Agenda Item No. 12 Meeting: Putting Passengers First Committee Date: 16 February 2015 From: Head of Customer Services Subject: Third Annual Putting Passengers First Conference - 19 March 2015 Lead Member: Cllr Kath Hartley, Putting Passengers First Purpose of Report 1. To update the Committee on the arrangements being made by the Conference Working Group to deliver Centro’s third Putting Passengers First Conference on 19 March 2015. Recommendations 2. The Committee is recommended to note the progress being made in arranging the third annual Putting Passengers First Conference. Background 3. Centro will host its third annual Putting Passengers First Conference at Centro House on 19 March 2015. The Conference has become a key event in the customer engagement calendar, providing an opportunity to consult and engage with a wide range of stakeholders and individual public transport users. 4. At its meeting on 8 December 2014, the Committee agreed to delegate the delivery arrangements for this year’s event to a Conference Working Group including Centro Member representation from the respective Chairs of the Putting Passengers First Committee and the Partner Engagement, Petitions and Appeals Sub-Committee. The Conference Working Group has established a number of objectives for the 2015 Conference and is working to design this year’s event to achieve these aims. Conference Objectives 5. The Conference will bring together a range of stakeholders and will achieve the following objectives: 1 Showcase key achievements since the 2014 Conference Highlight the excellent partnership working arrangements in place with transport operators and particularly how these work to ‘put the passengers first’ Share Centro’s priorities for the year ahead and in doing so; Engage with stakeholders to collect customer insight in order to further develop Centro’s future delivery plans Conference Agenda 6. Arrangements for the 2015 Conference have been developed in the context of feedback provided by delegates who have attended the event in previous years. Attendees of both the 2013 and 2014 Conferences have pointed to the need to engage with a wider audience in order to capture the views from those groups so far, underrepresented at these events. In order to facilitate attendance by peak time commuters and younger people who may not find it easy to attend during the daytime around work and education commitments, an afternoon/early evening event has been organised. This will see the formal Conference agenda commencing at 1430 hours and close at 1900 hours. 7. Delegates are being invited to arrive at Centro House from 1330 hours with the formal agenda commencing at 1430. This first hour will provide an informal opportunity for attendees to network with Centro Members and Mangers as well as a number of Centro’s transport operator partners. 8. A series of short presentations will be delivered at the beginning of the Conference. The details for these are being confirmed and will include addresses from Centro, National Express West Midlands and London Midland. 9 Delegates will be invited to participate in two out of a total of four seminars which are being developed to seek views and insight into subjects of key importance for Centro. The feedback from each seminar will be used to help Centro in the development of future delivery plans. A summary of each seminar is provided at paragraphs 9A through to 9D below. A) Seminar 1 ‘Making Life Easy through Innovation’ - This seminar will look at how Centro is using new technology to make the use of sustainable travel easier for people to use and help to make sustainable transport the natural choice for their journeys across the West Midlands. This will involve participants sharing their vision for how new and emerging technology could be used to improve their experiences and propensity to use sustainable travel modes such as bus, train, Metro and indeed to make more walking and cycling journeys. B) Seminar 2 ‘Going Local – Rail’ – This seminar will explain the current proposals for increasing local influence over rail services in the West Midlands including the formation of a new body – West Midlands Rail which has been set up to take responsibility for managing local rail services (subject to government approval). The session will seek delegate views on what should be the priorities for improvement on a range of aspects including timetables, fares and ticketing as well as service quality and performance. 2 C) Seminar 3 ‘Metro – Shaping the future’ – This seminar will invite delegates to help inform the development of future operating arrangements for the Midland Metro service. The session will focus on passenger information, onboard tram facilities and ticket retailing in order to understand what is important to passengers and what should be considered when developing new operating arrangements from 2018, when the current contract to operate the service expires. D) Seminar 4 ‘Joining our Communities’ - This seminar will explore local connectivity between communities by sustainable means. The session will look at the some of the work being progressed through the Smarter Networks and Transforming Bus Travel programmes aimed at improving access to health, leisure and employment through walking, cycling and bus use. Delegates will be invited to contribute to the discussion on what further needs to be done to encourage more journeys to be made by healthy and sustainable means. 10. Following the success of the ‘Your Questions Answered’ feature at last year’s Conference with 92% of attendees rating this aspect of the day as either good or excellent, a similar question and answer session is being organised as part of the 2015 programme. Delegates are again being invited to submit their questions in advance and having taken into account feedback from 2014, any not answered on the day will be responded to in writing after the event. Attendees 11. Invitations have been sent out to a wide range of stakeholders. These include PEG participants and other stakeholder groups, Public Transport Operators, Passenger Champions for all three modes, and Youth Forum and Business representatives engaged with through the Smart Network Smarter Choices work. Financial Comments 12. There are no financial implications arising from this report. Legal Comments 13. There are no direct legal implications arising from this report. Sarah Jones Head of Customer Services Centro Media Contact: Steve Swingler, Media Manager tel: (0121) 214 7073 email: steveswingler@centro.org.uk Contact Officer: Sarah Jones, Head of Customer Services 3 tel: (0121) 214 7014 email: sarahjones@centro.org.uk Background Papers: 4 Glossary PEG Partner Engagement Groups 5