Opinion
ATOC PLATFORM Michael Roberts
A business like any other S
uccessful businesses are built on trust. Supermarkets are among the sectors most trusted by the British public, yet the horsemeat scandal has shown how quickly that trust can fade, dragging the wider record of business back into the spotlight again.
Our sector is, of course, no stranger to intense scrutiny. Many organisations and stakeholders, as well as the media, seek to hold it to account. So, should rail professionals be any more concerned now about how far train companies are trusted – even when passenger numbers and satisfaction are at record highs? Yes, we should. The pressure to regulate banks and utilities reflects the low level of trust in which they are held by the public and politicians. As manifesto writers prepare to sharpen their pledges, any failure to demonstrate our trustworthiness will only play into the hands of those who feel – wrongly – that more intervention in rail must be the order of the day. Trust, we know, is based on many factors. Just as there is no single magic formula by which all businesses can earn trust, so it is with train companies serving different markets, be they commuter, leisure, long distance or regional. But there are some obvious elements which are common to all. People want to know they are getting value in terms of quality and price. Management needs to be seen to be dealing fairly and openly with their customers and staff. The contribution made by firms to the national economy, their local communities and the environment is also important. Senior rail managers are already alive to this and tools such as balanced business scorecards add to the attention they pay across these areas. Individual operators pride themselves on their record on particular elements and, across the sector as a whole, we have strong reasons to be trusted. The quality of our product, in terms of safety and punctuality, has improved dramatically in the last decade. Train companies have responded to customers’ pursuit of value by offering a range of fares to match different expectations of comfort, speed and flexibility. Customers have in turn positively voted with their feet in record numbers.
Half the population - far more than those who regularly take a train - recognise that the rail network is important for the country’s economy. Government has shown its own confidence in rail by sustaining high levels of public investment in the network in the face of the current era of austerity.
Page 106 April 2013
Despite record passenger satisfaction levels, rail professionals can never be complacent about earning the trust of customers and the wider public
And yet there are at least three reasons why it would be complacent to believe that collectively we have done enough to earn the trust of our customers and the wider public. The first relates to money. Passengers do not fully understand rail finances or why our prices are the way they are. It is not their fault: ours is a particularly complex sector. But what people do not understand, they will not trust. So, voters who now get that government fares policy since 2004 has aimed to reduce taxpayers’ share of railway costs do not necessarily understand why that is the right policy, let
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