ANTHONY SMITH -OPINION
Cost pressures are bearing down on the rail industry. Revenue is rising, but not fast enough to cover the £2 billion gap between operating subsidy and income. How can the government move forward? Workforce reform is painful. Other savings are elusive. Could the answer come from the private sector? The shift to digital ticketing - driven by third party retailers and embraced by the travelling public - provides a wealth of opportunity.
Working in partnership with the rest of the rail industry, Britain’s independent retailers are ready to boost growth through competition, innovation and private investment. But how can we ensure that no one gets left behind as self-service becomes the norm? Transport for Wales has trialled the Payzone concept as an alternative to the traditional ticket office - could that be the answer? It’s timely to revisit last year’s ticket office closure saga.
While the timescales (initially, passengers had just 21 days to send representations to Transport Focus and London TravelWatch!) and the patchy, ill-thoughtthrough original proposals were likely to worsen the passenger experience, the underlying principle was a bit sounder: redeploy staff to where they are much more visible and useful, while probably making the job more satisfying as well.
Transport Focus (where I then worked) supported the main thrust behind the ideas, if not the actual proposals themselves.
Our insight showed that passengers liked having staff around, but wanted them to be more visible and more accessible to offer help and advice, and not just be there to sell tickets. My local station, Wandsworth Common, is probably a good example for the London area. Situated in Zone 3, it is dominated by tap-in-tap-out, pay-as-you-go (PAYG) transport for London products.
However, it has a ticket office staffed nearly 18 hours each day. You see the occasional person asking questions or buying tickets. For example, I ask staff when making longer-distance purchases with my Oyster 60+ card (a great product for Londoners - for £10 a year, you get Zones 1-6, all modes off-peak). My boundary extension is available from ticket offices and machines, and I like to confirm the boundary station with staff for peace of mind. However, other than opening the waiting room and toilets - or doing a bit of tidying - the staff are confined to the ticket office. That seems quite a dull job… and a wasted opportunity.
It’s one thing knowing there’s a member of staff at a deserted station when you’re travelling late at night, but a lot more reassuring seeing them out and about. Outside of London, different considerations will apply until PAYG products become more widespread.
But the seismic shift to digital ticketing is a nationwide trend. However, no matter what you think about the role of staff at stations, this issue is totemic - especially for those that need extra help or reassurance. Losing a village pub, post office or doctor’s surgery is often (despite the fact that most people never use them) seen as symptomatic of the decline of a community. Similarly, losing your station staff, or even the threat of it, really agitates people. The kickback last year was huge. The watchdogs dealt with nearly 750,000 responses, almost all of them negative.
So, a change such as this needed to be approached with caution. Many would see it as the thin end of the wedge - staff, once redeployed to the platforms, would slowly whittle away.
Plus, the ability to sell a wide range of tickets would be curtailed. The closure procedure (which dates to the 1990s) forced Transport Focus and London TravelWatch into a binary position of having to say yes or no to every individual station proposal. It certainly made my final few months at Transport Focus interesting!
We discussed in detail with train companies a huge number of the 900-odd station proposals. With hindsight, a consultation process with disability groups and others should have taken place, with mitigations agreed before any formal change process began. Could this issue return?
In the debate on the second reading of the Passenger Services Bill, Transport Minister Simon Lightwood said: “I confirm that this government have no plans to close ticket offices.” However, cost pressures will remain, and government still must find a way of simplifying ticketing (one of its aspirations in its Getting Britain Moving publication).
We don’t have to start from scratch. Transport for London managed the closure of ticket windows well, and the Transport Focus and London TravelWatch responses to the National Rail closure proposals remain definitive articulations of the issues.
Meanwhile, third-party rail retailers (who are trusted, expert, and are perfectly incentivised to grow the market and control costs) and local governments are leading the charge in the digital retailing revolution. Within cities, PAYG is gathering pace.
Contactless suits individual travellers well, but for groups, railcard holders and those entitled to other discounts, you still need to buy online or at a station. Careful thought needs to be given to how PAYG spreads, particularly around longer-distance travel. The more elastic the market, the more sophisticated pricing needs to be - something that TOCs and third-party retailers understand well. Split ticketing, market-specific products and single leg pricing - together with good-quality information - are helping more people choose rail. And digital sales help gather customer information, which is vital for driving improvements and efficiencies.
But the market could be boosted further by even better-quality information and sales systems which mirror how airlines, hotels and other sectors now approach retail.
Together, all these improvements can help take the pressure off ticket offices and make redeployment of staff a potential reality. Risk-free private investment and customer-driven solutions from some of our leading tech and data experts are a big step in the right direction. What’s not to like?
