Recommendation 7

As well as providing critical revenue for the rail system, passenger rail travel supports wider government objectives around transport decarbonisation and achieving net zero. We asked the Department how they planned to encourage people out of their cars onto rail. It outlined current activities by the Rail Revenue Recovery Group, including communications and marketing activities to reassure passengers over rail travel safety and improving the information available to passengers.15 In addition, its National Rail contracts are expected to provide a more responsive approach for meeting passenger demand and it will focus on integrating rail with other modes of transport.16 The Department recognised that the complexity of rail fares is often a frustration for passengers and that it hopes the Rail white paper (published shortly after the session) will address these issues.17 However, the Department and Network Rail’s responses lacked the urgency and clarity we expected given the financial risk to taxpayers and the impact on the environment of increasing car use.