London (TAN): United Kingdom-based Virgin Trains has proposed to make reservations for long-distance trains compulsory, so that every ticket holder certainly gets a seat.
The company not only called for a ‘reservation-only system which guaranteed every customer a seat’, but also an ‘airline-style ticketing’ that would ensure one fare available for each service at any given time.
The reform could, claimed Virgin Trains, reduce overcrowding, improve customer experience, and end ‘complex ticketing’.
It could also create higher private sector investment in the rail industry by ‘giving operators longer-term control of rail businesses’ which will help them ‘focus on customer satisfaction over the long-term rather than managing short-term operating contracts’.
Virgin Trains put forward the proposals as part of its input in the Williams Rail Review, which was launched by the government in September 2018 to reorganise the system.
Virgin Group’s Senior Partner Patrick McGall urged the review’s chairperson Keith Williams to support the reform for passengers’ sake.
“This submission was written before the recent Government decision to disqualify our bid for the West Coast Partnership. However, we believe the recommendations are more pertinent than ever given this news. Keith Williams has said that franchising cannot continue as it is now, and it is clear we need systemic industry reform which is driven by principles and a whole-system redesign. Indeed, it is highly questionable whether any franchises can be let sensibly, or robustly, as things stand,” McGall Said.
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“We must develop a system which optimises the benefits for passengers, taxpayers and communities and which enables train companies to evolve as the world evolves around them. We must be both visionary and pragmatic,” he added.
The company suggested the new system to initially become applicable on the East Coast route or new HS2 services before moving on to the long-distance routes across the country.
