How to keep the wheels on private rail? Bring back first class service
The era of rail renationalisation is an opportunity for the remaining open access operators to compete with a luxury offering, says Simon Hunt
Amid all the Budget chaos last week, one big government announcement was drowned out: the transport department is freezing rail fares.
Most commuters would gladly favour a freeze over a repeat of recent price hikes. Inevitably though, this will mean the taxpayer picking up the tab for the growing subsidy handed to our soon-to-be nationalised railways.
This also poses a challenge to the open access operators, the handful of private companies that will keep puttering around Britain’s network post-nationalisation. Up until now, price has been a key tenet of their strategy: offer services on well-known routes, cheaper than the big boys.
With a fare freeze, though, that plan may have hit the buffers. So what now? I propose a return to quality.
My fondness for trains began in my schoolboy days on the six-hour journeys with my parents to visit family in Dundee.
We’d board a first-class GNER HST train at Kings Cross and off it would chug, whisking us along the east coast, with short breaks at the ornate, cathedral-like stations of York, Newcastle and Edinburgh.
The on-board service was excellent. The seats were grand, soft and springy and at each table was a quaint little amber lamp (with a quaint little amber lampshade) and curtains that could be drawn on those rarest of occasions when it gets too sunny in the north.
In the mornings, once each hour a friendly-faced lady would appear with a huge tray of biscuits (I can still taste the shortbread crumbling in my mouth) along with jugs of tea and coffee, poured into twee little cups and saucers.
Then in the afternoons, we’d head over to the dining car, where we’d be served up a freshly-cooked three course meal – I’d eye up the desert options while mum and dad browsed the wine list.
The hours would fly by and as the navy blue diesel train glided over the River Tay, we’d make a swift exit at Dundee and watch as it grumbled gently on, snaking its way up to Aberdeen.
NHS waiting room aesthetic
That was 20 years ago, but how are services now? First class, if it still exists, is much more expensive than standard but with next to no advantages. The cars have changed from “fancy hotel lounge experience” to “NHS waiting room aesthetic”. The lampshades have been replaced by operating theatre-white LED lighting; the comfy seats by converted ironing boards. There is no dining car, no wine list and worst of all, no biscuit lady. The “menu” is a microwaved curry or a lukewarm cheese toastie.
Things may yet get worse post-nationalisation. Ask anyone over 50 what a “British Rail sandwich” is and judge its quality by their reaction.
Time then for the open access operators to revive the railways of yesteryear. While the government holds fares low, they should aim high and reintroduce the five-star service.
Ask anyone over 50 what a “British Rail sandwich” is and judge its quality by their reaction
Brits’ affection for it has not gone away. Instead, luxury leisure firms like LVMH-owned Belmond have picked up the baton, with their plush, linen-lined steam-pulled services, charging thousands per head for week-long meanders through rural England.
This is not (just) another rant about the state of the present with a rose-tinted view of the past. Rail lines in much of northern Europe – and further afield, in places like Japan – continue to offer a premium service with plenty of willing punters. It is not outside the realms of possibility for us to do the same.
So that’s my clarion call for Lumo, Grand Central and co. Up the quality and we will open up our wallets.
Simon Hunt is City Editor of City PM