Understanding passengers’ needs is key to recovery

The rail industry needs to understand how it can support passengers as travel habits change following the pandemic, Trainline Chief Operating Officer Jody Ford claimed.

Ford, who took over as Chief Executive Officer as this issue of RAIL went to press, told National Rail Recovery Conference delegates: “There is significant overlap between leisure and commuter travel, but their behaviour last summer was very different.”

Ford (pictured), who was due to take over his new role after the NRRC, said that competition for new commuters will result from more choices than just the car, citing Zoom as one example.

“That’s ultimately the result of new, normalised working from home. There is the benefit of office working against the friction of travel. We need to, as an industry, rapidly evolve our rail offering for commuters,” he said.

He said he found that 66% of all train journeys terminate outside London and the South

East, adding: “We have a shared agenda, we have a shared goal, shared across the regions, and that is to get UK rail to bounce back to where it was before - and in the process, accelerate modal shift from road and air to rail.”

Travel restrictions were eased last summer as the country looked to recover from the first lockdown, but many businesses still did not allow staff to return to work. Instead, they encouraged agile working.

“From the leisure view, those passengers returned. But the same cannot be said for the commuter or business travel,” said Ford.

“In September, which was one of the strongest months, 45% of commuters did not take a trip. Of the 55% who did, they established new travel patterns - off-peak, one or two trips per month, and flexible tickets over advance options.”

He said that innovation must support what passengers are asking for: “And what are they asking for? Safety, flexibility, value and convenience. I believe we can align behind that.

“The first thing, and it’s so simple, is we must make it really easy to buy and change a ticket. That’s what they [passengers] always asked for.”

Ford said the underlying enabler would be digital ticketing, claiming that passengers will want touch-free travel.

A personalised experience, similar to what customers expect of Amazon or Spotify (digital music streaming company), should be available for passengers, he claimed, explaining: “This is around disruptions alerts, predictions, re-routings. It’s making it easier for using rail rather than the car.”

He recommended that data standards also need to be aligned, advising delegates that this would help the industry better understand the needs of its users, thus gaining essential insight that could be used to predict demands that can inform timetables or even deal with fraud prevention when paying for travel.

He finished his presentation by stating: “A fast recovery in the regions can only be achieved if we all work together to achieve a common purpose of making sure UK rail bounces back stronger than ever.”