The passenger transport sector faces many challenges in 2026. Here are some things I will be looking out for as months progress
Like an old British Rail train, ‘better late than never’ – my apologies, therefore, for any inconvenience caused by my customary ‘hopes and fears for the year’ article being a fortnight behind schedule. This was due to the need to unleash the excellent report by CMAC Group on rail replacement last time. Anyway, enough chuntering, let’s cut to the chase, long-suffering readers…
Happy days with Hynes at the helm
As regular readers of my column will know, I feel that the period since 2018 has been a missed opportunity by the nationalised operators. Despite some very good customer service, most strikingly by LNER, as a collective, I think those in state control could have set the benchmark in terms of operational performance, customer service, cost control and leadership narrative, particularly given the talented cadre of top brass in charge of each company. In most cases, the metrics have been worse than the unfairly maligned private operators and there was a perception of ‘have’s and have nots’ in the industry, with the nationalised operators felt to have been bequeathed with more subsidy. The combative, tone-deaf, bossy approach towards the plain stupid mass ticket office closure proposals of 2023 summed it up for me.
For the above reasons, I welcome the long-overdue appointment of Alex Hynes to oversee the nationalised train operating companies, reporting to Andrew Haines. As someone who has been a commercial director and managing director and is hugely experienced in running a P&L in an environment where operators took the revenue risk, Alex will undoubtedly bring with him a sharper commercial lens, focused on local markets, in a grounded and collegiate way. Alex is also hugely approachable, capable of unifying and galvanising teams and is genuinely in touch with the needs of younger and older generations. It needs a role model associated with success and untainted by past operational failures to take charge, and that’s why Hynes’ appointment was a masterstroke..
Soviet-style state control must go
Under Alex, I think there will be a more honest and mature conversation around the state of the industry. Currently, on social media, there are too many posts starting with ‘Really excited…’ or ‘So proud…’ and not enough grown-up acknowledgement of some of the issues besetting the sector. Last month, someone who dared to suggest in the comments section on one of these ‘all in the garden is rosy’ type posts that the customer experience wasn’t actually as good as painted, saw himself unfollowed by the original poster and his comments removed, in a classic case of officialdom trying to control the narrative. Undeterred, he made sure his post went viral, forcing the train company into a grudging apology – albeit one that looked like it had been crafted on AI. The journey ahead will be challenging for rail. Costs need to be dramatically reduced, and societal changes pose a long-term challenge for demand (those who suggest otherwise are deluded). Hynes and Co will need to make tough decisions. This will require mature debate and an acknowledgement of the difficulties that lie in wait, rather than shutting down minions who challenge the glib, spin-doctoring, self-serving narrative.
GBR can set the tone
With the appointments of Haines, Hynes, and the experienced Richard George (as chair of Network Rail), it will be interesting to see how quickly other key roles are filled and how they are recruited. I was in a meeting last week at Scottish Citylink, led by the hugely talented Simone Walsh, in which I was the only bloke in a room of six! I can’t ever recall this being the case in my 33-year transport career, and it shows the great strides that have been made in bus and coach. Rail has some way to go, and hopefully Great British Railways will show genuine conviction, not just in terms of recruitment, but across all aspects of how it operates, towards diversity and inclusion, as well as culture more generally. There have been some great appointments in the last 18 months across the sector, but also a shameful, belief-defying lack of due diligence in some cases. I still hear too much about bullying behaviours and last week a very reputable source suggested to me widespread concerns around a drinking culture that has emerged in senior levels at one such company.
Alex will undoubtedly bring with him a sharper commercial lens
Keeping up with the Joneses
Onto more positive news and congratulations to Go-Ahead and Stagecoach for their victory in the inaugural Liverpool bus franchising tranche. Based on their stewardship of Manchester franchises, they will make a good fist of it. Rob Jones, who heads up Stagecoach’s Manchester and Merseyside businesses, is one of the quiet, unsung heroes of the transport industry. His brain is like an encyclopaedia of bus routes across the whole of the UK, knowing them all intimately and having travelled on most of them. Rob is also chair of the Transport Benevolent Fund, which does so much to help employees in adversity, and he is a hugely well-respected leader and class act. He will rise to the very top of UK transport.
Meanwhile, Go Ahead’s interests in Liverpool will rest with Nigel Featham, who runs their North West and North East businesses – the latter very much on an improving trajectory under his stewardship. Last week, I attended a stylish event in Newcastle that the Go North gang organised to launch swanky electric vehicles. It’s clear that Featham (who gave a very charismatic opening speech and sounded like a game show host) is well regarded by Kim McGuinness, the North East mayor, and other stakeholders. With Chaka Khan playing over the public address system and a flashy strobe lighting display in full flow at the Newcastle shindig, you could sense the feel-good factor around buses in this part of the world, which is a great feat from Featham and his mob.
An indolent industry
Whilst I could feel the buzz in Newcastle and other parts of the UK, I have, though, noticed a wider sloth-ridden, malaise more generally in the sector these last few months. Maybe I’m just becoming an old curmudgeon but in the past year or so, I’ve witnessed a downturn in ‘work ethic’. It’s not just me, others have commented on it too. Phones get switched off, mid-afternoon annual leave, ‘out of office’ responses (often undated) are the norm, and emails don’t get answered. Do you recall the days where you would send an email and it was basic etiquette to answer it? The only way you can really get hold of someone these days is to use WhatsApp. Okay, so it may be that I’m just not important, but I sense a comatose state in transport whereby people are coasting.
The end of bus industry MDs
The old debate around centralisation versus local was never more apparent than in 2025. In some of the owning groups, it’s gone to extremes. I spoke to an entrepreneurial wag heading up a bus subsidiary just before Christmas who told me that to change a fare or make a slight modification to a route or schedule, decisions have to go to a central team within his owning group, now based hundreds of miles away. In another owning group, where marketing has been centralised, the decision has left morale in the subsidiaries on the floor and created rancour between local teams and the ‘centre’. When I meet managing directors in these organisations where they now have no power over marketing, I feel for them, but I also understand the intent of those at the centre, trying to create a more unified, impactful national approach. The reality is that they aren’t genuine managing directors if they have no ability to direct and lead on campaigns and initiatives to drive revenue – they’re, in effect, operations directors.
I sense a comatose state in transport whereby people are coasting
It’s baffling how, in a sector such as the bus industry, where it is all about the granularity of local markets you are serving, that responsibility for marketing can be shunted miles away under the responsibility of folk who have little, if any, understanding or affinity with the areas that they are serving.
A more balanced approach is needed.
Council HQs as hotbeds
It’s been interesting to see the gradual shift in power across the bus industry from operators and owning groups to local and mayoral authorities. For generations, those in the public sector have been diligently crafting plans and strategies, shorn of the spotlight enjoyed by big-name bus company leaders. Now their time has come, and despite being traditionally seen as uncharismatic and operating in a seemingly less directly accountable environment, their position of influence and clout has never been so great. My hope is that the shackles are off and sometimes under-appreciated public sector heroes and rising stars are supported and not constrained by bureaucracy, and can act with the pace and sense of progression.
Martijn’s magic potion
Talking of talent, there’s still plenty of it within the transport owning groups. I’m looking forward to seeing the impact that Martijn Gilbert will have as he gets into gear in his new role heading up Arriva’s bus division. For too long, Arriva has been criticised as being too centralised in its approach, sluggish and lacking inspiration. Some of this has been a bit unfair. Gilbert, though, is just the tonic that Arriva needs and will, no doubt, imbue with customer-centricity and gregariously seek every opportunity to inject commercial innovation. It should be a fun watch!
Stay-at-home hobbies
I attended a tourism event last month, during which VisitBritain made a compelling presentation. Whilst tourism numbers are only 1% below pre-Covid levels, society – as I have long warned on these pages – is becoming less inclined to venture out. The concept of ‘do nothing hobbies’ has become fashionable – simple, stress-free stimulation that unclutters the mind. Jigsaws, model railways and feeding the birds in the garden, with a bit of knitting, sewing and watching on-demand TV, are the blissful pastimes that dominate weekends in our house, whilst Visit Britain explained that drawing sketches, painting and reading are in vogue. Hobbies are so important in terms of mental health, and I’m delighted that they are all the rage – but as an industry, it shows that we face a huge challenge to encourage people to make a trip out – which is where my business Great Scenic Journeys comes into play!
Be wary of influencers
More than ever before, the last 12 months have seen the role of social media influencers come into the ascendancy. It’s not uncommon for transport-owning groups to employ trendy, generally youthful dudes to go out on buses and try to make them look cool and down with the kids. I’ve dealt with a few of these folk and would ask for some caution. It’s easy for a marketing manager to blithely find the most glamorous, polished influencer to sit on the top deck with a cheesy grin, but content needs to be authentic. Trying to make travelling by bus an entertainment, rather than ‘means to an end’, may be enticing, but it can feel unbelievable to many and spin doctoring. It’s important not to get carried away – real customers can be more authentic and cost-effective. A glitzy TikTok doesn’t always equate to bums on seats.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Alex Warner has over 30 years’ experience in the transport sector, having held senior roles on a multi-modal basis across the sector. He is co-founder of transport technology business Lost Group and transport consultancy AJW Experience Group (which includes Great Scenic Journeys). He is also chair of West Midlands Grand Rail Collaboration.
This story appears inside the latest issue of Passenger Transport.
My hopes and fears for the year ahead
by Passenger Transport on Feb 2, 2026 • 11:25 am No CommentsThe passenger transport sector faces many challenges in 2026. Here are some things I will be looking out for as months progress
Like an old British Rail train, ‘better late than never’ – my apologies, therefore, for any inconvenience caused by my customary ‘hopes and fears for the year’ article being a fortnight behind schedule. This was due to the need to unleash the excellent report by CMAC Group on rail replacement last time. Anyway, enough chuntering, let’s cut to the chase, long-suffering readers…
Happy days with Hynes at the helm
As regular readers of my column will know, I feel that the period since 2018 has been a missed opportunity by the nationalised operators. Despite some very good customer service, most strikingly by LNER, as a collective, I think those in state control could have set the benchmark in terms of operational performance, customer service, cost control and leadership narrative, particularly given the talented cadre of top brass in charge of each company. In most cases, the metrics have been worse than the unfairly maligned private operators and there was a perception of ‘have’s and have nots’ in the industry, with the nationalised operators felt to have been bequeathed with more subsidy. The combative, tone-deaf, bossy approach towards the plain stupid mass ticket office closure proposals of 2023 summed it up for me.
For the above reasons, I welcome the long-overdue appointment of Alex Hynes to oversee the nationalised train operating companies, reporting to Andrew Haines. As someone who has been a commercial director and managing director and is hugely experienced in running a P&L in an environment where operators took the revenue risk, Alex will undoubtedly bring with him a sharper commercial lens, focused on local markets, in a grounded and collegiate way. Alex is also hugely approachable, capable of unifying and galvanising teams and is genuinely in touch with the needs of younger and older generations. It needs a role model associated with success and untainted by past operational failures to take charge, and that’s why Hynes’ appointment was a masterstroke..
Soviet-style state control must go
Under Alex, I think there will be a more honest and mature conversation around the state of the industry. Currently, on social media, there are too many posts starting with ‘Really excited…’ or ‘So proud…’ and not enough grown-up acknowledgement of some of the issues besetting the sector. Last month, someone who dared to suggest in the comments section on one of these ‘all in the garden is rosy’ type posts that the customer experience wasn’t actually as good as painted, saw himself unfollowed by the original poster and his comments removed, in a classic case of officialdom trying to control the narrative. Undeterred, he made sure his post went viral, forcing the train company into a grudging apology – albeit one that looked like it had been crafted on AI. The journey ahead will be challenging for rail. Costs need to be dramatically reduced, and societal changes pose a long-term challenge for demand (those who suggest otherwise are deluded). Hynes and Co will need to make tough decisions. This will require mature debate and an acknowledgement of the difficulties that lie in wait, rather than shutting down minions who challenge the glib, spin-doctoring, self-serving narrative.
GBR can set the tone
With the appointments of Haines, Hynes, and the experienced Richard George (as chair of Network Rail), it will be interesting to see how quickly other key roles are filled and how they are recruited. I was in a meeting last week at Scottish Citylink, led by the hugely talented Simone Walsh, in which I was the only bloke in a room of six! I can’t ever recall this being the case in my 33-year transport career, and it shows the great strides that have been made in bus and coach. Rail has some way to go, and hopefully Great British Railways will show genuine conviction, not just in terms of recruitment, but across all aspects of how it operates, towards diversity and inclusion, as well as culture more generally. There have been some great appointments in the last 18 months across the sector, but also a shameful, belief-defying lack of due diligence in some cases. I still hear too much about bullying behaviours and last week a very reputable source suggested to me widespread concerns around a drinking culture that has emerged in senior levels at one such company.
Keeping up with the Joneses
Onto more positive news and congratulations to Go-Ahead and Stagecoach for their victory in the inaugural Liverpool bus franchising tranche. Based on their stewardship of Manchester franchises, they will make a good fist of it. Rob Jones, who heads up Stagecoach’s Manchester and Merseyside businesses, is one of the quiet, unsung heroes of the transport industry. His brain is like an encyclopaedia of bus routes across the whole of the UK, knowing them all intimately and having travelled on most of them. Rob is also chair of the Transport Benevolent Fund, which does so much to help employees in adversity, and he is a hugely well-respected leader and class act. He will rise to the very top of UK transport.
Meanwhile, Go Ahead’s interests in Liverpool will rest with Nigel Featham, who runs their North West and North East businesses – the latter very much on an improving trajectory under his stewardship. Last week, I attended a stylish event in Newcastle that the Go North gang organised to launch swanky electric vehicles. It’s clear that Featham (who gave a very charismatic opening speech and sounded like a game show host) is well regarded by Kim McGuinness, the North East mayor, and other stakeholders. With Chaka Khan playing over the public address system and a flashy strobe lighting display in full flow at the Newcastle shindig, you could sense the feel-good factor around buses in this part of the world, which is a great feat from Featham and his mob.
An indolent industry
Whilst I could feel the buzz in Newcastle and other parts of the UK, I have, though, noticed a wider sloth-ridden, malaise more generally in the sector these last few months. Maybe I’m just becoming an old curmudgeon but in the past year or so, I’ve witnessed a downturn in ‘work ethic’. It’s not just me, others have commented on it too. Phones get switched off, mid-afternoon annual leave, ‘out of office’ responses (often undated) are the norm, and emails don’t get answered. Do you recall the days where you would send an email and it was basic etiquette to answer it? The only way you can really get hold of someone these days is to use WhatsApp. Okay, so it may be that I’m just not important, but I sense a comatose state in transport whereby people are coasting.
The end of bus industry MDs
The old debate around centralisation versus local was never more apparent than in 2025. In some of the owning groups, it’s gone to extremes. I spoke to an entrepreneurial wag heading up a bus subsidiary just before Christmas who told me that to change a fare or make a slight modification to a route or schedule, decisions have to go to a central team within his owning group, now based hundreds of miles away. In another owning group, where marketing has been centralised, the decision has left morale in the subsidiaries on the floor and created rancour between local teams and the ‘centre’. When I meet managing directors in these organisations where they now have no power over marketing, I feel for them, but I also understand the intent of those at the centre, trying to create a more unified, impactful national approach. The reality is that they aren’t genuine managing directors if they have no ability to direct and lead on campaigns and initiatives to drive revenue – they’re, in effect, operations directors.
It’s baffling how, in a sector such as the bus industry, where it is all about the granularity of local markets you are serving, that responsibility for marketing can be shunted miles away under the responsibility of folk who have little, if any, understanding or affinity with the areas that they are serving.
A more balanced approach is needed.
Council HQs as hotbeds
It’s been interesting to see the gradual shift in power across the bus industry from operators and owning groups to local and mayoral authorities. For generations, those in the public sector have been diligently crafting plans and strategies, shorn of the spotlight enjoyed by big-name bus company leaders. Now their time has come, and despite being traditionally seen as uncharismatic and operating in a seemingly less directly accountable environment, their position of influence and clout has never been so great. My hope is that the shackles are off and sometimes under-appreciated public sector heroes and rising stars are supported and not constrained by bureaucracy, and can act with the pace and sense of progression.
Martijn’s magic potion
Talking of talent, there’s still plenty of it within the transport owning groups. I’m looking forward to seeing the impact that Martijn Gilbert will have as he gets into gear in his new role heading up Arriva’s bus division. For too long, Arriva has been criticised as being too centralised in its approach, sluggish and lacking inspiration. Some of this has been a bit unfair. Gilbert, though, is just the tonic that Arriva needs and will, no doubt, imbue with customer-centricity and gregariously seek every opportunity to inject commercial innovation. It should be a fun watch!
Stay-at-home hobbies
I attended a tourism event last month, during which VisitBritain made a compelling presentation. Whilst tourism numbers are only 1% below pre-Covid levels, society – as I have long warned on these pages – is becoming less inclined to venture out. The concept of ‘do nothing hobbies’ has become fashionable – simple, stress-free stimulation that unclutters the mind. Jigsaws, model railways and feeding the birds in the garden, with a bit of knitting, sewing and watching on-demand TV, are the blissful pastimes that dominate weekends in our house, whilst Visit Britain explained that drawing sketches, painting and reading are in vogue. Hobbies are so important in terms of mental health, and I’m delighted that they are all the rage – but as an industry, it shows that we face a huge challenge to encourage people to make a trip out – which is where my business Great Scenic Journeys comes into play!
Be wary of influencers
More than ever before, the last 12 months have seen the role of social media influencers come into the ascendancy. It’s not uncommon for transport-owning groups to employ trendy, generally youthful dudes to go out on buses and try to make them look cool and down with the kids. I’ve dealt with a few of these folk and would ask for some caution. It’s easy for a marketing manager to blithely find the most glamorous, polished influencer to sit on the top deck with a cheesy grin, but content needs to be authentic. Trying to make travelling by bus an entertainment, rather than ‘means to an end’, may be enticing, but it can feel unbelievable to many and spin doctoring. It’s important not to get carried away – real customers can be more authentic and cost-effective. A glitzy TikTok doesn’t always equate to bums on seats.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Alex Warner has over 30 years’ experience in the transport sector, having held senior roles on a multi-modal basis across the sector. He is co-founder of transport technology business Lost Group and transport consultancy AJW Experience Group (which includes Great Scenic Journeys). He is also chair of West Midlands Grand Rail Collaboration.
This story appears inside the latest issue of Passenger Transport.
DON’T MISS OUT – GET YOUR COPY! – click here to subscribe!