Rises in passenger numbers mean that Britain’s railways will, sooner or later, need to deliver a step change in performance and capacity. And, says the chairman of South West Trains, that will mean major investment in infrastructure if significant improvements are to be made.

Speaking to Blue Skies, Ian Dobbs adds that bidding again for the company’s franchise offers a “golden opportunity” to think afresh about how services can be taken forward. His comments come as the Department of Transport takes a more central role in shaping rail strategy.

This new accountability, says Dobbs, is good for the industry. “It has taken a long time to become a cohesive industry in the way that it was pre-privatisation. It has been through some pretty traumatic periods, particularly some of the accidents there have been.” But now, Dobbs says, performance levels and passenger numbers are heading back in the right direction.

In part, this is because of a focus on small details as well as the broader issues, he says. With some clever timetabling changes, South West Trains recently squeezed an extra six trains into the morning peak period.
“People sometimes get blinded by the big-picture items, the kind of things that look sexy in newspapers like line upgrades and major renewals,” notes Dobbs. “But the reality is that railways are a lot more complex than that. Having good infrastructure doesn’t necessarily mean you have got a good railway. A lot of things on the railway are about people, how they are managed, trained and motivated. It only needs one mistake in the middle of rush hour, and the whole thing collapses like a pack of cards”.

To address this, he points out, the company has been investing in its employees. An Investors in People award indicates the commitment to this agenda, while the highest-ever passenger satisfaction scores suggest it is bearing fruit. Success, however, brings its own challenges. “The better you get, the more people – quite rightly – expect,” says Dobbs. “But it is rather nice that because we have got it right over the last year or two we are getting more praise now than criticism.”

South West Trains is also seeking to step up its efforts to ensure the safety of its passengers. This comes from a focus on embedding safety concerns in the company’s culture, matched by efforts to reduce crime across the network. This has seen more security staff hired and trained, along with the 1,888 CCTV cameras on stations and a further 1,788 on trains.

With a range of other innovations such as its off-peak ‘megatrains’, which offer tickets from just £1, or running the first control centre that is fully integrated with Network Rail, Dobbs says the company offers wider lessons for the industry. “I think the innovations we have brought to some of the problems often help to point the way forward for the industry.”

But, Dobbs says, it is passenger numbers that arguably pose the greatest long-term challenge. With around 161 million passenger journeys, he adds: “We are getting to the point now where, physically based on what we have got, we cannot carry many more people without significant overcrowding.”

There is a limit to how many extra journeys can be fitted into the timetable, he adds. “So you have got to look at the design of the rolling stock, managing peak demand, differential pricing, longer trains – but also doing that in a cost-effective way.”

While a recent deal to introduce around 650 extra seats on the West of England line shows that improvements can be made, there is a need to be realistic about what further measures can be taken, says Dobbs. “To make the next step change will involve a significant sum of money,” he says. “At some point there will have to be a decision made to effectively increase the size of the railway.”

With passenger journeys on South West Trains up around 40 per cent since it won the franchise in 1996, Dobbs says the company has a positive record on which to build for the future. “I like to think that we are leaders in the industry,” he says. With tangible results being delivered, “what we have to do now is make a step change”. “Our past record has got us to where we are; now we have got to put forward our future ideas. We can’t rest on our laurels.”•

www.southwesttrains.co.uk