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Journey reliability

Author: Ian Brown CBE, Railfuture Policy Director - Published Fri 05 of Jan, 2024 18:27 GMT - (0 Reads)
Transport Focus, the non -departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Transport, regularly surveys passenger satisfaction and says “Satisfaction with punctuality/reliability is, by a distance, the most important driver of satisfaction...”
Photo taken by Stewart Palmer on 5th January at Dorchester South station. If train operators cannot display up-to-date information, what trust can passengers have in service reliability? Would M&S tolerate this?

Keep the London Travelcard

Author: Neil Middleton - Published Thu 11 of May, 2023 08:20 BST - (0 Reads)
Railfuture sets out its views on why removing the London Travelcard product, and, in all likelihood, the related National Rail Travelcard add-on product is a very bad idea, and recommends action you can take.

Bradshaw address briefing

Author: Ian Brown - Published Wed 08 of Feb, 2023 19:51 GMT - (0 Reads)
The Rt Hon Mark Harper MP, Transport Secretary, gave an address at the Institute of Civil Engineers in London on 7 February 2023 in what was billed as the big announcement on Great British Railways.  Photo via gov.uk.

Stormy forecast for rail

Author: Pete Myers - 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.

Open Access

Author: Stewart Palmer - 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.

Ticket offices may close

Author: Neil Middleton - 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. Ticket office at London Marylebone station. Image by by Dr Neil Clifton, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.

COP 26 fare rise hypocrisy

Author: Neil Middleton - Published Wed 03 of Nov, 2021 08:06 GMT - (0 Reads)
COP26: “They cut air passenger duty for polluting aeroplanes, have frozen fuel duty for motorists again and again, but if you want to take the green option and travel by train, the government punishes you with eye-watering fare increases” said Chris Page, chair of Railfuture “It really is crazy that at a time when there is a real need to reduce our carbon usage, all the good news is for the more polluting choices. All rail wants is for it to be treated fairly as we go about reducing carbon usage in transport. Surely the time is right for a fares freeze, which would match the gift to car users and air travellers. Anything else would go totally against the goals of COP26” The Climate Train - image from Avanti West Coast

Creating a flexible season ticket for 2021

Author: Neil Middleton - Published Thu 04 of Feb, 2021 08:16 GMT - (5913 Reads)
Railfuture sets out its views on how flexible season tickets might work for a mid-2021 launch date; we propose a flexible ticket providing 10 single journeys, to be used within 2 weeks and priced the same as a weekly season. This will meet the needs of the hybrid worker, who post Covid will split their time between home and the workplace. Image from Network Rail - Leeds station - plenty of passengers, one of the lifebloods of the railway

Attracting passengers back

Author: Ralph Hilsdon - Published Fri 25 of Sep, 2020 19:59 BST - (2439 Reads)

Register for Railfuture's free webinar 'Attracting passengers back to rail' at 11.00 on Saturday 3rd October 2020.
Speakers confirmed but subject to change.

Welcome back to our trains

Author: Ian Brown - Published Thu 27 of Aug, 2020 16:12 BST - (3187 Reads)
One of our Directors, Ian Brown, took out a camera to see if people were returning to rail for off peak shopping and leisure travel in East London on Wednesday 26 August. This is what he saw. Photo by Andrew Parsons / No 10 Downing Street under creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ via Flickr. All other photos by Ian Brown for Railfuture.

Fairer fares in future?

Author: Steve Wright - Published Tue 28 of Jul, 2020 12:32 BST - (2998 Reads)
Better value fares, new ticketing options and aggressive marketing initiatives are needed to attract passengers back to rail after COVID-19. South Western Railway passenger won £5,500 in Touch Smartcard prize draw. Image by South Western Railway.

Welcome back to rail

Author: Jane Ann Liston - Published Tue 28 of Jul, 2020 11:54 BST - (3088 Reads)
Jane Ann Liston, Secretary, Railfuture Scotland explains why we must attract people back to rail after COVID-19. ScotRail covers train faces to encourage passengers to do the same. Photo by Phil Richards from London, UK, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.

Travel derailed

Author: Chris Page - Published Wed 01 of Jul, 2020 09:05 BST - (4588 Reads)
Have our railways suffered another collective nervous breakdown with such strong messages so openly discouraging sustainable travel - by train? Since the DfT is funding all the franchises, has it lost all faith in its own services? The messaging is negative and inconsistent, even contradictory, not conditional encouragement – in sharp contrast to all other modes. Passengers may feel unwelcome or unsafe, and may be unable to travel. The comparison with air travel is stark.

Easy stations

Author: Martin Cooper - Published Thu 06 of Feb, 2020 18:58 GMT - (3467 Reads)
A Railfuture scheme to encourage further investment in making stations user friendly for all, initiated by our East Anglia branch. The new waiting room at Audley End station, our category 1 winner.

Britain back into rail

Author: Jerry Alderson - Published Thu 08 of Aug, 2019 16:40 BST - (3300 Reads)
On Wednesday 7 August 2019 Britain’s Rail Delivery Group (RDG) announced that it would be withdrawing from membership of the highly-valued and long-standing Interrail Europe-wide rail passes for European residents, along with the Eurail equivalent for non-European residents. Protests were loud and clear, many on Twitter. A day later the RDG backed down. Railfuture looks at what happened and why.