Delivering the railway our customers expect
Great British Railways Transition Team (GBRTT)
Creating a simpler better railway for everyone in Britain
A blog by Charley Wallace, Programme Director – Customer
As a railway, we wouldn’t exist without our customers.
In this blog, I want to talk about how the evolution in the way we work has fundamentally changed the relationship the railway has with its customers. In a previous blog, we have talked about freight customers so here I will focus on the work the Great British Railways Transition Team (GBRTT) is doing to enhance the experience for passengers across the country not just in the future, but here and now.
The pandemic has given people and businesses more choice, speeding up trends that were starting to develop previously. No longer do thousands of commuters feel they have to travel into the office every day. Instead, more customers are travelling less often or at quieter times of the day.
Particularly during times of disruption, they have the choice to do things differently, by working from home or more locally. On the other hand, there are other trends; for instance, leisure markets are growing, creating new opportunities for the network.
In a world where train travel is far more discretionary, we must up our game to better meet the needs of our customers. In short, we need to offer a more reliable and simpler to use service – at every stage of the journey – and in turn provide better value for money.
For too long our customers have found the railway too complex and difficult to use - voting with their feet in many cases. This must change. By stripping back the layers of complexity around fares, ticket purchase, compensation and many more areas, we can better serve all our customers – creating a simpler, better railway for everyone in Britain. To do this, GBRTT is putting the customer at the heart of planning for the future and getting on with making improvements now, as with our transformational Fares, Ticketing and Retail Programme.
For example, thousands more journeys will transfer to Pay-As-You-Go ticketing, meaning customers can simply tap in and out at the start and end of their journey. From 2024 we will see a significant increase in the number of stations with Pay-As-You-Go, starting initially with an expansion in the South East before introducing this to other urban centres, including in the north where we intend to introduce it at a further 700 stations.
An accessible and modern railway
For 20 per cent of the population, accessibility considerations are vital. So, when we say “everyone in Britain” we truly mean it.?Already 2,000 stations have been audited to assess how accessible they are. Soon we will be consulting on the first ever National Rail Accessibility Strategy. In time, this will deliver a holistic assessment of the way the rail sector can best address all those with additional needs to access the network in a reliable manner.
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Helping when things go wrong
As well as fares and ticketing, one of the greatest annoyances for customers is disruption. Too often the railway lets customers down through a simple lack of timely information enabling people to make informed decisions.
The Smarter Information, Smarter Journeys programme is already delivering results for customers through the provision of better customer information. This includes personalised information about journeys sent through Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and train companies’ own smartphone apps. This will continue to be rolled out across the network over the coming years.
These benefits aren’t just being felt at the station or before boarding. Onboard trains, customers will experience a step change in information available helping them to make appropriate decisions for their onward journey.
Compensation
When things go wrong it is right customers have easy and simple access to compensation. However, we know the process varies depending on where you are travelling and which of the dozens of retailers you purchased your ticket from. This process will be made much simpler, easier and more consistent. We are also providing ticket retailers with ‘common services’ technology that will give their customers better information about their journeys and how to claim compensation, if needed.
Listening better to our customers
While lots of good practice already exists, as an industry we also need to get better at listening. We are creating a railway that actively listens to customers and that can respond better to their needs. We are working with Transport Focus to set up a diverse customer panel, created to help develop future strategies and products in collaboration with customers and train operators. We are also refreshing our customer survey to ensure we are able to capture feedback first hand to keep us improving our customers’ experience with every journey.
Whether it’s existing or potential customers, to adapt and re-grow in this new environment, the railway needs to change the relationship it has with those customers – and that means creating a simpler, better railway for everyone in Britain.
Working towards a simpler, better railway for our customers
2 年Really insightful look into the current thinking for improvements in customer experience- especially “listening” and then acting on customer needs. Thanks for sharing
Having travelled on the AVE, it's a reminder how backward British railways are
Leading Communications for the North East Combined Authority
2 年Smart Pay As You Go travel still has a great deal of unrealised potential for shorter and regular journeys, thought I am not convinced it suits long-distance journeys where customers want the reassurance of knowing and settling the cost in advance. On Tyne and Wear Metro more than a third of adult journeys are now PAYG and this has largely replaced season tickets for 2-3 day commuters, with most new converts choosing to use their phone rather than a card. As GBR develops PAYG it is vital it integrates with established and well-used regional smart brands and tech such as Pop here in North East England and Oyster in London. We'll shortly be expanding Pop PAYG to the new Northumberland Line (as well as the region's buses) and it already works on Northern Railway between Newcastle and Sunderland - it would be easy to upscale further from there.
UK Head of Business Strategy & Change
2 年Affordability a key component that is missing from this article.
Prof of Practice in Connectivity(PT) Cardiff University, M&G Barry Consulting
2 年Change will not work unless and until much more decision making, funding and accountability is vested locally. Most trips (many still in car but need to switch to PT re NZ) are local and need to be integrated with local bus services/networks and Active Travel. TfW in Wales is trying to do that but is stymied by limited powers over rail and esp. rail infrastructure investment (and lack thereof by UK Gov). Aside from Transport Wales and Transport Scotland having more control - the SNTBs in England also need beefing up. If they had, we would not be applauding a value engineered one train an hour Bristol TM to Portishead service - a value engineered decision prob made by less than ten people within a mile of Whitehall! - we would already have a proper rail-based transit system in Bristol... and let's not talk about Leeds. At least in Wales TfW is now the de facto thinking/controlling mind (not DfT or NR) - just needs to be formalised via powers/funding so it can do more than just start the South Wales Metro and capped multi-modal PAYG ticketing!. The only UK roles/functions ought to be on standards, integration, etc... https://swalesmetroprof.blog/2022/01/22/gbr-wisp-consultation-my-response-jan-2022/