Well as I started this thread I suppose I ought to come up with a few ideas myself!
Firstly, I agree that the current restrictions on train, especially face masks and social distancing need to go as soon as possible.
At this point it would be great if TOCs would use this opportunity to review just how (un)welcoming the on train (and on station) environment has become to the average potential traveller. For years we’ve been subjected to a barrage of signs and announcements detailing all the things we can’t do, lots of potential threats to our safety and even more pointless patronising messages telling us what we already know. I would propose scrapping all this and reserve posters and announcements for relevant information – i.e. where the train is going to, where it’s stopping and what facilities are available on board. No “see it say it sort it”, no warnings about unattended luggage or platform gaps, get rid of it all!
In terms of getting passengers back on board, I would like to see TOCs introduce a number of short term special offers, especially those that have invested in new trains. Transpennine Express are a good example of this; prior to the lockdown they had a £1 offer so passengers could try out their new Nova trains. I booked a number of these but never got to use any of them; it would be nice if the offer could be reintroduced now the lockdown is as good as over. Long distance operators such as EMR and XC certainly need to rebuild their leisure market and think about how to attract people back. Perhaps promoting rover tickets, which few outside the enthusiast fraternity seem to know about, would be a good start?
The commuter market is a trickier one; some may even say that if home working takes off long term, it may be gone for good or at least substantially reduced. Although this may be good news for us commuters who are still traveling as we’re now more likely to get a seat, the loss of revenue may mean it’s no longer cost effective to run quite such an intensive service. One thing however I would like to see is a “part time” season ticket for people who only need to come into work 2 or 3 days a week. Priced at around 2/3 of the full season ticket price I reckon this could well take off.
Finally the whole concept of first class travel needs an overhaul. The days of charging hundreds of pounds for a first class return to London may be gone for good but post-Covid a lot of people will want the extra space and more relaxing environment, so maybe making first class more accessible to the leisure traveller would be a good idea? For example you could extend the “weekend first” option to all off peak trains throughout the week and make the supplement a lot smaller – i.e. a fiver each way?
Whatever happens it’s unlikely the pre-lockdown passenger levels will return for a long while, so clearly the TOCs marketing departments are going to have to be a lot more imaginative!