LAST month’s Railtex exhibition at London’s Earls Court was quite a show – not least because the three seminars sponsored by Railnews attracted larger crowds than any similar event. But, while Railtex helped draw attention to many of the industry’s present positive opportunities, it also highlighted serious difficulties ahead.
The greatest challenge is finding and training new people for the future. In his Railnews seminar, Pete Waterman revealed that (other than at Network Rail) only 38 apprentices were taken on last year throughout the entire railway industry – and most of those by Bombardier Transportation.
He also drew attention to the large number of foreign companies exhibiting at Railtex and reminded us that the country that gave railways to the rest of the world is now in danger of having to import much of its future infrastructure and rolling stock from overseas.
To overcome this very real risk, the industry is once again trying to gain support from the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) for a National Skills Academy for Railway Engineering. The bid, being co-ordinated by the Railway Industry Association, has recently won the personal support of transport minister Lord Andrew Adonis.
The need for a proper recruitment and training programme is acute, as Gil Howarth, programme director for the bid to the LSC, points out.
In a briefing note circulated at Railtex, he says demand for rail engineering skills, both in the UK and from abroad, has been increasing rapidly and is continuing to grow. And the need is expected to increase still further as a number of major railway projects are implemented (for in-stance, Crossrail will need around 20,000 people).
Gil Howarth went on: “Much of the industry is having difficulty in attracting staff with appropriate skills for many reasons, including the incorrect perception that it is a ‘dirty, low-tech industry’.”
His comment echoed remarks at a conference Railnews sponsored in Derby last July, when Andy Meadows, human resources director at National Express East Coast and chairman of the ATOC human resources forum, complained that recruitment was being hampered by the industry’s negative image as portrayed in the national media.
So if the industry is seriously to tackle its future recruitment and training needs – and a good few other problems, too – it seems to me high time some positive action was taken to improve its public image.
British Rail, for all its faults, used to manage a very effective corporate communications campaign, and on a small budget. Many people still remember the slogan ‘This is the Age of the Train’ and the promotional campaign led by Sir Jimmy Savile from over 25 years ago.
And I know there are many in the industry today who believe a similar campaign is needed to increase positive public awareness – not just of train services and fares, but of the railway’s much wider contributions to society as a whole, including considerable environmental benefits.
Instead, we seem at present to have a series of negative media reports, often arising from minor incidents or small events, which are blown up into major news stories and leave the public wondering what on earth is going on.
The Department for Transport does not help by seeming unable to communicate decisions straightforwardly. Take the announcement of the award of the Intercity Express Project contract, which the DfT said was to a British-led consortium. After 24 hours the national media hammered the Government when journalists realised that the principal shareholder in the consortium was Hitachi.
Among other events that have damaged the industry’s image were announcements of fare increases – six per cent for most regulated tickets and up to 11 per cent for unregulated ones – just at the time inflation was falling rapidly.
As ever, these were justified on the basis of extra income to finance forward investment. This sort of argument goes down like a lead balloon with consumers because companies like Tesco, Sainsburys, et al, do not put up their prices before they build bigger and better supermarkets.
Why not just be honest and say fares are going up because the Government’s policy is to make passengers pay more and taxpayers less?
Other nonsenses keep popping up to sustain the public view that the rail industry is still rather dotty. For example, there was the story of the ‘no kissing’ signs at Warrington Bank Quay station. Virgin Trains tried to pass it off as a bit of fun (but quietly dumped the whole idea and auctioned the signs for Comic Relief).
And it was Virgin Trains that again came to the fore with reports that it had banned a retired chartered accountant and train spotter from taking photographs at Macclesfield station – directly in conflict with ATOC’s policy stating: “All Britain’s train operating companies and Network Rail welcome rail enthusiasts to their stations… Taking photographs on stations is permitted providing it is for personal use.”
The situation was added to by reports that National Express East Coast was also to ban train-spotters at all its East Coast stations as ticket gates are introduced.
The response was astounding – and highly damaging to the rail industry’s reputation. In the Macclesfield case, the Manchester Evening News website alone quickly attracted no less than 100 comments – the vast majority highly critical of the rail industry.
One senior industry ‘old hand’ summed things up thus: “It really does seem that we are entering collective-madness, sod-the-passenger mode.”
Which is hardly likely to improve the industry’s image and reputation with anyone.