Radio Wiltshire on franchising ... listen if you dare

I was interviewed in that BBC^» Radio Wiltshire on 18th July about the new Government's plans for our railways, and the interviewer asked what one thing I would do to improve them.

Question from the interviewer: "What one thing could you do to get the railways up and running and people using them again, arriving on time, getting a seat and that sort of thing."

It's a good question.

It's right and proper that I and others should be asked to talk not only on what the current issues are or might be, but also in a positive way about how they might be solved. But there are assumptions in the question about the state of the railways at present.

People ARE using the railways - in spite of the shocking cancellation rates and issues like the complexity of ticketing, lack of connectivity especially with buses, and unfriendliness of some elements of the system (Southampton gateline, unmanned stations with threatening penalty posters, etc)

Most trains that run ARE running are reasonably on time, and provided that connections are not missed, it's no big concern being a few minutes late

You WILL usually get a seat if you want one. A few trains are "full and standing" but even on trains defined in that way, look carefully and if you need to sit you probably can. I was on the 11:08 arrival into Weymouth from Swindon (and Melksham where I live) on Saturdsy - just shy of 300 people on a 3 coach train once it passed Yeovil and people standing - but their choice; a sprinking of middle seats available and if asked, people were moving their bags off seats onto the racks.

So it's a good question from the interviewer that shows up the need for the public who perhaps don't use the train to be better informed as to the state of the railways. And that informing is down to you - the knowledgable other passenger reading this piece, the community members and its community rail partnerships, and the train operators and indusrty. A problem is, though, that motivation and money to inform (which should be cheap) is in short supply and no-one is tasked with the role of selling public transport.

So ... where does that leave us?

* A need to properly define what needs / could do with fixing / updating

* A strategy to look at where we want to be in the further future

* Tactics to help get us towards that future

I'm going to suggest that trains and buses are mass transit and are a much more sustainable and carbon friendly way of getting around in bulk for people than private cars or planes and our strategy should be going beyond fixing current actual or perceived issues and look to having us able to get around "better".