Addressing the All Party Parliamentary Rail Group in the House of Commons last week, the former British Airways and John Lewis executive said he is in “listening mode” as he seeks the views of the railway sector ahead of a Government white paper this autumn.

“In certain quarters there is a rush as to ‘how’ the industry should be structured,” he remarked. “Let’s start with the ‘what’ and the ‘why’ and then the ‘how’ will fall into place.

“My starting point is listening to customers; they should be at the heart of everything,” Keith Williams added, but pointed out that train punctuality is an issue that needs to be addressed and reliability is at a low point.

Feedback received so far to his review indicates a need to refocus the industry “towards the customer”. There is, he added, “a fear that if we continue as we are doing we will drive people away from the railways”. He praised a series of close alliances working to improve conditions in certain areas but said the industry was too fragmented, with too many obstacles in the way of innovation.

“There really is a window of opportunity here; the industry itself would like to change. We shouldn’t put the blinds down on a once in a generation opportunity to create a railway fit for the 21st Century.”

Listening to Keith Williams was the Conservative MP Mark Francois who represents Rayleigh & Wickford in Essex. “I agree with just about every word you have said”, he remarked, but pointed out that many of his constituents “don’t feel like customers”.

With season tickets into London costing over £5000 and extensive engineering works most weekends, he said they can feel “captured and powerless”.

“The franchise system is nearly broken, with firms aggressively bidding for and then handing back contracts when they are not able to meet their ambitious targets. There is a systematic weakness there.” Mark Francois added that Network Rail needs to modernise, adding: “we need to reunify train and track; it was a mistake to separate them”.

Baroness Randerson from the House of Lords said: “We have got to tackle the issue of who is in charge. We need some kind of central organisation that stands in between Government, the passengers and the train companies.”

The Williams Rail Review was launched by the Government at the end of December to look at increasing integration between track and train, improve services across all parts of the UK and increase value for money for passengers and taxpayers.

The review’s consultation closes at the end of May and reform of the sector is set to begin next year.

(Photograph: Network Rail)