Ep 15. Bringing passengers a safe return to rail travel, Louise Coward

Louise Coward, Head of Insight at Transport Focus, joins host Ailsa Cowen for episode 15 of Rail Technology Magazine’s podcast, Track Talk. Louise talks about a ‘Head Out to Help Out’ campaign, keeping passengers safe and their ongoing projects.

She divulges into the RPI increase on rail fares and says this is not the right kind of issue for passengers right now because Covid-19 has completely changed the way we travel. 

She calls for, “’let’s have better products that will fit the way people are going to be using the railways” in a world where working from home could be happening more regularly. 

She also states that, “a real assurance piece is to be done so that people know they’re being looked after” in relation to people knowing they’re safe on the railways with regards to Covid-19. 

She says the rail industry is going to have to work hard to reinstate passenger confidence as, “people are feeling more uncertain about the future now because the earth beneath us has been shaken.” 

She also talks about their National Rail Passenger Survey, which has been running for more than 20 years. 

Transport Focus has a community of rail uses that report to them on a weekly basis, Louise said they tell them how they respond to new initiatives, what they think of new changes as we all go back to the new normal.