Better together, East Africa pursues standard gauge

No passenger left behind

THE 2700 delegates who gathered for the International Association of Public Transport’s (UITP) Global Public Transport Summit in Barcelona last month heard of the various challenges that have impacted the sector since the Covid-19 pandemic.

Chief among them is the change in travelling habits of urban rail passengers. Gone are the days of two distinct weekday peaks where passengers would pack onto trains and travel to their place of work in the morning and do so again to return home at the end of the day. We are living in a new normal where demand is more evenly spread, and where more people than before are using the train for purposes other than commuting.

Crucially, this new paradigm requires a fresh approach to how operators engage with and serve their customers. There is a growing emphasis on enticing a broader range of passengers onto rail to make up for the shortfall in commuters, many of whom may have been overlooked in the past.

The summit’s programme reflected this appetite. There were sessions dedicated to improving accessibility for disabled passengers across the public transport network; enhancing the environment and improving safety for female passengers, who make up over half of the public transport users; engaging with non-digital natives; and making stations generally safer, better connected and more welcoming places to be.

These improvements cannot come soon enough. Unfortunately, the experience of using public transport is all too often very different to the utopian vision presented at industry events. Indeed, there was a sense of frustration in Barcelona at why many of the ideas and concepts presented, some of which have been around for years, are not already more widely deployed.

For example, universal ticketing remains frustratingly out of reach. Despite the success of ticketing based on contactless

bank cards in some cities, too many still use systems that are confusing. Visitors may be forced to wait in a long queue to buy a paper ticket from an unfamiliar machine, which might not accept their foreign bank or credit card. Station wayfinding can also be difficult for new users of a network.

As Neil Bates of Creactive (p29) argues, the industry has largely failed to grasp the importance of the passenger experience, which should be at the centre of how trains, stations and other public transport amenities are designed. People should want to use a train, which the train builder is able to manufacture, and the railway wants to operate and maintain. Taking this approach could also open up new opportunities not previously foreseen. For example, amenities such as a reliable onboard Wi-Fi connection could support the offer of additional services to passengers, boosting ancillary revenue. More of this kind of creative thinking is required for success in the new normal.

The cost of public transport remains a real factor in whether passengers will use the train or not. Ms Stephanie Wiggins, CEO of Los Angeles Metro, revealed how the operator has kept its base fare at $US 1.75 per journey post-pandemic to ensure it remains attractive. Metro has also instituted a range of ticketing initiatives aimed at offering discounted or free fares to low-income passengers and school and college students to boost ridership among these groups.

Other initiatives presented during the session included the e49 Deutschland Ticket and Spain’s free regional ticketing discussion during a session on the morning of June 5.

French MEP, Ms Karima Delli, made an impassioned case for free public transport, arguing that the climate crisis demands a rapid change in transport use and that governments should be ready to meet these costs. She was countered by Mr Brieuc de Meeûs, CEO of Brussels public transport operator Stib, who pointed out that farebox revenue is crucial to fund continuing operations and maintenance, especially at a time when staff wages and essential costs have risen, due in no small part to the European energy crisis.

Wiggins pointed out that Los Angeles Metro is in the envious position of receiving 2% of all sales tax revenue generated in the city, a measure approved by voters. Much of this funding is channelled towards capital projects – Los Angeles has the United States’ largest planned public transport expansion programme. Yet having this assurance in place provides the operator with the flexibility to invest in its free ticketing programmes.

Free ticketing is credited with helping to improve attendance at schools across Los Angeles, emphasising the wider societal benefits provided by an effective public transport network. This outcome is also consistent with the message of Professor Mariana Mazzucato’s keynote speech at the opening of the summit. Mazzucato argued that societal targets should be at the heart of an innovation agenda that aligns the objectives of the public and private sectors to deliver a green and more prosperous city. By offering emission-free connectivity that supports economic development, an effective public transport network is a key driver of this objective.

Ultimately it is up to the sector to make the case that it is ready to play this role. An operating environment which is attractive and where no passenger is truly left behind will make this argument far easier to make.

Unfortunately, the experience of using rail and public transport is all too often very different to the utopian vision presented at industry events.

Passenger experience | design

Elevating passenger experience in railway design

Neil Bates, director of Creactive Design Transport, makes the case for rail operators to embrace customer experience when making the decisions driving both future train designs and expanded service offers.

TRAINS are complex machines with many integrated systems which need to work reliably and safely. But what factors are influencing important decisions on how new trains look and feel for customers? How do we know we are offering the best outcome for passengers, that they feel comfortable and are happy and willing to use the train again and again?

What customers want is not easy to define as their requirements are always changing. Other business segments seem to address this problem better than rail, and recognising that railways need to improve their approach to the customer experience is the first step towards an improved offer for passengers.

Customer experience, defined as “the customer’s voice,” has to be coordinated with design, engineering and integration of products and services within the train, which must be operated and maintained effectively throughout the duration of its design life. There is also the small matter of meeting technical standards, operating safely, and making a profit.

Customer experience is not a commodity and train builders, operators and OEMs should be influenced by the demands and expectations of customers. A customer-centric company will probably encourage greater collaboration, circularity of thinking and methodologies to achieve a better outcome. Get this right and the customer will want to use a train, which the train builder is able to manufacture, and the railway wants to operate and maintain.

A train will be refurbished at least twice during its design life of 30-35 years. It will therefore benefit from good design principles, enabling work to take place quickly, and a design which is relatively timeless and adaptable.

The environment will also become an increasingly important factor. It will only be a matter of time before sustainable values are included in future train specifications, which will influence design and customer experience. For example, new trains will need to meet emerging requirements for lower levels of embedded carbon by reducing energy consumption during manufacturing and operation. Trains will also have improved end of life credentials by using recyclable materials.

The need for greater flexibility in design thinking is emphasised in the post-Covid-19 pandemic period. Commuting patterns have changed and leisure travel is now in the ascendency.

New trains are likely to require different seating configurations and environments to suit passengers seeking both opportunities for work and relaxation. This could range from openseating configurations for highpatronage services, to family spaces which work well for all demographics. The travelling environment will incorporate materials and finishes aligned with endof- life repurposing, saving weight, and creating durable, welcoming, and calm interiors and intuitive spaces.

Among our current work is the establishment of new, integrated interior systems for alternative traction rolling stock. Many of the materials under consideration would have been unheard of in earlier platforms. But the need for reducing weight using organic materials and repurposing are creating opportunities for fresh, customer-facing solutions and amenities that we have not seen before.

For example, seats are incorporating alternative trims, which have a lower carbon impact and are 100% recyclable.

Mindset

Disappointingly, instituting the wider changes in mindset necessary remains a challenge. The pursuit of innovation and technology can be glacially slow in the rail sector, limiting the rapid advancement of new technologies. Yet there is also a case for incremental change and modest improvement at much less risk. By working closely with customers to identify where gains can be made, these humbler improvements may significantly improve the service and ultimately remove much larger barriers to travel.

Offering first-rate Wi-Fi connectivity and at-seat power would be a good start. This is regularly identified as a barrier to using rail in customer research. After all, everything from planning an onward journey to buying tickets, ordering food and drink, and offering feedback can all be done at-seat if there is good, reliable connectivity.

Currently, there is too much emphasis on ticket sales and not enough on exploring other potential revenue streams. Service innovation can improve the offer to the passenger while adding to the bottom line. For example, offering an at-seat breakfast within 10 minutes of boarding could lead to growth in last-minute, walk-on fares, as a quote from customer research illustrates:

“If you can deliver to my seat a fresh breakfast sandwich, good coffee, and fresh orange juice, I don’t really mind what it costs. I will have had an extra quarter of an hour in bed.”

Such a model could extend to car parking at the station by allowing customers to potentially reserve a space before they arrive. Stations could also allow pop-up seasonal shops and incorporate small supermarkets, niche retail and service outlets.

Although customer experience is subjective, introducing additional services, and thereby creating new opportunities to create ancillary revenue, could easily become part of the future rail journey experience and change expectations of what people can do when using the train. Indeed, embracing customer-centricity and circular methodologies where all parts of the business work together may lead to changes in the overall effectiveness and productivity of rail businesses by helping to eliminate silos between different departments.

Focusing attention on the journey and embracing effective, collaborative problem-solving will also result in the emergence of new tools and methodologies as the business becomes more experienced in this way of working. These could be used to open up further opportunities that are not currently foreseen and enable rail companies to better adapt to future changes in passenger behaviour, needs and expectations than they are currently.

The rail industry needs to be braver and smarter by regularly asking customers what they want. It then needs to listen and use this feedback to make better-informed decisions. And once the process has been completed, start again. After all, the answers to many of the sector’s current problems are hiding in plain sight.