Paul is a well-known broadcaster and writer on transport issues, and has been the BBC's Transport Correspondent for southern England for 20 years. He has appeared on a wide range of BBC television and radio programmes, including the Today programme, Six and Ten O'clock News, Newsnight and most frequently on South Today and other regional programmes. His credits include 16 BBC2 documentaries on transport. He is the only person to be CILT Transport Journalist of the Year twice running (2004, 2005), and is a previous Royal Television Society Regional Journalist of the Year. Paul is a columnist for Rail Professional and is a judge of the Rail Business Awards. Paul is 46 and lives in Wiltshire.


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Sir Roy McNulty was appointed by the former Secretary of State in February 2010 as Chairman to lead a special Rail Value for Money Study. Sir Roy was previously Chairman of the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the specialist aviation regulator, a post he held for eight years. Prior to this he was Chairman of National Air Traffic Services Limited (NATS) from May 1999 to July 2001.

He is a former Chief Executive and latterly Chairman of Short Brothers plc, the Belfast-based aerospace company now part of Bombardier Inc. Previous posts include being President of the Society of British Aerospace Companies and Chairman of the former Department of Trade and Industry Aviation Committee.

Sir Roy was appointed as Chairman of Advantage West Midlands in May 2009 and is also Deputy Chairman of the Board of the Olympic Delivery Authority, Chairman of the Ilex Urban Regeneration Company in Northern Ireland, and a non-executive Director of Norbrook Laboratories Limited.

Presentation: Delivering better value for money to rail passengers and taxpayers

Sir Roy McNulty's report on Rail Value for Money highlighted the efficiency gap which GB rail needs to close if it is to give passengers and taxpayers a fair deal. The presentation will describe the principal recommendations from the study and progress to date in addressing these issues.

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Anna Walker is Chair of Office of Rail Regulation. She was Chief Executive of the Healthcare Commission from 2004 to 2009 (responsible for regulating public and private sector healthcare and the predecessor of the Care Quality Commission). She has wide-ranging experience in regulation and performance improvement. Anna was Director General, Land Use and Rural Affairs at Defra from 2001 to 2004, where she drew up a new rural policy following the foot and mouth disease outbreak. Anna was Director General of Energy at the Department of Trade and Industry from 1998 to 2001 and Deputy Director General, Office of Telecommunications from 1995 to 1998. She is also a member of the Board of Consumer Focus and Chair of the National Centre for Young People with Epilepsy.

Presentation: The way ahead for our railways

Looking at the impact that significant government investment will have on the future of rail infrastructure. Billions of taxpayers' money has been set aside for Crossrail, Thameslink and the High Speed 2 projects. In addition, essential infrastructure investments have remained in place following last October's spending review. Projects were approved with the aim of modernising the rail network, speeding up journey times and improving the passenger experience. What issues need to be addressed in the short term and how can the longer-term infrastructure improvements be met?

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Douglas McCormick is Group Managing Director of Atkins' Rail business in the UK. With over 1,300 professionally qualified staff, Atkins provides a broad range of consultancy services to the rail sector. From pure signalling design to the programme management of multidisciplinary projects, our experienced teams provide innovative solutions that span every discipline in both the mass transit and heavy rail markets. Douglas has a background in Quantity Surveying and Project Management, and over the last 30 years, has has worked in many construction industry sectors, managing a variety of large projects.

Presentation: Value for money: a supplier's perspective

Three challenges that face the industry to contribute to VfM from a Supplier's viewpoint are: (1) The ability to bring the next generation to the industry; provide education, training and excellent, career prospects; (2) A can-do, will-do attitude to innovation in technology, working practices and contracting strategies. Cultural change is required to move the industry towards the 21st Century; (3) Leaderships and vision are needed, giving a credible guiding mind for the railway together with long term planning to deliver a compelling railway vision for passengers and the industry alike for the next 30 years.

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Tom Smith is ATOC's independent Chairman and has been a member of the ATOC Management Board since 2006.
Previous to holding this role he was Managing Director – Rail Development for Go-Ahead. His first success for the group was to secure the Southern franchise in 2003, simultaneously closing a deal to secure £125m of external finance to upgrade all Southern's maintenance depots. Since then he has led the group's successful bids for Southeastern, London Midland and, most recently in June 2009, retention of the Southern franchise.

Prior to joining Go-Ahead,Tom was Managing Director of Midland Expressway Limited (MEL) from 1997 to 2001. MEL designed, financed, built and now operates M6 Toll, the UK's first toll motorway. He has also worked in a variety of senior positions for Trafalgar House plc.

His initial career on graduating in 1979 was as a member of HM Diplomatic Service, for which he served in London, Hong Kong and Beijing.

Presentation: How can we encourage more private investment into the UK's railway?

Discussing ATOC's role in shaping the future of British railways. What are the barriers that prevent greater private investment in rail infrastructure and what impact will the Value for Money Study have on the industry? Are there layers of bureaucracy, inefficiency and waste that can be cut to help drive down costs? Discussing how train operators can make improvements more quickly and deliver the levels of service that passengers demand.

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Stephen Ames is a retail specialist with an impressive record in direct retailing, tenant mix planning and category management in transport related environment. Stephen is responsible for the retail performance at approx 700 TOC stations across the UK and previously worked as retail director with Network Rail and BAA.

At TPT Deborah Richards is client Director for management and consulting assignments. Her knowledge of regulated industry financial and contractual structures assists clients to realise commercial and development-based schemes.
Deborah was previously Director of Railway Estates and Major Stations with Network Rail for 12 years. She is currently Special Advisor on Station Commercialisation to Director General DfT.

Presentation: Commercialisation of railway stations

The role that commercialisation can play in contributing to value for money in rail, attracting private sector investment and improving passenger satisfaction. How the industry needs to take a more sophisticated approach and successful case studies.

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Anthony Smith is the Chief Executive of Passenger Focus. Having qualified as a solicitor, Anthony worked for five years as principal consumer lawyer for the Consumers' Association, publishers of Which? This was followed by a year as the legal consultant for Consumers International, a worldwide federation of consumer groups.

Prior to joining Passenger Focus, Anthony was deputy and acting director of ICSTIS, the regulator of premium rate telephone services.




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Alexandra Wordsworth's career has drawn together research and campaigning on a range of environmental issues. Her Master's at UCL focused on sustainability communications, which led to a policy role in this area at Global Action Plan. She holds a PhD from the University of East Anglia, which analysed the growth of climate change activism in the UK. Prior to joining Campaign for Better Transport, she worked on campaigns to stop the third runway at Heathrow, to shelve plans for a new generation of coal-fired power stations, and to press UK companies to review their involvement in the Canadian tar sands. Alexandra now leads on public transport issues at Campaign for Better Transport, and has recently launched Fair Fares Now, a major new public campaign calling for cheaper, simpler and fairer rail fares.


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Edward Welsh joined ATOC as Director of Corporate Affairs in August 2009. For the previous four years he had been Programme Director, Media and Campaigns, at the Local Government Association, where he set up the national press office for local government and led the local government reputation campaign. He won PR Week's Public Sector Department of the Year award in 2008. From 2002 to 2005, Edward worked for the Greater London Authority as head of media relations for the London Assembly.

Edward trained as a journalist on the Grimsby Evening Telegraph in the mid-eighties and then worked for national newspapers for 15 years, including The Sunday Times, the Daily Telegraph and The Times.


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Ed Cox joined IPPR North as Director in October 2009 and is leading an exciting programme of work focusing on economic development, overcoming poverty and inequality and building creative and capable communities.

Ed makes regular appearances in the media, recently appearing on BBC Breakfast, the Politics Show, BBC Radio 4's Today Programme and writing articles for the Guardian, Independent and local newspapers. He is also a regular keynote speaker and chair at national conferences.

Previously, Ed was Policy Advisor to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Director of Policy and Public Affairs at the Local Government Information Unit and Commissioner on the Government's Commission on Integration and Cohesion.

Ed's background lies in community activism. He worked as Co-ordinator of Community Pride Initiative (a voluntary organisation supporting community engagement in neighbourhood renewal in Greater Manchester) and played a leading role in the development and implementation of Community Empowerment Networks in Manchester and Salford. Ed was also a member of the Manchester Local Strategic Partnership Board and continues to be involved in third sector affairs in Manchester as hair of a multimillion pound community regeneration partnership in his local neighbourhood.


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Jeremy Acklam is a member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) Transport Policy Panel and is a Director at Venture Innovators. Jeremy's experience includes leading the implementation of smartcard ticketing solutions for business and leisure customers as part of The Trainline's business delivery strategy, leading strategic implementation planning for all European Rail Freight companies and the European Commission, and writing and presenting the 2002 Downing Street Lecture on Transport to the Prime Minister. In 2004, he presented proposals for a new rail regulation to the European Commission & Member States at the Brussels Parliament. Jeremy has held senior positions in Trainline.com Ltd (London), ATOS Origin (London), Virgin Rail Group (London), the Integrated Transport Smartcard Organisation Ltd and Tribute Ltd (London).


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A Co-Founder of Masabi, Ben Whitaker is the company's product evangelist, focusing primarily on business development at the company. He is a familiar face on both the mobile and train industry circuits, regularly invited to interviews and speaking slots at major industry events worldwide.

A classic visionary, Ben helped define the UK rail mobile ticketing standard and move the weight of industry opinion behind it. He is also a security expert with a strong engineering background, designing Masabi's award-winning encryptMe product. Prior to founding Masabi, he worked at IBM, Xerox and Raytheon (Encrypted Radar Systems) on projects ranging from computer interface usability to military cryptography.

Ben has an MEng degree in Engineering and Management (MET) from Cambridge University.


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