as small as a five-minute conversation which could help your colleague start to open up about what they are going through.

Why does this matter and what can you do to help?

So why is this important? We know there is a mental health crisis, so why do we need to keep talking about it? Because we know the professional system is under considerable pressure and professional help could take months, or even years to materialise. Those who are the sickest are prioritised and those who are struggling but don’t meet the ‘in danger’ criteria must wait in line until there is room in the system for their treatment to begin.

And all the while, we must be there for each other.

We have a duty to educate ourselves. Mind and Samaritans have a wealth of FREE resources – from what mental health illnesses are, to how to have some of those more difficult conversations. If all you do is listen, while someone talks, believe me you have made a difference. By allowing that person the space to air how they feel, by not judging, by not saying ‘oh it could be worse’, you have helped. You might get it wrong sometimes and that is okay. It is better to be there and try rather than ignore the problem because you don’t know what to say. You may find yourself on the receiving end of someone who isn’t ready to talk yet and that is okay. Just remind them that you will be there when they are ready.

This year will present the rail industry with challenges as it recovers from the pandemic and looks to build to the future. And we must be ready to support each other through whatever change lies ahead. If we don’t, we might just come out of one crisis straight into another. 

By Daniel Wood, Chair of Platform, RDG’s employee network for LGBT+ people and allies

February is LGBT+ History Month (LGBT+ means Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and related communities). This is the first of two blogs for the Month and is written by Daniel Wood, Chair of Platform, RDG’s employee network for LGBT+ people and allies.

Following in the footsteps of colleagues in RDG’s minority ethnic network Embrace, who wrote a series of blogs in October for Black History Month, it is great to take some time to write about LGBT+ history this month. The RDG - together with colleagues in other parts of the railway industry - continues to make progress in making the railway more inclusive and reflective of the customers we serve. As Ola, our Chief Financial Officer, set out in his blog, our EDI work at the RDG is being turbocharged and more and more conversations are happening across the organisation.

Living through a global pandemic gives you a lot of time to think. Inevitably, we’re drawn to the struggles of the present - how to get through current restrictions and look forward to seeing friends and family in person again in the future.

I sometimes think about how the time we’re living in will be presented in history. One day, we’ll be older and we’ll be asked about this experience. What was it like to live through the first lockdown? How did your routine change? Did you clap for the NHS?

It’s good to reflect on that now, I think, because it’s a reminder that this will all be over one day. I also find reflecting on this current period of time makes me more appreciative of the wealth of knowledge we have about the virus we’re tackling today – most of it within easy reach and at our fingertips.

But Russell T Davies’ new TV series It’s A Sin (available on All4) shows it wasn’t like that for the last health crisis this country faced: AIDS. Throughout the episodes of the programme, which span the 1980s and early 1990s, we see a lack of scientific understanding about this new disease which affected so many lives across Britain. This was compounded by negative - and dangerous - public attitudes, which meant that thousands of people, predominantly gay and bisexual men, died of an illness that they knew little about and were shunned by society, including some by their friends and family.

I thought I knew about the impact of AIDS in Britain. I knew about HIV. I knew HIV started to spread in the 1980s. I knew it was something to be aware of and be cautious about. And I know that, thanks to scientific and medical advances, people with HIV can now live life knowing that it is not a ‘death sentence’ as it once was. Icons such as Gareth Thomas have shown that people can live very athletic lives.

But watching the programme, I realised that what happened during the period wasn’t taught to me at school. We learned about events that happened in the 1980s but there was nothing about a public health crisis - the AIDS crisis was not history. And not only was it not taught in school, sex education was actively prohibited by law from containing information that could save the life of gay and bisexual men as it could “promote homosexuality”.

Could you imagine if a child born today wasn’t taught about the coronavirus pandemic? So much would be lost. Perhaps some uncomfortable truths but also many moments of human love and sacrifice. But the coronavirus pandemic will be taught in schools. It will be talked about across society. We cannot afford to not learn from the pandemic.

The AIDS crisis in Britain is far from all of LGBT+ history but it’s an important example of why LGBT+ history matters and matters to everyone, not just LGBT+ people. We are fortunate that over the past two decades there has been continuing and increasing progress towards equal rights across Britain. Laws passed in 2013 meant I could marry my husband. The 2010 Equality Act means I couldn’t be discriminated against for being gay, building on 2003 laws tackling discrimination in the workplace. And when it comes to history, the end of Section 28 in 2003 meant that teachers were no longer restricted - it was no longer illegal - to teach about LGBT+ people from the past.

LGBT+ History Month is an opportunity for everyone to take the time to find out more about what has happened before. Employee networks are a great way for organisations to share this information and spark discussions that might not ordinarily come up, particularly as we all work virtually. Platform, supported by the RDG, will be sharing LGBT+ history throughout the month and hosting a discussion with colleagues. We’ll also be joining up with industry colleagues in Archway at Network Rail to hear more perspectives as we work together to make the railway more inclusive.

Relevant articles

• Sexuality should never be a source of shame (The Times, account required)
• It’s A Sin taught me more about LGBTQ+ history and sex education than school ever did (The Tab)

Further information

• LGBT+ History Month website and wall chart of key moments
• Archway (Network Rail’s LGBT+ employee network)
• HIV and AIDS (NHS)
• Terrence Higgins Trust (the UK's leading HIV and sexual health charity)
• Section 28: What was it and how did it affect LGBT+ people? (BBC)

Further watching

• Pride (2014 film, link to availability on streaming services)