The Commercial Planning Group (CPG) evolved from the original work undertaken to understand all the factors needed to make a business case for the 5AT. As time went by CPG expanded its activities and embraced the promotion of the 5AT Project. This included releases of information to the media, writing of articles, making presentations etc. CPG’s activities have also included direct contact with organisations and individuals providing help and advice to the Group, and with people and companies interested in the project.
The 5AT website, developed, built and maintained by Chris Newman, has played a very significant part in promoting the 5AT Project and in making contact with interested parties around the world.
Once the Engineering Planning Working Party (EPWP) was formed CPG’s endeavours focussed on establishing the feasibility of the commercial case for the 5AT, Project promotion and, latterly, the compilation and completion of a Feasibility Study for the Project.
At various times all the members of the 5AT Group have been involved with the activities of CPG. Meetings are held as needed and decisions on future strategy and direction taken as appropriate. The usual mechanism of communication is via email which has proved invaluable as several 5AT Group members reside overseas.
Full members of CPG currently include:
Other members of the 5AT Group frequently attend CPG meetings and assist as appropriate.
As the 5AT Project moves to its next phase – the search for potential sources of finance to form the proposed SGS Loco DevCo. and develop the demonstrator locomotive – the workload is expected to increase significantly. In order to pursue the objectives of the project most effectively, it is planned that the work of CPG be split into separate commercial and marketing functions. These two functions will then be undertaken by two new working parties; the Commercial Planning Working Party (CPWP) and the Marketing Planning Working Party (MPWP). More details are provided in the Current Plans section of this website.