Passengers being welcomed back – or are they?

AFTER weeks of ‘essential travel only’ messages, restrictions on using trains are at last being relaxed. Passengers are officially being welcomed back as part of a ‘Let’s travel safely this summer’ campaign.

It’s the boost the industry has needed, yet despite the campaign, there are still underlying messages from some train operators, as well as employers, for passengers to ‘consider alternatives’.

One train operator is using a traffic light system on train loadings, and if the situation goes to ‘red’ says it will close stations and cancel services.

What kind of message is that, especially as travel must be with a face covering? It’s rather negative.

Even National Express has been adding extra services to meet demand, while rail openly turns custom away. Coaches have been carrying more passengers than on the equivalent rail journey.

You couldn’t make it up!

Over in Europe, particularly in Germany and The Netherlands, it is a different story. Respected traveller Mark Smith (seat61.com) has reported busy trains, with none of this ‘don’t travel’ nonsense found in much of the UK.

The financial impact to both national rail (and the heritage sector, too) as a result of Covid-19 has been immense, leaving a long, lasting effect.

What is needed now is a high-profile campaign, along with some genuine financial incentives, to get passengers back onto trains.

Charging £314 for a peak-time Manchester to London return train, when your customer base has evaporated, just isn’t going cut it.

Transport experts modelling the impact of Covid-19 are suggesting it will take between five and seven years for rail to return to pre-virus passenger levels – that’s a bleak long-term forecast after years of buoyant growth.

With the Emergency Measures Agreement expected to remain in place until around March 2022, the Williams Report, like so many previous reports on rail, will stay unpublished on a shelf, gathering dust.

What is evident is how everything related to rail travel – in fact, all types of travel – has changed beyond belief, and the industry will need to adapt.

Furloughing, job losses, changes in working arrangements to part-time or from home could, unfortunately, point towards fewer trains and reduced services, but also fewer staff could be needed.

There is a chance new trains could be placed in store – unless the Government grasps the nettle and starts to pump out positive messages and win passengers back.

Some Trades Unions are threatening ballots for strike action if the two-metre social distancing rule is relaxed. Then there’s the almost complete cessation of on-board ticket checks (enabling ‘free rail travel’ between stations without barriers). It seems like lethargy has set in, and no-one cares anymore.

To succeed in the future, TOCs will need to get back on top of their game, and crucially, consider broadening their offer based on a much different operational model of travel patterns, centred around off-peak and leisure travel.

The risk for the rail passenger is with the DfT effectively running and financing TOCs, it could lead to inadequate investment in PR and marketing to encourage people back onto trains.

A committed scheme, headed up by the RDG to do just that, should be ready to go now!

Doing nothing could put our railways and train services at serious risk when HM Treasury comes knocking – as they inevitably will, sometime soon.