Passenger-friendly change
JACQUELINE STARR: Chief Executive, Rail Delivery Group ANDY BAGNALL: Director General, RDG
We should all be incredibly proud of the way the industry and its people responded to the Coronavirus pandemic to keep the country moving.
In 2021, attention must turn to winning back customers and putting in place the right industry structures to make the railway better for the people it is there to serve.
This will be a year that forges the shape of the railway for a generation to come.
A rail White Paper promises the most far-reaching changes since privatisation. It must provide clarity about a future structure for the industry to act as a catalyst for passenger-friendly change.
A more customer-focused industry should be the overriding objective as we look, in 2021, to begin forming a new arms-length body to act as a guiding mind for the railway. The clear direction and more co-ordinated decisions this body will provide are crucial to creating a railway that attracts more passengers.
When the time is right, the railway will also need to mount a major offensive to win back its lost customers.
Around 90% of people already travelling by train feel safe. If anything, the railway will be better than pre-COVID - cleaner and more punctual. Key will be getting people to take that first trip after a long time away.
Crucially, as they return, people must be able to buy fares that suit how they want to travel. No longer should passengers have to gaze into a crystal ball when buying a ticket, predicting a week’s travel on a Monday or the time of a return trip when departing. A radically simplified system that only wholesale reform of fares regulations can enable is key to attracting passengers back.
Put simply, a failure to achieve recovery on the railway will have negative consequences for the environment, for productivity, for the economy, and for jobs.
The challenges the railway faces in 2021 are vast. But as a sector, we have shown our resilience time and again. This year will be no different.