Railfuture campaigns for satisfied passengers!
The rail industry must focus on delivering the best journey experience for all travellers. Rail services must be more welcoming, frequent, reliable, convenient, clean, comfortable, safe and above all reasonably priced.
Good customer service costs nothing, but needs well motivated staff.
Satisfied passengers will travel by rail again, increasing rail revenue, reducing the cost of the railways to the taxpayer and so enabling cheaper fares. Get it right and the rail industry will contribute to economic growth.
Stormy forecast for rail
- Published Fri 06 of Jan, 2023 18:25 GMT - (0 Reads)Pete Myers, formerly Stakeholder Manager for Northern Rail and now a director of Railfuture, forecasts a potentially stormy year for our railway in 2023. Passengers moving fast at Leeds station.
Stop this madness
- Published Mon 12 of Dec, 2022 18:40 GMT - (0 Reads)Who can stop the RMT strike madness? Railfuture’s Policy Director comments on the failure of the RMT union and the government to reach a settlement that enables a successful, viable future for rail. Strike day at Paddington – trains going nowhere.
More on Ticket Offices
- Published Wed 30 of Nov, 2022 10:15 GMT - (0 Reads)The ticket office has been part of the Railway since the start. But now 7 in 8 people buy their ticket in other ways – online, from ticket vending machines – or use Pay as You Go (PAYG). Those 1 in 8 passengers though still need to be looked after properly - Railfuture strongly believes that in-person ticket selling continues to be essential. That doesn't have to be from behind a ticket office window though. Ticket Office staff should be redeployed to other areas of the station and take on a wider role assisting passengers - as well as continuing to sell tickets. Effort is also needed to improve and extend online selling, TVM functionality and coverage and to Pay as You Go. We believe this needs to happen before there are wholescale closures of ticket offices. Image by author.
Open Access
- Published Sun 13 of Nov, 2022 21:38 GMT - (0 Reads)Railfuture director and vice-president Stewart Palmer, who has and worked in the rail industry for 38 years, puts Railfuture's view on open access passenger operation in Britain. Lumo has shown that rail can attract more passengers and increase revenue if it offers simple high-value product, but not all open access operations have been or will be successful. Lumo class 803 train at Edinburgh. Image by MrBoyt reproduced under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Everyone loses
- Published Thu 23 of Jun, 2022 18:50 BST - (0 Reads)The rail strikes this week are bad for everyone. Some trains ran, including on Island Line where rail staff voted against a strike.
Ticket offices may close
- Published Wed 23 of Mar, 2022 22:13 GMT - (0 Reads)Neil Middleton, a Railfuture Director takes a look at expected Station Ticket Office closures and wonders if, looked at through wider viewpoints such as timing (vs fare simplification), inclusivity, attracting new passengers to rail they are necessarily a wise move. Pic: This is Money.
Fares
Short sighted rail companies shooting themselves in the foot
Railfuture’s message is USE IT OR LOSE IT! Our online guide for rail passengers is at Rail user help.
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