The BBC’s “Rail Champion”, Jon Yuill, has a Ten Point Plan for improving things. Here’s my thoughts on his proposals.
1. Better communication
It’s impossible to overstate the need for good communication in times of trouble. You can be on a train, delayed for half-an-hour and no one tells you a thing. Tell us why we are stuck, what’s being done to fix the situation, how long the delay is likely to be. Use the PA system or install scrolling text screens. It’s the same when you’re waiting at the station. Just tell us what’s going on.
Ideal in theory, but it presumes that someone, somewhere, actually does know what’s going on.
Better information would help even when nothing has gone wrong – try arriving at Paddington from the Hammersmith and City line tube platforms, and try and find out the time of the next train to Slough? There’s no information screen showing stops at that end of the station, and by the time you’ve walked the two or three minute’s walk to the concourse end to the main departure board, that fast train on platform 9 might have gone! Reading is just as bad.
2. Common-sense staff
I know platform staff have a hard time and they don’t see us commuters at our best – half asleep and rushing to work or back home again. We do appreciate them, but they must be encouraged to use their common sense and take the initiative. So, for example, when a train is half-an-hour late and everyone’s irritated, just open the ticket barriers and let us out of the station as soon as possible.
This should include maintaining connections as well. I can’t see any purpose in letting a local train that’s got no forward connections at the other end depart fifteen seconds before a dozen passengers from the late-running main-line train can make it over the bridge, leaving them with an hour-long wait until the next one. This happened to me a couple of weeks back.
I’m not convinced that operators always make the best attempts they can to minimise disruption when an incident occurs. That was one thing I noticed on my daily commute a few years back on what’s now South West Trains; incidents that disrupted things occurred at roughly the same frequency, but whenever something went wrong, delays were far worse than before privatisation. Whether this was a result of fragmentation and divided responsibility between the TOC and Railtrack or a result of the TOC cutting back on staff to the bare minimum to cover the timetable, I don’t know.
3. Get integrated
Imagine how good it would be if you could get off the train and cycle to work, or home. But on my line, you can’t bring bikes on board during rush hour. I know that means more space for passengers but you used to be able to put your bike in the guards’ carriage. If that’s not possible, how about decent bike parks at stations. They would be well lit and secure so you know your bike would be there at the end of the day. It’s not just bikes – bus times also need to be integrated with trains.
And I thought you were talking about the dreaded wheel/rail split… Yes, this is a major problem with all trains designed from the late 70s onwards – no room for bikes. Therefore you get cyclists blocking the doors of the passenger coaches.
4. Quiet carriages
Some trains have these already – carriages where mobiles are banned. I don’t want to listen to someone else’s personal conversations, and nor does anyone else on the train. There should also be a fast-food-free carriage. The smell is awful and just creates more litter.
And where there is a quiet coach, can we actually try and enforce it?
5. On-board CCTV
Violence and loutish, yobbish behaviour is often overlooked as a commuter gripe, but it’s real enough and common enough to be a problem. One of the reasons people avoid public transport is the safety threat. Although serious incidents are rare, we have to make sure people can travel without fear of intimidation.
Good idea in principle (we already have on-board CCTV on some buses), but we need to take the expense into account.
6. Air-conditioning
In this day and age, surely it can’t be beyond the wit of rail companies to see that we can all travel comfortably. I was told by a rail company once that each carriage has its own thermostat, but you wouldn’t know it. It’s simple – we need temperature control systems that work.
Bah! Just open the windows! Nothing like a good rake of pressure ventilated Mk1s on a summer’s day with the roar of the class 50 up front reverberating through the train! Sorry, I’m in nostalgia mode again. But seriously – when the train is air-conditioned, like the Thames 166s, can we lock the windows so some idiot doesn’t open them when the air-conditioning is working?
7. Litter bins
The litter bins were withdrawn because of the terrorism threat, but now there’s nowhere to put your rubbish. So it goes on the floor. Like the bigger trains, couldn’t someone come along with a rubbish bag and collect paper coffee cups. As for old newspapers – what about big cages at the end of platforms where people could just throw their old papers as they got off. These could then be recycled.
Has anyone told them that the IRA ceasefire was several years ago? And putting bombs in litter bins isn’t Al Queda’s style?
8. Rapid-response fix-it teams
My idea is to airlift emergency engineering teams by helicopter. Perhaps it’s far-fetched but the point is when something goes wrong and we’re stuck on a train, we have to wait for a beat-up old Transit van to arrive and then the engineers are on foot. Meanwhile, we are all waiting. Think how many millions of pounds this costs in lost working hours and it doesn’t sound so crazy after all.
OK, take a Made Tim Laugh Point. Up to now, the suggestions have been mildly sensible, but this one is not only totally impractical (like where are you going to land these helicopters?), but screamingly funny.
9. Give passengers preference…
…not freight trains. Many times my train is shunted aside so a goods train can get ahead. But what are they doing on the rails at rush-hour times anyway?
I want to see more freight go by rail to get as many heavy lorries off the roads as possible. Barring freight from the tracks at rush-hours is fine in theory, but since most freight travels a long distance, it’s likely to hit the rush-hour at some point in it’s journey whenever it runs. It’s probably not possible to keep all freight off the tracks at peak times, especially when it’s something time-sensitive like mail or fresh tomatoes from Italy. Trainloads of coal for a power-station with several weeks’ supply of the stuff stockpiled might be a different matter.
10. These problems are countrywide
London draws in most commuters and I’m one of them. But commuters up and down the country experience similar frustrations everyday and my simple solutions should applied to benefit as many people as possible.
And not all passengers are commuters. People use rail other business trips, for holidays and leisure travel, to visit friends and relatives, and yes, to send freight.
