The railway risks becoming irrelevant
It’s not fun when people are angry with you – but if you want a role in their lives it’s worse when they are indifferent or laugh at you!
I always find the time to start worrying what a member of your team is up to is when they suddenly go quiet. Chances are they are bunking off early to watch the cricket or out on the golf course, or they are moonlighting or they’ve just given up and are spending their hours doing job applications and interviews. Silence equals ‘apathy’ and that’s when the deepest damage sets in.
It’s this kind of apathy that’s gradually taking hold on the rail industry. The lack of interest is among customers, stakeholders and the media – certainly not staff or management who, in the case of the latter, have taken to social media (often in a cringe worthy way) to hype up their daily activities, as if to remind us all of their relevance. Whilst the empty train seats are nothing new post-Covid, it’s the absence of headlines that the industry is making from customers and other stakeholders, as well as the decline of any chitter chatter you hear about the railway much more noticeable.
The near silence is deafening – that lack of furore about our industry that made us feel special, that we really made a ‘make or break’ difference. They say ‘all publicity is good publicity’ and whenever I arrived home from a backlash from commuters at stations during disruption, or had an MP or other key public figure heap opprobrium on me, I’d feel thrilled that I’d chosen to work in a sector that made so much of a difference that folks would get that stressed if my employer got it wrong.
I chuckle whenever I hear David Lammy MP on his radio show and recall the time I ran Stansted Express and as an adversarial 30-something he completely bawled at me during a meeting in Tottenham, berating me for the West Anglia services I had zero responsibility for. Every time I told him so, it fell on deaf ears and he got angrier. I disliked Lammy for two decades until I tuned into LBC and listened to the sense he talks. I wonder, though, if the trains are as delayed now, as they were back then, whether he’d get even remotely as vexed as he did then? I suspect not.
The problem, of course, has been the societal changes that were gathering pace prior to Covid and were merely exacerbated by the pandemic. We are now not relying on the railway as heavily, if at all, not just because of changing working arrangements but because a lowering of mobility aspirations as, bluntly speaking, we’ve realised it’s not all its cracked up to be. With our trips being less frequent, for work purposes, for instance, when disruption does ensue, we get less bothered about it because it doesn’t feel like an accumulation of several poor journeys on the trot or a build-up of other negative factors that make the whole activity of commuting every day and working in an office gradually unpalatable. This isn’t such a bad thing, but don’t let the reduced audibility of outrage about the service kid you into thinking the proposition is hunky dory. It’s no better than it was pre-pandemic, as the statistics, on many levels, will tell you.
Two industry bigwigs regaled me with their journeys on the network to me this week and commented on how they and other customers just shook their head at the ‘own goals’ that might not have stood out pre-pandemic but, now we’ve got a choice, they are suddenly very visible. Whilst not invoking anger, these shortcomings arouse feelings of dismay and shoulder-shrugging comments of ‘typical railway’. New, over-engineered ticket machines or on-board catering that isn’t available. You know where I’m coming from here, I can tell.
I reflected on my own ‘typical railway’ experiences this week on a tour from Surrey to Accrington, returning via Leeds. I reminded myself that at Shepperton station we used to have two ticket machines of different designs – one was relatively new and for some reason it has been removed so we experienced a queue at the outset of our journey (better than last week when the only machine was out of order and the ticket office closed). At Accrington station, I asked the driver if the train went to Leeds, he said “no” and said “try changing at Todmorden”, so I queried “can I get to Leeds from there?” and he replied, “I have absolutely no idea whatsoever, not a clue at all”. Then on the journey back to London with LNER the ticket machine belligerently refused to sell me the advance ticket showing (but the ticket office did) and there was chaos as the seat reservation system had broken down completely.
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The media has largely lost interest too – those bad news stories – big and small, seldom make it near the front pages or even into print or online at all, and the lack of gathering narrative about the distinct prospect of a national strike this summer speaks volumes for the industry’s peripheral role. Even last week’s reporting of a Lumo train jolting perilously close to a derailment as it navigated points on a 25mph speed restriction at a hell-raising 75mph, filled column centimetres rather than inches.
Meanwhile, the big press releases from our industry aim to create momentum around the as yet unknown location of Great Brritish Railway’s HQ. I think we’re bigging ourselves up to think your average Joe Public is really interested – even I’m not interested. In any case, it will probably be empty as most of the staff will be working from home. As for the Great British Rail Sale – do me a favour! This was a campaign with small booking and travel windows and fares at times when most folk wouldn’t want to make a journey. And putting transport secretary Grant Shapps as the frontman for such a campaign shows how out of touch the railway is to outsiders!
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The bus sector feels better positioned than rail. That it serves a more local market and one that is perceived as being closer to the ‘breadline’, whilst also being so closely aligned to the fortunes of High Streets that have become increasingly blighted by the effects of socio-economic changes, means that it is the frayed but just about intact thread that keeps a community alive. It’s the beleaguered heartbeat that keeps going in adversity, seemingly impervious to each setback thrown its way, whilst untainted by those rail industry traits of ridiculous rip-off fares, arcane procedures, fat ‘know it all’ aloof management structures, failed franchises and botched timetables. The bus sector creates an impression of more genuinely ‘facilitating lives’, and the fact that we’re all doing stuff closer to home these days means that it’s seen as an enabler.
Indeed bus would appear to be at a crossroads of opportunity. There’s more emphasis than ever before on active lifestyles – from government to local authorities, quangos and charitable trusts – all have funding-linked business plans with targets around these. If customers are going out of the house, targets can be met on this front, even if they’re just doing a trip a mile down the road. You don’t need a long distance train journey to tick that box, but if the bus didn’t exist, how many wouldn’t leave the house. The sector has already done work to illustrate the positive impact it has on reducing loneliness, mental health and physical conditions in a way that rail hasn’t.
In the absence of a great marketing campaign (with a proper railway top dog as the poster pin-up) combined with folk realising its not all it’s cracked up to be and now working or playing at home, what is the cure to the railway’s increasing irrelevance? Culturally, the industry needs to be open with itself and admit that these ‘typical railway’ imperfections make a mockery of itself and cannot be glossed over on social media. Managers should get out of the clouds, stop producing self-aggrandising videos and realise they’re not as great as they tell everyone they are. In short, the railway needs to act and present itself more professionally. It should constantly reflect on the marketing promise it makes in its various campaigns and then meticulously strive to replicate this every time – not as some kind of ‘holy grail’ but as the standard norm. I would estimate that over 90% of journeys across the UK right now are not delivering what they promised in their advertising. In what other sector would that be acceptable and not warrant a major inquiry?
Silence speaks volumes and for those who love the limelight, or who just like feeling that the service they provide is indispensable for the masses, the railway isn’t the place to be anymore.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Alex Warner has over 28 years’ experience in the transport sector, having held senior roles on a multi-modal basis across the sector
www.passengertransport.co.uk
