Few will be sad to see the back of 2020. Here are my hopes and fears for the New Year

 
Normally time flies when you’re having fun and my traditional ‘Hopes and Fears’ for the year ahead comes round as rapidly as Boris changing his mind, but these last 12 months of unrelenting gloom have dragged by. So, here we are and I’ll try and be as upbeat as possible, despite the tumultuous challenges faced by our beloved transport industry.

Chumminess is new normal

It’s the buzz word within the rail industry currently and indeed since I took over from Andy Street, West Midlands mayor to chair the region’s Grand Rail Collaboration, I have been overwhelmed by the extent to which various parts of the sector are working actively together to deliver a cost-efficient and customer-driven service. Such unity is, I’m told, happening in all parts of the country, right now and whilst I hope it’s not just because “collaboration” is at the heart of the ERMA (Emergency Recovery Management Agreements) agreements, I genuinely believe that this is finally the time when the industry has realised it genuinely is a case of “better together”.

The dark days of a chasm between infrastructure provider and operators are long consigned to history, so too of owning groups scrapping with other and being sometimes awkward just for the sake of it

The dark days of a chasm between infrastructure provider and operators are long consigned to history, so too of owning groups scrapping with other and being sometimes awkward just for the sake of it. The only piece that needs to be squared is the relationship with the Department for Transport which is demonstrably better, though, the current negotiations as part of the exits from franchise agreements are undoubtedly causing tensions that we can only hope will not spill over causing irretrievable damage. In my view, the DfT have done a decent and galvanising job during these troubled times and history will show this in years to come. Let’s hope 2021 sustains the impetus around collaboration.

Buses can bounce back

It’s interesting that during and between lockdowns, bus patronage has experienced a better recovery than rail – up to nearly 70% of pre-pandemic levels in some cases against nearer 20% in rail. For several decades, buses have been dissed in some circles, quite often by their hoity-toity rail industry counterparts, but what this has shown is the value of the sector and in many respects its comparative strengths against other modes. Many of us have long known that the quality of marketing, the attention to detail around cleanliness and the desire to engage with the community has for some time been superior in bus and perhaps now it is reaping dividends.

Perhaps it isn’t just the over 70s who are going to get a shot in the arm in the coming month, but the bus sector as a whole

Furthermore, the impact of the lockdown in so far as it has made folk reflect on how they want to conduct their lives going forward and having shopped and spent leisure time more locally and discovered the benefits of this, their mobility aspirations going forward are likely to place a greater emphasis on a bus than train in the future. Perhaps it isn’t just the over 70s who are going to get a shot in the arm in the coming month, but the bus sector as a whole. We shall see.

Brand ‘Me’

The first lockdown saw industry folk try and reinvent themselves, many used it as an opportunity to create a personal brand, some became makeshift media moguls. Now, you may say it’s hypocritical of me to chide folk for this, after all, some might say that my own version of journalism is as unsuccessful as the four failed occasions to pass a driving test (last time was in 2003 when the examiner on my residential crash course in Clacton, wrestled the wheel off me as I was seconds away from a head-on collision with a First Bus). However, I genuinely feel that many transport professionals have forgotten that they are paid to run buses and trains, and suppliers to the sector are engaged to support the sector’s ability to do this. There are too many distracted on LinkedIn and other social media platforms – with their handheld phones filming them from their garden or conservatory – trying to be pundits or indulging in patronising piffle about how we should all motivate ourselves during these difficult times or telling us how great they are. The big exception, though, are Mark Hopwood’s fabulous insights which provide a fascinating update on SWR and now GWR – they are not about self-promotion but are genuinely informative.

I had thought we were experiencing a decline in this nonsense until the festive period brought with it senior leaders showing footage of them “out and about with the troops” in the depots and stations

I had thought we were experiencing a decline in this nonsense until the festive period brought with it senior leaders showing footage of them “out and about with the troops” in the depots and stations, as though they are doing something virtuous. When I were a lad, this was called “the day job” and whilst there was no such thing as social media, I can proudly state that there is absolutely no way I would have bored you with my weekend, evening and holiday visits on the network.

I really do worry that some industry professionals lack the slightest iota of self-awareness. It’s cringeworthy, it is insulting to frontline employees and looks embarrassing to customers. Look on LinkedIn and you won’t find other sectors doing this self-indulgent, personal brand creation nonsense.

BAME Boardroom breakthrough not forthcoming yet

This time last year, I spoke about 2020 being the time when diversity genuinely was taken seriously and a commitment to it was about action not just words. Of course, there has been the brilliant “Women in Rail” Group doing sterling work for many years now and an equivalent in the bus sector has been set up. Last year, I could genuinely see progress, be it attitudes towards recruitment, through to development and behaviours across the industry. However, whilst there is progress on gender imbalance, we still lag behind in terms of ethnicity.

The appalling events in USA last summer unlocked proper discussion on a scale not seen before in society, but there wasn’t the introspection that might have been expected or conviction to achieve change in a transport industry that at senior management level still woefully fails to reflect the demographics of the communities that it serves and where, if you talk privately, to professionals of ethnic origin, there are still barriers to progression and prevailing unconscious bias.

When is transport, like sport, going to make that breakthrough?

Go on, tell me the names of those MDs in bus and rail companies, for instance, who are of a Black and Asian minority background, it shouldn’t take long. Quite. The transport sector feels a bit like professional football – countless, brilliant black footballers but barely a handful making it into the dugout, or of cricket, adored by the Asian population but not even a tiny number making it into the professional game. When is transport, like sport, going to make that breakthrough? It should not, though, give jobs out in a tokenistic manner, but they should be earned and for be for the best candidate and because it has cast its net as widely as possible and has the right mechanisms in place to identity in its frontline ranks and beyond talent and cultivate it over the time.

Cleanliness is the new godliness

It wasn’t that long ago that folk cited me as a weirdo for making a fuss about accumulated dust and detritus around seat stanchions on buses and trains. As the on-train announcements on SWR go… “we’re cleaning our trains like never before”. Indeed, a clean bus or train is now seen as important as any other safety aspect and as key as an employee with a smile and the right attitude.

Let us hope that prioritisation of cleanliness isn’t just an 18-month fad

However, these situations can regress quite quickly and it was noticeable that when numbers picked up in late summer and the shackles came off slightly, how cleanliness across transport went backwards slightly and only the second lockdown put the drawbridge down in terms of moving away from the high standards of earlier months. Let us hope that prioritisation of cleanliness isn’t just an 18-month fad.

Centralisation isn’t always dull

Urgh, the term “central support services” would ordinarily fill me with fear and dread, reminding me of some kind of transport owning group functional set-up to paralyse entrepreneurial spirit and dumb-down the role of local subsidiaries. However, in the new set-up for UK rail, I’m hoping that common sense will prevail and that in the provision of services such as rail replacement and gateline management, that the standards and supply will be set, procured and managed centrally. This will enable opportunities for high quality, customer-centric, dedicated specialist providers of these services and, certainly in the case of rail replacement, achieve independence from the owning groups, preventing them from being responsible for giving work to their own in-house bus or coach supplier as soon as delays occur or engineering works are on the horizon.

Branding in rail is (almost) dead

My fear is that the closer we edge towards concession contracts in rail that we move even further away from creating a truly branded experience for customers. If you were plonked on a UK train blindfolded and then told to pull away the cover over your eyes, LNER apart, I swear you wouldn’t have a clue which train you were on. Until recently, marketing protagonists would churn out their oft-repeated phrase ‘brand is more than a logo and livery’, frustrated that senior managers, let alone employees, were incapable of grasping or exuding any brand personality. Now, it isn’t a logo, nor livery – the brand experience is non-existent.

Getting them off the Xbox, Jigsaw or Model Railway

If the lockdowns have taught us one thing, it’s not to take for granted all those places we used to once visit or those that were on the periphery of our consciousness, on the ‘maybe one day’ list. Those ‘2 for 1 Days Out in London’ National Rail leaflet that I’ve put in the recycling so many times and then taken it out of the box at the last minute, I’ve a bucket list of places to visit as long as a list of menu options when trying to get through to someone at your local train company (anyone fancy joining me on a trip to Birdworld in Farnham as soon as this Tier gig is over?).

There will be those, like I, who are gagging to get out and gorge on trips out and who transport companies should be all over in anticipation to capitalise upon

In normal times, I’ve long advocated that the highest priority for a transport company engaging with local attractions drumming up reciprocal deals and crafting a series of itinerant packages and literally handing these over to people, stimulating reasons to travel and putting it on a plate for them, doing the thinking for them. Now it is absolutely imperative. There will be those, like I, who are gagging to get out and gorge on trips out and who transport companies should be all over in anticipation to capitalise upon.

I’m not just talking about the big-ticket, destinations, but there are literally hundreds of small to medium-sized family-run gems, little known attractions with quirks and titillation, where customers have low expectations that are always completely exceeded. These need to be unlocked in partnership with bus and rail companies not just on a local level but as part of an overall plan on behalf of the transport and tourism sector.

It could be you

It would appear that the ERMA arrangements and those going forward in rail are not particularly receptive to underwriting the costs of transport owning group HQs. This, coupled with the obvious impacts in bus and rail, combined with a reduction in bidding and tendering opportunities, has led to the gradual demise of traditional group-based HQs, with jobs shed at pace. The sector is awash with good people grappling with uncertainty, many of whom are setting themselves up as lone consultants and many are taking the plunge as entrepreneurs, some because they have no other alternative.

Respect their sales pitches, answer their emails and phone calls and don’t turn your nose up at them. It could be you, one day soon, sadly

We’re all trying to make a living out there and for those fortunate enough to be still in PAYE employment at transport companies, look after those seeking an opportunity, treat them with dignity, don’t act aloof. Respect their sales pitches, answer their emails and phone calls and don’t turn your nose up at them. It could be you, one day soon, sadly.

 
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