RIA chief urges greater positivity on post-COVID ‘return to rail’

Rail executives are “not being positive enough about the return to rail”, claims the chief executive of the Railway Industry Association.

At a Labour conference fringe meeting, Darren Caplan suggested it was unfair to compare postCOVID passenger and revenue volumes to the year ending March 2020 (at the very start of the pandemic), because that was a historic high.

He was responding to comments from Rail Partners Chief Executive Andy Bagnall, who had told the same meeting: “If we make the wrong decisions, we do face a spiral of decline and a permanently smaller railway. If we get reform right… I believe we can secure a sustainable future for rail.”

Caplan said: “We’re certainly not being positive enough about the return to rail. In March 2020, that was the end of that year, and that was the second highest on record in terms of passenger numbers. So, we’re comparing now to the second-highest level we’ve ever had. The figures now are roughly between 85% and 95% - this month it was 96%.

“They go in the right direction until something happens industrial action, or pandemicrelated incidents. And then as soon as that happens, they go down. What it’s telling us is that people are doing their routines, they are travelling, they are getting out and about.”

Caplan said that there were “plenty of issues” with the more significant drop in revenue (which is said to stand at around 85% of pre-COVID levels), but said a similar drop in revenue in private business would be treated differently.“

In business, if you’re 10% to 15% down in revenue, if you’re 5% to 10% cent down in customers, you don’t have a doom and gloom approach,” he said.

Kate Nicholls, chief executive of trade body UK Hospitality, called for reform of timetabling and fares to reflect the shift from commuter travel towards the leisure market.

“You talk to the roads minister or the shadow roads minister, they will make sure that major roadworks on the infrastructure are not happening at peak times like Bank Holidays and school holidays,” she said.

“We don’t have that on the rail network - because the mindset is around moving commuters around the country, not moving people for leisure use.”

However, Caplan urged caution over the notion of a long-term decline in commuter traffic, warning this was “very much a London professional services thing” and that many workers were still required to attend their workplaces in person.