Our rail passenger work

Putting passengers first

08.07.2009

Board member profile - Philip Davis.

• Location:  the West Midlands
• Stations: Birmingham New Street

Birmingham based Philip – universally known as Phil – has strong public and voluntary sector experience. The Passenger Focus Board member is a former trade union officer specialising in employment law and as an Employment Tribunals member, he still keeps a link to his 20 plus years on the industrial frontline. This is only one of a number of representative and advocacy roles Phil has undertaken.

Phil says:

“I was fortunate to twin-track my union job with work as a local councillor and transport and land-use planning was a particular interest. I became leader of one of the top performing councils in England and also led the West Midlands Regional Assembly. This gave me experience of how transport planning and the politics affecting it needs to be linked to give us a better rail and bus system. At the same time I’m a regular rail and bus user so I see what the passenger sees.”

“As long as they get a decent service, passengers don’t much care who runs their bus or train - but representing transport users does require understanding of what shapes the passenger experience.”

“Passenger Focus is well-placed to turn individual passenger concerns into policy proposals for better service. We’re listened to by government, so the operators pay attention.”

Phil is one of the Passenger Focus board members with a particular interest in the English regions. He sits on the West Midlands Regional Transport Partnership and tries to keep in touch with regional transport user groups. He is delighted that Birmingham’s New Street Station is to get its long-awaited passenger facilities “make-over”, but sees this as only ‘phase one’, given the lack of room for extra trains at this key rail junction. Nationally, Phil also has good informal links with transport providers, meeting with colleagues from both public and private sectors as a member of the Commission for Integrated Transport, a ministerial advisory body.