Alicia Andrews, Commercial Director, Southeastern Railway

The mindset the railway needs to have is that all passengers have a choice and that a more joined up transport experience is vital to helping them choose rail.

One of the really interesting things that people have spoken a lot about today is where we want to get to. One of my big reflections is that this has to be a blend of the short and the long term.

Passenger numbers are growing back steadily not swiftly and the traditional characteristics and requirements of leisure travellers now apply to commuters in very many cases. Leisure travellers have choice and so do many (not all) commuters.

I commute a very long distance because that’s how I choose to do it, three times a week typically sometimes more. Trains are busy these days, even in the middle of the week, with suitcases, and rolling stock is too often not set up to accommodate them plus the other things that people bring, such as folding bikes, buggies etc.

The mindset that the railway needs to have, to engender modal shift and to engender a more joined up transport experience, is that people have choice, that we are in a competitive market for travel mode.

Pre-pandemic, most commuters used the train in effect because their boss said they had to go into the office. Too often, Season tickets were a grudge purchase. When we think about driving modal shift and working with other transport providers, we obviously need to think about better perceived value for money. But people in my view don’t just choose travel options with their head. We also want to them to choose them with their heart. So to encourage people to choose the train, we’re now running more campaigns with messages promoting our carbon/environment benefits. That’s an important emotional and behavioural rallying cry to  drive change.

At Southeastern, we  still not as integrated with bus as we would like, with 37 bus operators just in Kent County Council area  let alone the other parts of our network.

Accessibliity is enormously important – and we all know it makes it better for all of us not just those with additional needs .