Rail is continuing to steal passengers from air on regional routes, says Alex McWhirter.
For decades, rail’s Anglo-Scottish business was in decline as the airlines wooed more and more passengers. Initially, it was high-spending business travellers who were lured from the “low road”, but with the advent of budget carriers, the entire Anglo-Scottish market was up for grabs by air.
With fewer passengers travelling right through by train, most schedules were lengthened as the train operating companies (TOCs) targeted passengers travelling between intermediate cities. But a combination of the recession, the ever-higher cost of flying (fuel surcharges, air passenger duty and so on), company “green” policies and train improvements have reversed the trend.
“We now have a market share of 20 per cent between London and Glasgow,” claims a Virgin Trains spokesperson. “Not so long ago it was 10 per cent. We want to increase that share.”
Virgin’s Pendolino trains offer virtually an hourly service and there are plans to boost schedules. However, what happens will depend on which TOC takes over the West Coast franchise, which expires in April but is likely to be extended until December 2012.
On the shorter and busier London-Manchester route, where Virgin now provides a train every 20 minutes, it says its share has gone up from 69 per cent in 2008 to 80 per cent today. East Coast says it now has a 27 per cent share of the London-Edinburgh route, up from 21 per cent in 2008, while on London-Newcastle, its share has risen from 59 per cent to 64 per cent.
It means the performance of north-south domestic air travel is sickly. Airlines have either reduced the number of flights or axed services altogether. Even Heathrow is not immune, judging by the recent reduction in domestic flights by both British Airways and Bmi. In particular, Bmi no longer serves Glasgow from London Heathrow, while it has replaced its Airbuses with smaller commuter planes on its London-Manchester route.
Easyjet has dropped London Stansted to Newcastle, while Flybe has given up serving London Gatwick from Leeds. Easyjet has also cut a number of Scottish flights out of Gatwick, Luton and Stansted in recent years, though a few of these are being reinstated this winter (see In Focus, June 2011) in line with a new marketing campaign aimed at business travellers.
Where Scottish air services continue to thrive is at London City, where the convenience to the centre enables it to score points over the capital’s other airports.
Back to rail, and East Coast is aiming to woo business people from air and road by upgrading its first class product. It began providing free catering in May, meaning that, along with Virgin Trains, it has become one of Europe’s few domestic operators to offer this benefit to those travelling in first class.
An East Coast spokesperson says: “The idea was to improve the overall quality of the service. Research we conducted suggested that first class did not provide a big enough differentiation from standard class to justify its cost. Nearly half of our first class customers indicated they would welcome a change in the product to enhance its value.
“We want to offer a better journey experience for our customers and encourage more motorists and frequent flyers to switch to rail to increase our competitiveness, which would reverse the historic losses in the long-distance [rail] business market. We also want to encourage more customers who currently travel standard to upgrade to first class.”
The decision is a brave one. East Coast reckons it will be serving one million free meals a year, ten times more than before (when its meals were chargeable), but its fares will remain the same. The extra food and staff training will cost it £12 million, although, according to a report on our website in November last year (see businesstraveller.com/tags/east+coast), the TOC expects to increase fare revenue by £23 million.
Stock control could pose a challenge on longer routes, where passengers embark and disembark at intermediate stops. Doubtless, there will be a number of teething issues until the service settles down.
May also saw East Coast boost capacity by three million extra seats a year, courtesy of 117 extra trains every week. A highlight of the new schedules is a faster Edinburgh-London “Flying Scotsman” service, which covers the 640km trip in four hours with an en route stop at Newcastle, providing Geordie passengers with a two-hour 37-minute link with the capital. With departure times of 0540 from Edinburgh and 0703 from Newcastle, the Flying Scotsman is aimed more at regional travellers than those starting their trips in London.
Surprisingly, there is no corresponding Flying Scotsman out of London, as East Coast says it was unable to secure slots to operate a four-hour trip.
RAIL TICKETS GO MOBILE
Mobile phone ticketing has arrived in the UK courtesy of Chiltern Railways, an innovative train operating company that operates frequent services linking London Marylebone with Birmingham Moor Street via Warwick Parkway.
Initially, the ticketing is being launched for versions of iPhone, Blackberry, Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson. A version for Android is also available. Passengers download a mobile application from the phone company’s app store. Once the ticket is purchased, the smartphone display will be accepted by ticket inspectors and can open barriers (using gate scanners) at Chiltern’s stations.
Mobile ticketing covers all fare types, whether flexible or restrictive. Prices are displayed in one-way and return format, with the screen display letting you choose the best fare for a particular train.
Ben Whitaker, chief executive of Masabi, one of the firms behind the technology, says: “This app places a ticket machine in the pocket of mobile phone users – providing a convenient and user-friendly means of searching for train times and then buying and displaying tickets.”
One point that should be stressed is that, initially, the full potential of mobile ticketing will be available only within the Chiltern network. Its app will allow you to book tickets over other routes and will also allow you to combine travel with Chiltern and other operators, but in such cases you will have to collect your tickets from a station’s Fast Ticket machine.
The TOCs have an agreed standard for mobile ticketing so there should be no technical problems getting the scheme extended to other operators. But don’t get too excited. A Virgin Trains spokesperson says: “We’re not at that stage yet. One of the problems we face is that few of our stations, including London Euston, are gated [have ticket barriers]. Clearly, though, all franchise bidders are looking at advances in ticketing technology.”
The TOCs prefer to have station barriers in place to minimise fare evasion, but installing them may not be easy. At York, for example, station operator East Coast has been thwarted in its plans to install the gates by campaigners, who argue they would disfigure this Grade II Listed building. In Sheffield, local residents have so far blocked East Midlands Trains’ attempts to fit gates because the station footbridge is used as a public way. Still, government-owned East Coast, which operates prime routes linking London King’s Cross with Yorkshire, the northeast and Scotland, says it remains committed to developing a retail application for smartphones for later this year.
Cost is another consideration. The operating franchises of some TOCs are due to expire in the next couple of years, and the feeling, no doubt, is why should they spend millions on installing new mobile ticket technology at stations and (for inspectors to use) on board the trains, only for this money to be lost should the franchise be awarded to a rival?
Still, Chiltern Railways’ technology will be welcomed by the many additional passengers it expects to attract with its faster London-Birmingham services (as of September 5). It is spending £250 million on track improvements, which will cut the journey time between the UK’s two biggest cities by 20 per cent. It means the fastest time will fall from today’s one hour 57 minutes to one hour 40 minutes, with Warwick Parkway – a park and ride facility serving a wide catchment area – falling from one hour 30 minutes to one hour 15 minutes.
All in all, it will make Chiltern more competitive with rival Virgin Trains, which serves Birmingham New Street from Euston. It also means a price break for passengers because, at the time of writing, Chiltern had no peak-hour restrictions for its day return tickets out of London, so you could make a trip to Birmingham and back for a fraction of the cost of the same ticket with Virgin (although there would be peak-hour restrictions out of Birmingham).
