The future of the passenger railway, revenue growth and fares and ticketing will be the focus of discussions in one of the conference sessions at Modern Railways EXPO 2022.
The Future of Britain’s Railways conference will be held during the two-day show organised by Modern Railways magazine on 22-23 November at Milton Keynes. With the post-Covid railway facing a gap between revenue and costs, the need to grow revenue is acute, and alongside the associated issues around fares and ticketing forms a timely opportunity to consider the way forward.
This session, chaired by Transport Focus Senior Stakeholder Manager Sharon Hedges, will take place on the morning of Wednesday 23 November. It will open with a keynote address from Suzanne Donnelly, who leads the Great British Railways Transition Team’s work around revenue, fares and ticketing.
With recent headlines around the success of new open access operator Lumo, including a shift in the London to Edinburgh market from air to rail, FirstGroup’s Commercial Director for Lumo Stuart Jones will present next. He will be followed by Alistair Lees, Chair of Independent Rail Retailers, who will offer the perspective of a third-party retailer on the state of the market.
The presentations will be followed by a panel discussion and Q&A session, at which the presenters will be joined by Mark Smith, Founder of The Man in Seat 61 website and a renowned expert on fares and ticketing, and Public Transport Commentator Roger French.
Modern Railways Editor Philip Sherratt said: ‘Rebuilding revenue following the pandemic is a critical challenge facing the rail industry, so as we look to the future of Britain’s railways this is a vital topic for us to be discussing at Modern Railways EXPO 2022. We have an excellent panel of speakers with varied experiences of this area, and it is sure to be a lively discussion!’
The revenue, fares and ticketing session will start at 10.30 on Wednesday 23 November. It is free to attend for all Modern Railways EXPO attendees – registration for the show is free of charge and open now at www.modernrailways.com/expo.
