For the last decade, Richard Davies has been an independent Consultant providing advice on projects, franchises and major scheme business cases. He is an established authority on the economics and policy of the rail industry and has supported many teams in DfT, including those letting and managing franchises, and preparing benefits forecasts for the TRU & NPR projects and the development of HS2. He was a member of the Department’s Franchise Advisory Board as it restarted franchising after the 2012 collapse of the West Coast competition and has also worked on projects for the GBR Transition Team, ORR and on rail industry assignments in the Netherlands, Germany and Canada.

Richard was previously Director of Strategic Policy for ATOC (now the Rail Delivery Group), leading on franchise reform, several Periodic Reviews, European deregulation and, working with NR, the ROSCOs and the Railway Industry Association, improvements to the UK’s rail industry’s Strategic Planning process put in place for Control Periods 5 and 6 (2009 to 2019). 

After beginning in British Rail’s privatisation group, Richard was previously Chief Economist and Director of Strategic Planning at the Strategic Rail Authority as well as Senior Consultant for KPMG’s Economics team. 

Richard holds an MA in Engineering from the University of Cambridge and a MSc in Engineering and Economics from MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is a member of the Institute of Fiscal Studies and the Society of Professional Economists.