Peer review: Michael Roberts
Director General, Rail Delivery Group
Anthony is right to remind us that the customer needs to be at the centre of everything that the railway delivers.
Since the Brown Review in January 2013, there has been significant progress towards a better process for franchising. This includes wide stakeholder consultation before the bidding process begins, and a clear focus on quality of delivery within the franchise contract, underpinning the relationship between the passenger and the train operator - and with proper incentives to deliver on the areas identified as priorities. The recent specifications for the TransPennine Express and Northern franchises were developed and improved by this process of wider consultation.
Train operators have argued for passenger satisfaction to form part of the approach to franchise specification, and the Rail Delivery Group is working closely with the DfT and devolved administrations so that future franchises continue to develop. Those competing for franchises increasingly have sought to understand the needs of customers when preparing their bids - those that succeed look to National Rail Passenger Survey results and other sources of customer feedback to track how well they are doing.
Indeed, one of the challenges we still need to address is to ensure that franchise agreements are capable of responding better to the changes in passenger expectations and requirements that happen during the lifetime of a franchise. Even a decade ago, the impact of the expansion of mobile technology and access to information on the move could not have been predicted precisely.
Anthony makes a number of thought-provoking suggestions about the influence that passengers might have on franchises. One area of opportunity that he could have added is smart ticketing, which could transform national rail’s relationship with its customers.
Devolution and locally-based decision-making is another opportunity to ensure that the railway gets closer to the end-user, although whether central government can be removed entirely from the process remains to be seen, given the importance of rail to our national economy.
However extensive and radical the role that passengers play in future franchise procurement, Anthony raises two final issues that are worth touching on.
The first relates to industry finances. His logic of arguing for a greater passenger voice in a railway increasingly funded through the farebox is strong, but the likely future state of industry finances is less clear. It is neither obvious what the ‘right’ split between farepayers and taxpayers should be, nor what the rationale is for whether it should be 50/50, 75/25, 100% (or anything else).
The second relates to passenger understanding of how the railway works. The low level of knowledge highlighted by Transport Focus is consistent with our own analysis of public views. This would need to change if passengers were to have a greater, more direct, role in franchising.
Perhaps there is a role for Transport Focus in helping to inform passengers in this way?
