UK: Young people want to travel more by rail, but train operators need to provide reliable services, value for money and consistent amenities if they are to attract the next generation of travellers and retain them as customers for the next 20 years, First Rail Managing Director Steve Montgomery said when he launched the Generation Rail report into future customers needs.
FirstGroup’s rail business — which operates GWR, South Western Railway and Avanti West Coast services under Department for Transport contracts, as well as open access services under the Lumo and Hull Trains brands — worked with Field Research to conduct a survey of young people. It asked representative focus groups of people aged 18-25 in Exeter, Manchester, Glasgow and London what would ensure they develop a lifelong habit of taking the train, rather than driving or flying.
It was found that the participants were in principle content to pay rail fares, even if they were higher than other modes, but they want to feel they getting value for money. At present there is ‘fear and scepticism of rail pricing’, and one participant said ‘my railcard makes trains expensive instead of totally unaffordable.’
The report calls for enhanced railcard benefits and says the government should offer operators the flexibility to ‘drive overall patronage’, rather than ‘micro-managing the entire pricing structure from Whitehall’.
First Rail points to GWR’s Long Weekender ticket and the Superfares it has introduced on AWC services, and calls to be allowed to offer more demand-led pricing. This includes heavy discounting on underused services where ‘if those seats are sold at £1, it is still one more pound collected than is currently’. The report says ’we believe driving up usage of trains at a lower cost per seat will maintain or increase revenues overall at very little extra cost’.
Reliability also emerged as a key concern for would-be travellers, after a number of years affected by the pandemic and industrial action. Recommendations include protecting late-night services so that people can be sure that the last train will always run.
The report says future train procurements should guarantee minimum standards for what people now see as basic amenities, including toilets, power sockets and wi-fi.
Operators should also create Young Persons Advisory Panels to provide a constant dialogue with people whether they currently use trains or not.
Launching the report at the London Transport Museum on July 22, Montgomery said commissioning the report was ’part of our contribution to debates about the future of rail in the UK’.
He said ‘the whole make up of how people travel has changed dramatically following the pandemic’, and while passenger-journeys are at 90% of previous levels ‘it is not the same mix’, with commuting down but leisure travel up.
He said young people ‘want to use us but we have to get the product right’. This ‘needs whole industry solutions — that means operating companies, the government, Network Rail and trade unions — working together on common sense reforms to ensure the reliable, consistent and value for money service we all want is delivered and expanded.’