RAIL
“The question is can rail attract new customers, and statistics suggest that the volume of rail passengers is still going up, possibly because more are travelling off- peak. Rail remains very popular despite its main detractors.” More business travellers could switch
from air to rail next year when the new East Coast operator introduces a fleet of ‘Azuma’ electric and bimodal trains built in the UK by Hitachi, which is also building Great Western’s new fleet. Significant journey time reductions are possible over a long route such as London-Edinburgh (nearly 400 miles), and a four-hour journey time will become standard in 2019 shaving around 30 minutes off today’s timings.
COMPETITIVE RAIL FARES However, Paul Dear, HRG director of supplier and industry affairs, cautions that rail fares must be competitive to persuade business travellers to switch from air, despite the carbon savings and much better produc- tivity offered by rail. “Airlines don’t have the same constraints
as train operators, whose fares rise each year according to government policy,” he says. “There is always a line where the price of rail travel becomes unacceptable, and modal shift stops when company policy says you have to fly.” The availability of advance fares on the
day of travel is a welcome move, as most operators restrict these to purchase the previous day. VTEC, before its financial woes became known, reckoned that customers buying advance tickets on the day would typically save 35 per cent by choosing an advance fare rather than a walk-up Anytime or off-peak single fare, and advance fares include a seat reservation. Commercial director Suzanne Donnelly
says: “Customers who are not able to plan their journeys days or weeks in advance have told us that having these cheaper fares in place is a huge benefit, and is making rail travel cheaper than travelling by road or air.”
98 BBT March/April 2018
Examples of on-the-day advance fares are
INVESTMENT in wifi
A GOVERNMENT INITIATIVE to install high-speed fibre optic cables and mobile signal masts along railway lines will make wifi on trains much faster and more reliable by 2025. Passengers are promised speeds of
around one gigabit per second which, the government says, will “future proof” connectivity and mean that several hundred passengers could stream uninterrupted video content at once. Bruce Williamson, of the pressure
group Railfuture, says: “Very soon, trains without wifi will become unthinkable and rail passengers will look forward to the day when the phone doesn’t cut out in tunnels.” GTMC’s CEO, Adrian Parkes, adds: “This announcement will make a real difference to the ability of business travellers to work on the move. Research found that less than half of frequent travellers feel that the onboard facilities are adequate for allowing them to get work done, and free wifi was cited as the most important improvement required. “Our own Business Rail Travel
research, conducted last year, identified key priorities for rail travel from the business travel community. The demand for free wifi access was overwhelmingly popular to ensure productivity while out of the office, and this should not be the preserve of first class but available throughout all carriages when onboard.”
Some operators make passengers in standard class pay for wifi., but free wifi is a requirement of new franchise awards.
£55 from Edinburgh to London and £44 from Newcastle or Durham, but as with all advance fares they are subject to availability.
FRANCHISES IN TROUBLE VTEC – which is 90 per cent owned by Stagecoach and 10 per cent by Virgin – is attracting controversy after Stagecoach revealed a £200 million loss since taking over in 2015. The government had to step in to avoid services potentially coming to a halt and the franchise is due to end within weeks. VTEC committed to paying £3.3 billion
to the government by 2023, but it is now expected to pay around £1.7 billion. Accu- sations of a government bail-out have come from both sides of the political spectrum. Transport secretary Chris Grayling said in
a House of Commons statement in February: “Given the imminent financial pressure the existing franchise is under, I am taking action now to protect passengers. “The problem is that Stagecoach got
its numbers wrong. It overbid and is now paying a price. To anyone who thinks that the nearly £200 million that Stagecoach will lose is insignificant, let me put it into some context. The combined profit of every single train operator in the country was only £271 million last year. The loss equates to over 20 per cent of Stagecoach’s total market value.” This is the third time that a train operator
has pulled out of its commitments on the East Coast route, leading to accusations that the franchising system is broken. The government now plans “long-term regional partnerships” on some routes with the East Coast Partnership involving the public sector and a private partner under a single brand and management from 2020. Further protests can be expected if that private partner is one of the current incumbents. It also plans to encourage smaller train operators, and will split up the problematic Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern franchise in 2021. But whoever holds a
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