How to increase passenger numbers?

[telstarbox]

Rail passenger traffic is at record levels - in 2011/12 rail passengers made 1.5 billion journeys [1].

Doing some very crude calculations, this means each man, woman and child made 24 journeys in that year. 1.4 million people use heavy rail to travel to work [2] and there are roughly 40 million people of working age in the UK [3].

If commuter journeys are stripped out (based on a daily return every 250 working days), this means that each non-commuter makes 21 journeys per year.

My question is... what can be done to encourage these non-regular passengers to use rail, other than building new lines or new stock - in other words, what would be effective measures which don't require large capital investment?

[1] http://www.gov.uk/government/upload...file/142668/rail-trends-factsheet-2011-12.pdf

[2] http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/mro/n...w-we-travel-to-work-in-england-and-wales.html

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demography_of_the_United_Kingdom#Age_structure

 

[Goatboy]

My question is... what can be done to encourage these non-regular passengers to use rail

Set fares at a level which make rail use versus the car a no brainer.

People need a carrot, not a stick, to be encouraged to leave the already taxed, insured, MOT'd and purchased vehicles they own at home and instead use the train.

This would require additional government subsidy but would have long term economic (and environmental if you are one of the Co2 nutters) benefits by reducing our dependancy on foreign oil and reducing traffic levels to the benefit of those for whom rail - irrespective of cost - would never be a credible option.

 

[cuccir]

1. A Railcard for regular users, on the model of the Bahn Cards although, relaistically, these are likely to be at higher prices than the German option.

2. Through services, even if it's just a couple a day - a headache for organising a network I know, but they often encourage infrequent travellers to travel

3. Lower Anytime fares - the headline highest fares put a lot of people off, even though they don't have to use them

4. More extensive Sunday service - not extremely early, but in some areas they only get going around Noon or later.

That's a few which come to mind. They'd all have associated costs and difficulties, but could probably be done relatively cheaply and, if they encouraged sufficient increased footfall, would pay for themselves.

--
Edit -
5. A more difficult but potentially attractive option would be season tickets which work for people who don't work a regular 5 day, Monday-Friday, 9-5. This could be 'off-peak season tickets' (which I think exist in some areas?), carnets (although I know that there have been problems with these in FCC land, I'm sure they could be done in a more practical way!), season tickets valid for particular days a week (eg a 4 week season valid on Wednesdays-Saturdays only) etc.

 

[The Planner]

Unless they are priced out of major city centres then cars are going to get you places where the railways can't. If I wish to visit my parents or other such journey I would need to taxi or bus to the station, train and the same at the other end. It is a pain in the arse, I will use my car as it is more convenient and most of the time quicker.

 

[yorksrob]

The National Railcard would be a quick win, require minimum investment, and would provide a windfall for the railway as people make the initial purchase.

 

[bluenoxid]

Set fares at a level which make rail use versus the car a no brainer.

People need a carrot, not a stick, to be encouraged to leave the already taxed, insured, MOT'd and purchased vehicles they own at home and instead use the train.

This would require additional government subsidy but would have long term economic (and environmental if you are one of the Co2 nutters) benefits by reducing our dependancy on foreign oil and reducing traffic levels to the benefit of those for whom rail - irrespective of cost - would never be a credible option.

The problem is that setting fares like that is an inefficient use of our total infrastructure capability.

The most important thing is to make trains a flexible form of transport. This includes niftier connections at stations to local transport options and that can include the car.

 

[michael769]

My question is... what can be done to encourage these non-regular passengers to use rail, other than building new lines or new stock - in other words, what would be effective measures which don't require large capital investment?

Many of those non-regular travellers will have no need for regular rail travel as they may live and work far from stations, not work, or work very close to home.

A more pertient question is what can be done to encourage those who could use rail regularly to do so. I know this seems like nit picking, but it is not as the answer to your question is likely to be very different for this group as it will be for the others.

My first answer is to drastically increase capacity. While increasing rail use is laudible, the congestion on the roads at peak times demonstrate that the majority of potential regular travellers would need to travel at peak, and to be frank the railway network has no room for them at present!

 

[Simon11]

My thoughts....

Firstly, increase the cost of driving through increased petrol prices and insurance. Over the last decade, there has been a large increase in younger generation travelling by train, with a similar reduction in car usage. If we can prevent the younger generations from travelling by car and relying on public transport, they are more likely to continue this habit later in their lifetime. The generation which grew up with cars, will always depend on car, without even thinking about rail.

Secondly another driver for recent growth has been driven by business customers switching from company car, to travelling by train. With improved wifi and working conditions, hopefully we can encourage even more business passengers to travel by train.

Network rail have produced a draft report on demand for rail for the next 30 years looking at four sectors (london, long distance, regional and freight). It makes for interesting reading and I wonder how much investment will be require to support the additional passengers.

 

[billio]

Allowing the Senior Citizen's Bus Pas to be used as a Rail Discount Card would be a small improvement. I have several friends who will not buy a Senior Citizens' Rail Discount Card becasue they are unsure how much they would use one. If there were no barrier to them getting the discount on the trains I am sure they would use the trains more.

 

[RPI]

Errrrm shall we get some additional capacity before we try filling already full trains even more!

 

[calc7]

Improved yield management = "revenue for 'free'"

 

[rebmcr]

Complete fares system reform. To the point where there's no reason to write guides for ticketing.

Zoning the entire country is probably the easiest to produce and to use for the general public. Win-win. You could probably combine it with a national Oyster too.

 

[Yew]

More seats on commuter lines. Reliable wifi on every train. Maybe some sort of wifi based streaming service? From an on train server or something on IC Routes?

Sort out grotty train fleets, and things like voyager toilets. Try an match service to seasonal demands (football trains. Seaside specials etc)

 

[WatcherZero]

More peak capacity, while its costly thats got be the thing most dissuading new users and those in the early post peak period. Some lines 'peak' crowding may not end before 11am because people cant get on earlier trains.

 

[tbtc]

Errrrm shall we get some additional capacity before we try filling already full trains even more!

Exactly.

Given the huge increase in demand over the past ten/twenty years (with a much smaller increase in the number of trains), the idea of "discount fares for everyone" seems unnecessary.

A better question would be to consider which parts of the network see spare capacity, how to fill those empty lines and fill those empty seats.

Or maybe some incentive to get TOCs to use longer services outside the peak - e.g. some stock is only used Monday to Friday yet Sundays can be very busy?

Just discounting all fares is only going to make the crowding on already-busy services even worse.

 

[swissrailpassion]

Errrrm shall we get some additional capacity before we try filling already full trains even more!

Absolutely!

 

[yorksrob]

I don‘t know. There still seems to be a reasonable amount of capacity in most areas in the off peak.

 

[Harpers Tate]

Without wanting to divert off the original question (which was simple, really) into related matters of capacity and demand - in other words - assuming that capacity exists.....

Someone mentioned fares, and I have to agree, but in a rather different manner.

I live 100 miles from Scarborough. My wife's favourite place. On Summer Saturdays, East Midlands operate a nice, fast, direct service from my closest city to Scarborough and back. The walk-up fare is GBP44.30 return. Every time I have caught it (and that would be only ever with some sort of offer - Red Dot Day was the last) it wasn't anything like overloaded.

Two things:

1: I'm not going to decide in advance to make this trip. It's weather dependent. So I will never see a hugely discounted Advance fare.
2: Actually, it would cost me £88.60 to make this trip by train. (Because there are two of us).

If I go by car, then
1: The costs are the same whether I plan well in advance or not.
2: The costs are the same whether I go alone or take up to four others with me. A 200-mile round trip costs about GBP35 in fuel. Add something for other marginal costs and you are in the same ballpark as one roundtrip train fare. Two or more people and rail is no longer even close to being competitive on cost.

To say nothing about the door-to-door convenience, of course.

If the public transport industry is to attempt to draw people from their cars, it needs to address the factors that car use has; and on a cost basis, this is the most significant: that motoring is "free" for persons accompanying the driver.

 

[LexyBoy]

Better PR. Anything to do with the railways is invariably put with a negative spin on it, and if The Railway, as a coherent entity (!) had better contacts in Fleet Street perhaps things could be a bit more balanced. I'm mostly talking about fares here.

Also, the industry not shooting itself in the foot with joke fares would help, as would effectively marketing cheaper fares with journey planners offering a choice of "fastest" or "cheapest". As it is, many cheap fares need tricks to pull up - even LM's website is reticent to offer LM Only fares for example.

 

[AlanFry1]

Here are some suggestions:

1: Make the railways 100% not-for-profit

2: Try to limit fare increases below the incresing costs of motoring

3: Extending Oyster to the Home Counties

4: Investment in rolling stock and infrastructure

 

[underbank]

There can't be a "one size fits all" because there will be very different reasons for people not travelling by train. Commuting into London and other cities is very different from recreational/tourist journeys which are very different from other "town to town" journeys.

It seems there's no point encouraging more people to commute into London because the trains are already overcrowded. But away from the main cities, the local/rural lines seem relatively sparsely used - is that because they're too expensive, or don't cater for journeys that people want to make and if the latter, why and what can be done about it?

Personally, it's not cost that puts me off, it's the lack of a sensibly timed train. Every time I need to make a journey, I see if it is feasible by train, and virtually every time, it isn't. Mostly it's down simple to ridiculously long journey times. It does seem that the main line, city-to-city routes are excellent, but at the expense of the smaller towns/cities and rural areas which seem to get a pitiful service, often very slow "stop everywhere" trains that take forever in often substandard rolling stock.

Take Lancaster to York - 3 hours by train. That's half the distance of Lancaster to London which would only take 2.5 hours. And that's to York station which isn't at the right side of town for where I need to go, so that means a bus/taxi ride at the other end making the journey time even longer.

I used to live in Morecambe and work firstly in Kendal, and then in Ulverston - all towns with stations. But the daily commute was effectively impossible because of the timetable/train changes etc which meant I had to be up and out at about 6am to get to work before 9am - for journeys that would only take 30-60 minutes by car - and again, the stations weren't close to work meaning taxi/bus at the other end!

I really don't think that the rail industry has "moved on" from the old days. Today's travel and commuting is very different from what it was when the railways and timetables were first introduced. The "flow" of people is completely different due to different working patterns, different workplace locations, etc. In the old days, town centre stations were convenient for people working/living in the town centre - now most people live/work away from the town centres, so the town centre station isn't convenient anymore.

 

[Lampshade]

1. A Railcard for regular users, on the model of the Bahn Cards although, relaistically, these are likely to be at higher prices than the German option.

The National Railcard would be a quick win, require minimum investment, and would provide a windfall for the railway as people make the initial purchase.

Would never happen, all hope of a national railcard disappeared with the Two Together Railcard - a product straight from the Conservative Party school of compromise - "oh, you want electoral reform, how about AV?". "No, we don't want AV". "Ahh, you don't want electoral reform altogether"

ATOC only wants railcards for minority users who wouldn't necessarily travel, not the majority who would.

 

[Nicholas43]

Abolish stress-generating advance fares. Set one basic fare, at roughly the current advance level. Set transparent shoulder and peak supplements for using shoulder and peak trains.

 

[telstarbox]

How are Advance fares stress-generating? I often travel on intercity services where many of the passengers are using Advances and I've only seen someone using them incorrectly (wrong train etc) a handful of times.

 

[The Ham]

The best way to increase the number of people who use the railway is to increase the frequency of their trains. It is all well and good being able to get from point A to point B in 25 minutes compared with 45 minutes by bus, however if the bus runs every 20 minutes it means that the maximum journey time would be 65 minutes for the bus compared with 85 minutes for the train (i.e. you finish work at such a time that the bus/train has just left and you have to wait for the next one).

Train frequency is a big problem on Sundays, for instance Farnborough Main has four trains an hour to London and two trains an hour which start/end beyond Basingstoke, yet on a Sunday there is only one train an hour and it starts/ends at Basingstoke. Yet the train services on a Sunday are fairly busy and so an increase in services would almost certainly lead to an increase in passenger numbers.

 

[jon0844]

Better PR. Anything to do with the railways is invariably put with a negative spin on it, and if The Railway, as a coherent entity (!) had better contacts in Fleet Street perhaps things could be a bit more balanced. I'm mostly talking about fares here.

The Daily Mail likes its rail bashing stories, yet every year does a series of promotions on rail travel - from free train trips, to discounted/free railcards or whatever.

I agree that better PR would help, if only to educate people about rail tickets.

Most people are fully aware of the cost of a full open return ticket on an airline (usually VERY expensive, and more expensive than perhaps buying more than one 'advance' ticket so you can create some flexibility by buying a seat you won't use). These same people know what restrictions there on a cheap ticket, that is non-changeable and non-refundable.

Of course, you can't easily (we'd hope) get on the wrong plane in the first place. As such, the situation you regularly read about with someone on the wrong train and then hit with a penalty of some sort can't happen.

If the railway could (and it can't) stop people like this getting on, we would see less negative stories from someone moaning about the jobsworth on the train that didn't let them travel on another train, on another day...

So, as it can't introduce pre-boarding checks, perhaps it can do a better job of explaining itself and defending itself.

To be more on topic, I do believe a national railcard (for all ages) would encourage more people to use the train. I'd certainly get one and would pay a reasonable fee too, perhaps even more for a bigger discount (as with the German system).

Now, if ATOC is so worried about this, I'd be happy for some sort of restriction that could apply not only to trains before a certain time in the morning, but also an afternoon/evening peak. That could then protect those heavily overloaded trains in the peaks that no TOC wants more leisure travellers on if they can help it.

Let's say, like London, you can't travel with a national railcard discounted ticket between the hours of 1630 and 1900. Or, you can only travel by paying a supplement (should you not wish to wait) or having your ticket endorsed should an earlier delay have forced you into the peak unwittingly.

Alternatively, you could designate certain towns/cities as restricted at these times, allowing travel on more local/shorter routes elsewhere. This isn't the time or place to discuss the specifics, but I am certain that offering 1/3 off for ordinary adults, including nn people travelling with them*, would be a great way for the industry to be able to show that, yes, there are high walk-up fares for occasional users, but anyone travelling a lot can make big savings (thus encouraging you, psychologically, to travel more** to 'save' more).

* I suppose you could even have such a railcard that only allows YOU the discount, so other members of the family/friends get their own railcard?

** If people travelled more, it might actually help justify improved services in some areas - as there will be more demand at more than just peak times.

 

[crispy1978]

I use the trains quite a lot - will do over 8,000 this miles - and that's purely on leisure/hobbies.

I am 35, and whilst I am married and my wife has a disabled railcard, over 6,000 of those miles will be on my own.

Just because I am not:

a) 16-25
b) disabled myself
c) got a family
d) a member of the forces

I have to pay full fares - which admittedly I am like a hawk trying to find the cheapest possible fares - I do at times find it a bit of a bug bare that I am having to pay full price. Yes, there are reward schemes (East Coast for example) - but apart from that there is nothing (which I am aware of) that I can benefit from to get cheap fares. I'm lucky in a way I am savvy with fares to be able to save quite a few pounds - but not everyone is like that.

That would be my improvement to increase passenger numbers.

 

[kylemore]

A Bahncard style discount card is a must, also the woeful rolling stock on many lines must be replaced. Why can't we just have a steady production line of say "170" quality 2 and 3 car units being produced, say 2-3 a month and allocated as required rather than this obsession with one-off big orders with everything having to be completely new and redesigned? The design could be upgraded as time goes on much in the same way as mass production cars. If that had been going on for the last 15 years or so the scrapheaps now so prevalent on regional services would largely be history and usage on the services probably doubled as a result

Also Sunday is now a working day or leisure day just like Saturday so service levels should be the same as Saturdays with perhaps a token one hour later start and the Engineers will just have to adapt.

 

[jon0844]

Improving services on a Sunday is also very important for leisure travel, but something that will take a lot of work and investment to find ways to keep trains running while also carrying out essential maintenance. Perhaps bi-directional running to allow one line to be kept open during work, or the use of more diversionary routes and ensuring drivers are kept sufficiently 'trained' to use them.

Then there's also the issue of some TOCs having to one day solve the issue of relying on voluntary working on Sundays, which can mean that on the very Sundays that will have most people wanting to travel is also the same day that many drivers will NOT want to work.

 

[sheff'd victoria]

3: Extending Oyster to the Home Counties

Following on from that, one thing that needs to be looked at is the London Travelcard zones, their are some area that are beyond the M25 zone , I.e Epping which is in zone 6, yet Watford ( Met ) is in zone 7 and is in the M25 zone.