Not a subject that is often discussed. The public transport industry often knows little about who uses their services – there is no need to declare where and why you are travelling, there are few loyalty schemes at present and data collected about passengers is often very basic. We know that five-day-a-week commuters tend to [...]
Value for money and affordability are real issues for passengers. Cheaper Advance fares are liked by passengers but they require you to know precisely when you are travelling. If you don’t, and want to buy on the day then fares – especially in the peak – can seem very pricey indeed by comparison. So Cross [...]
As the rail National Passenger Survey (NPS) enters its 12th year you can start to see some of the trends that underlie today’s statistics. While getting trains on time remains the key factor behind passenger satisfaction, its importance has slowly declined over the years. Performance, while still patchy, has slowly improved. As punctuality has dipped [...]
“Exact fare only.” This slightly unwelcoming message is still one that many bus passengers face daily. Two problems. Some passengers won’t know what the exact fare is. Others won’t have the exact money – so they overpay or, in some cases, can claim it back at the bus station. Attempting to find out fares can [...]
I was at Gatwick Airport station last Sunday. A person under a train at South Croydon caused late-morning chaos. The good weather had brought people out and it was the last day of the Easter holidays, so there were lots of people with luggage returning home. Football fixtures brought more. All using public transport – [...]
Latest station use figures confirm what passengers have known for some time – Clapham Junction is bursting at the seams. Britain’s busiest station, by train departures and number of passengers changing trains, has been further filled by the success of the new London Overground services. Over 21 million passengers change trains there every year – [...]
Down to Southend on a bitterly cold day for an opportunity to see c2c in action. Even if you provide all the caveats about it being a relatively small, focused operation, with few other operators around, good trains and a simple network – it is still impressive. The peak-hour trains coming in to Fenchurch arrived [...]
I recently had a good look at bus services in Norwich guided by Tracy Jessop, the very capable and energetic senior council officer who looks after buses. The wide variance in bus service quality as measured in our recent Bus Passenger Survey made me think about what makes a bus services good. You can list [...]
We Brits seem to have a funny relationship with devolution. Open the paper one day and you will find the cry of ‘post code lottery’ when things are different in different place. Look the next day and you will see cries of ‘local people must decide’. With rail devolution on the agenda it is important that [...]