A railway crusade.
We need an all-singing, all-dancing campaign to get people to use the railways again – to rediscover the benefits of train travel and learn to trust them once more, says CHRISTIAN WOLMAR
IT is impossible to exaggerate the extent of the crisis that the railways are facing. Glib optimism that people will come back because they did in the past, such as after 9/11 and the attacks on the Tube, is utterly and completely wrong.
There are two components to this crisis, which is why the future is so bleak. First, there is the immediate impact of the pandemic and its aftermath. The loss of public confidence in the safety of the railways, compounded by the suicidal messaging I have written about for the past few issues, will not return easily. It’s as if there had been a series of crashes across the network that had killed hundreds of people, except the public perception of the railways is even worse than a response to a series of disasters.
There is a real sense among a considerable proportion of the population that taking a train is a high risk - much more so than going to a supermarket or shopping mall. This is probably mistaken as trains, unless they become jam-packed, are a relatively safe environment, provided people wear masks and proper sanitary measures are undertaken. Certainly, the way other countries, which have dealt better with the pandemic, are encouraging rail use suggests this is the case, and the evidence of research has backed this up. But it is public perception that is important, not the evidence.
The crucial point is that this is not about the railways, or even transport generally. It is, as local government expert Professor Tony
Travers told me, about the very future of inner cities across the country.
“The railways are vital to the life of the inner city,” says Professor Travers. “All those theatres, cinemas and concert halls, and even many restaurants, are dependent on people being able to get into city centres by rail. Without that, we risk going back to a time when the centre of cities was dead space.”
Again, this is impossible to over emphasise. The strength of city centres is based on the hustle and bustle of daily life, and their economy is dependent on it. This is not about a few empty office blocks but, rather, the complete collapse of the major driving force of our economy.
Just to make matters worse, there is a second major effect of the pandemic. If it had happened a couple of decades ago, people would have had to take the train or risk losing their jobs. Now this is no longer the case. Working from home will be a key factor for millions of office-based workers. Again, I think those who say things will return to normal and people won’t want to miss the joy of the water cooler are way off the mark.
This is a game changing moment where changes that were taking place slowly will be rapidly speeded up. At a guess, I reckon this will lead to a 20% reduction in passenger numbers.
Speaking to a senior rail figure the other day, he suggested this may be a good thing because carrying people at rush hour is not cost effective. I think that is ridiculous optimism. The growth of the past 20 years is about to be reversed, and last year’s numbers may not be reached again for a generation.
This is why we need a major relaunch of the railways. Not some half-hearted campaign such as ‘Britain runs on rail’, but an all out, allsinging, all-dancing campaign to get people to use the railways again: to rediscover the benefits of train travel and learn to trust them once again.
The prerequisite is a unified front from every element of the railways. All the ‘stakeholders’ - from train operators to Network Rail, management to unions, government to local authorities, supply chain to representative organisations - must join in together. This needs co-ordination at the highest level, and work needs to start now.
Every element of the railways has to be involved. The future of the industry is at stake. The railways should simply be renationalised, run by an in-house organisation for the time being, even if this government would insist on later selling it. Bringing all the various parts of the industry together during this crisis would save huge amounts of interface costs and allow tough decisions about timetable restructuring and even cutbacks to be made by rail professionals.
This needs to be co-ordinated by a single body. Since the creation of such an organisation is a key feature of the Williams reforms, its establishment should be brought forward. Ideology must not be allowed to override what is necessary. This new ‘guiding mind’ must have strong powers and, crucially, be at arm’s length from the Department for Transport.
It would need a catchy three-word slogan, such as ‘Trains for all’ or ‘Back on track’, a themed campaign across the network and the media, with a generous marketing budget. And there must be a series of enticing offers to
attract people back:
■ 1. A wide-ranging and consistent effort to keep the railways infection-free. There should be a cleaner on every long distance train and a team of people ready to quickly disinfect short distance services.
■ 2. A free package, complete with sanitiser and mask etc, for every long distance traveller, as has already been done in Italy, Poland and other countries.
■ 3. Some new deals for passengers, such as (pick and mix!) an offer to collect coupons and get 50% off, like the hugely successful Kellogg’s InterCity tie up in the 1980s; half a dozen free tickets to anyone who applies (as they have done in Belgium); a railcard for all entitling a year’s travel at a third or even a half off; and, above all, imaginative new products.
■ 4. This must be accompanied by an immediate fares reform based on single fares being half the price of a return, rather than the crazy leftover from BR of returns costing £1 more than singles.
The best fare would have to be the present split ticketing fare, getting rid of that anomaly at a stroke. Fares reform is feasible since the franchising system, whose contracts were a barrier to making sweeping changes, has been ditched. Flexible season tickets aimed at people who do not go into the office every day are another essential component of reform.
Some of these measures may be unnecessary, expensive or over the top. That does not matter; the whole point is one of perception. The railways have to be seen to be safe and welcoming after four months of negative messaging. Just to stress again, the railways are facing an existential threat: the Treasury is on the warpath, ready to impose cuts if passenger numbers do not rise considerably in the coming months.
Who is up for establishing this body and leading it? Certainly the Rail Delivery Group, which has been invisible in this crisis, is not up to the task, as for a long time it has been focussed on preserving the existing structure rather than thinking out of the box. I have been critical of Network Rail Chairman Sir Peter Hendy CBE because of his unquestioning eagerness to comply with messaging that has been deeply damaging to the industry, but he is the obvious person to head this campaign.
Speed is of the essence. Is work taking place on fares reform? Has the nature of the new body to oversee the railways been sorted? The obvious time to launch this campaign is in the autumn after the holiday period and when schools are about to return to normal. Without it it’s difficult to see how the railways will recover, but bringing together all the stakeholders will be no easy task. The work behind the scenes should start now.