I think the biggest reputational risk to railways is how badly people can be treated when things go wrong, and also over ticketing matters. Numerous train companies seem to want to mistreat their customers and want people to fear them. They appear to be keen to deter people from travelling with them.
This is true - I have always accepted that things go wrong but I really cannot accept how badly problems get dealt with. This is something that seems to have got worse over the last forty years.
Or just any form of travel whatsoever: driving has plenty of frequent problems around traffic jams, cost of fuel, roadworks, etc. Cycling the perception from many motorists is they are inconsiderate and are annoyed at their slower speed or not using cycle lanes (that are full of potholes and debris), especially when overtaking isn't possible. Even walking, if you're a fast walker like me, getting stuck behind groups of slower walkers gets on my nerves.
While negative perception of railways is probably quite prominent, it would be useful to see it in relative terms compared to other forms of transport.
I really begin to think that the UK is falling apart.
I think it's the not being in control that worries people so much. Journeys by road are so much more variable than rail, but because you can (mostly) turn off and take a different route, or just stop and have a coffee it doesn't seem so bad as when you are sat on a train with limited information. I use long distance trains regularly and have done at least monthly for the last thirty years and I have never been more than a couple of hours delayed. Yes there are horror stories, but the same applies to road, and air travel
Some car drivers I know do seem to hate the idea of being at the mercy of the railways.
I witnessed a flip side to "it's never that bad" this week. Mother + 2 young kids arrived at Cranbrook to find the hourly service to Exeter had been cancelled. The found themselves stuck on an amenity less station, in relative cold, for just over an hour. "Next time I'll just take the bus, this keeps happening". Similarly I've been stranded in Looe after the last 2 trains were cancelled and getting clarity on how we'd get out was...challenging.
When the railway works, it's good. But it is very, very very bad at handling customer information on delays and disruption.
Yes I really feel for ordinary passengers who have little or no knowledge of how to get round the railways problems.
It was many years ago but one evening everything had stopped runing at Victoria. No information so I gave up and went to London Bridge. Next day I found out and empty coaching stock move had derailed in the throat and was stranded across the entire throat of the station. Now if any member of staff had said "derailment all lines blocked find an alternative" then many more travellers could have got out of the way and used alternatives quicker. I had a friend who was still hanging around there 90 minutes later.
INFORMATION please.
I'm surprised nobody has brought up the question of cost and affordability into the mix.
Well I use coaches for most long disstance journey, car sometimes, rail not for quite a few years - the last was a cheap introductory Lumo ticket to/from Edinburgh (which went smoothly tbh). Coach is cheaper and simpler with a driver in charge of the passenger compartment. I would say the M4 is worse than the GWML but I pay so much less.
I gave up using the railway system years ago. Despite all of the advertising hype there isn't any customer service, it's ridiculously overpriced, unreliable due to no resilience whatsoever, the ticketing is byzantine in complication and if you misunderstand one of the rules you are criminalised.
Very easy to get a bad impression customer service wise from the railways. Too many seem to be in a world of their own.
This is a common view I hear from non- or very infrequent rail users. Particularly price is the big issue. A lot give up on the railway when considering taking a medium/long distance journey, type it in to NRE or Trainline, get quoted a walk up fare (even off peak) and think never again.
Now we have the added negative that criminialisation of minor mistakes is in the public mind. While that may have always been law, I doubt the man on the street would have known it was a crime until now.
A lack of knowledge (interest?) in the rules among staff is an issue. I find an ungated, unstaffed station provides the best customer service, not because I want to evade fares but because I don't want to have to argue with an agency worker from On Trak over break of journey or restriction codes.
I really see falling foul of ticketing rules ACCIDENTALLY as a risk where the resulting cost is unacceptable. I hate fare evasion but I feel the railways need to get their act together before pointing accusing fingers at passengers.
The fact the railways are run for their benefit .The customers are at best an inconvenience and "the enemy" at worse. If you have brought the wrong ticket by mistake, you are by default a "fare dodger" and therefore the enemy and treated accordingly. Heaven help you if you are old, disabled or have a pushchair.
I know it is not that common but it only takes a few bad examples for the reputation to be lost. But there seem to be too many examples.
While it’s noted that the OP has had some bad luck on their personal journeys recently, it’s a little difficult to get a sense of what is being proclaimed, or asked, by the above. Is the suggestion that the railway delivers a poor experience? If so, the evidence seems to be purely anecdotal. Are there any official figures of the public’s perception of the railway, how it has changed over time etc.?
It’s notable that one of the OP’s complaints is a lack of ticket checks, yet it has also been suggested that ticketing issues pose a reputational risk, and another user actively prefers unstaffed and ungated stations, so there’s a clear tension between those positions.
Equally it is clear from other threads that many users on here want trains to be held for connections, or held for arbitrary lengths of time in platforms “just in case” someone is making a connection, so those demands conflict directly with the OP’s wish for trains to run on time!
I agree connections have to be let go BUT this would not be an issue if the first train ran as advertised.
There are plenty of figures to show passenger numbers are once again growing strongly, and our railway is one of the most intensively used in the world. So it could be convincingly argued that the railway needn't be concerned about improving its image further, given those stats.
Perhaps our railways are one of the most intensively used in the world for two reasons :-
First they are overcrowded - If another country ran fewer trains then theirs could be argued to be popular because they are full !.
Second no choice - for many commuting to London (like I did) there is no real alternative.
Complacency is a feature here.
With respect, if you gave up using the railway years ago, you’re not in a very good position to comment on what it’s like now!
Generally my experience too! I suspect the general (hugely negative) perception on here is not at all representative of “normal” users.
I was on a train in Sicily a few weeks ago, and the train to the airport rolled back twice and stopped short once, all in one journey. In UK terms that’s three more incidents in one trip than I’ve had in nearly ten years
.
My own personal feeling is that after many months of visiting Euston once or twice a month I have seen the service fall apart often enough (nothing running) for me to be glad my travel was not essential.
Looking around my family I am rather struck with how few consider using the train despite my enthusiasm. The daughter in law does Cardiff to London by train on expenses. She does not really like driving but is considering it. Her own trip to Gatwick is to be by coach at least to London. Myself and the better half have over 60s Oyster so London is free then a £6 coach each way to Cardiff - if we had to pay the London rail and bus fare our journey costs would roughly double.
So for us now cost completely overriddes any problems with the M4. If a service is reliable and pleasant then the operator can charge more but the railways do not fit into that I am sorry to say.
For the coach I am guaranteed a comfortable seat, a working toilet and getting to the destination eventually.
