Passenger data indicates new reduced rail timetable does not meet current demand

• One in four passengers unable to find rail services to match their travel needs
• Overall passenger demand decreases by a further 38 percent following PM’s lock down announcement
• Regions most impacted by service reduction and cancelations include Dumfries and Galloway, Leicestershire and Swindon

Transport technology specialist Zipabout has revealed 25 percent increase in the number of passengers, including key workers, that are unable to find rail services to match their travel needs following the Coronavirus outbreak.

The data comes from Zipabout’s patent pending passenger communication and analytics platform, which is used by companies such as National Rail Enquiries, LNER and ScotRail to provide millions of UK passengers with live journey assistance and personalised travel updates.

The increase in passengers unable to find their preferred journey option follows the rail industry’s decision to run a reduced timetable in order to avoid ‘ghost trains’ and cope with staff shortages.

Despite overall passenger numbers decreasing by a further 38 percent following the government ‘lock down’, those still reliant on public transport to travel to work are being adversely affected by the number of reduced services and last-minute cancelations.

These research findings are based on travel intent data generated by the interactions of more than 150k passengers still using Zipabout’s Passenger Connect platform for real-time journey updates.

The regions most affected include Dumfries and Galloway, Leicestershire and Swindon, where passengers have experienced an average 30 percent increase in train cancelations / reduction in services when comparing the beginning of March to week commencing 23^rd March.

Alex Froom, Chief Product Officer and founder of Zipabout, said: “The necessary reduction in rail services due to Coronavirus has helped protect staff and the industry, as well as preventing the number of unnecessary journeys made by the public. However, there are still many people reliant on the public transport network to get to work. By introducing a flexible timetable based on passenger behaviour and real-time demand, operators will be able to continue running reduced services at the same time as serving those key workers who need it most.”

Daniel Chick, Technical Director and founder of Zipabout, said: “These are challenging times for the transport industry, with many operators working round the clock to ensure rail services continue to run. Whilst our platform is able to provide this unique and unprecedented insight into real-time passenger demand, we are working hard to develop new ways to identify and assist key workers through personalised travel updates and end-to-end journey assistance.”

For more information visit the Passenger Connect website passenger-connect.com

Photo credit: Zipabout

Download article