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John Davidson Grow London Global event

BLOG - “Through innovation we will deliver a railway service central to the country’s economy.”

WCPD Customer Experience Lead, John Davidson, reflects on the role the business can play in driving national economic growth.

After meeting technology focused businesses as part of a Grow London Global event, WCPD Customer Experience Lead, John Davidson highlights the importance of rail in being a catalyst for regional development and regeneration.

It is important that we see High Speed Rail as a once in a lifetime opportunity to set new standards in rail, and become a major cornerstone in driving growth across the regions that it’ll serve.

I recently attended a Grow London Global event, which is a government-funded programme open to innovative tech companies who want to expand internationally. The event provided a great platform for sharing ideas with representatives from tech firms, start-up businesses and corporate innovation leaders. Together we discussed the opportunities for business growth in the West Midlands and I wanted to understand how rail can further support innovation. There are always new ideas and ways of thinking emerging from all industries, and I always find events like this a great way to discuss how they could work for us. I am massive believer that innovation has an important part to play in transforming rail to be more focused on delivering for customers.

“We are hungry for innovation to help us create a world-beating way to travel.”

We are in a key stage at the moment of the high-speed programme, where it is important to engage proactively with local businesses and authorities, as well as technological start-ups and large-scale companies to gain support for the programme.

The West Midlands, the North West, and Scotland are rich with opportunity, talent, and innovation - making them ideal environments for start-ups and established businesses to scale, and thrive. Current Avanti West Coast, and future High Speed Services, connect London with major UK cities – Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Glasgow.   At WCPD, we are hungry for innovation to help us create a world-beating way to travel that sets new standards for rail and puts customers at its heart like never before.

We see the programme as more than just a new railway - it’s an opportunity to reshape our regions and drive both regional, and national, economic growth. Furthermore, it can lead to progressive regional development and regeneration, especially in Birmingham where this is starting to rapidly happen.

Recently our partners at High Speed Two, who are building the new line, published research that pointed to an economic uplift of £10 billion over the next 10 years across the West Midlands with the arrival of new services.

To go about it we have to look at the whole customer journey – which I do in my role as Customer Experience Lead for WCPD. As an industry we collectively need to understand the customer’s needs, both now and over the years to come. We need to track trends – like new technology or new social impacts, and be mindful of them as disruptors in our planning.

From there, we ultimately have to get the basics right – make sure customers get a seat, we run a reliable train service and give them good value for money. We can then build on these foundations and find innovative, cost-effective ways to go beyond their expectations, and give them a world class service to remember. Working together for the high-speed programme, through innovation we will deliver a railway service central to the country’s economy.