Rail’s green credentials

DAVID HORNE: Managing Director, LNER

Coronavirus has presented extraordinary challenges for our industry, as it has for many others.

After working for decades to grow rail use, the weeks when public transport was restricted to essential journeys only were particularly hard to accept. Thankfully, all the signs suggest that in 2021, we will be able to return to attracting customers back to travel by train once again.

In advance of an any uplift in services to accommodate greater demand, we are taking care to protect the high levels of punctuality achieved during lockdown, ensuring pinch points on the network do not become congested with more train services than can be reliably accommodated. When it comes to the railway timetable, there is a clear opportunity to ‘build back better’.

Throughout the pandemic, LNER challenged existing systems and ways of doing things. We created innovative digital solutions in the process, and we need to continue to push boundaries where we believe we can make things smarter and simpler for customers and our people.

An example of this was our decision to ease Friday ticket restrictions - to remove the ‘peak’ time on a Friday as well as our introduction of reservation-only services, enabling us to help maintain social distancing onboard. This change has proved popular with our customers, who welcome the assurance that they will be able to get a socially distanced seat.

There is also a great opportunity for us to highlight the green credentials of rail, and how it aligns with the public’s aspirations to travel more sustainably.

This move towards ‘greener’ modes of transport, coupled with the expected increase in the popularity of staycations, means we are well positioned to encourage more leisure journeys on our services right across the UK.

Our focus at LNER is to ensure we are providing an experience in which people are not only safe, but feel safe. Through a combination of reassurance, innovation and working together as an industry, I look forward to seeing more people returning to rail in the coming months ahead - and providing a warm welcome to them when they do.