Why clean is the new safe for rail travel

A rampant infection rate and recommendations to work from home are of course the main reason that train usage is low at the moment. However, if and when people deem public transport, office work, and busy leisure activities are worth the risk, the number of customers will spike – as it has done in the past when infections are low.

Their satisfaction, and therefore their enthusiasm to ride the rails again, will be closely linked to perceived levels of cleanliness and the danger of infection.

At the height of the pandemic, it made short-term sense to hire more staff to clean more often. However, with skyrocketing staff absences and many vacancies across all industries, throwing extra people at the problem is no longer sustainable.

Credit: SkedGo | MOTIONTAG

Let’s take station toilets as a current example of cleaning inefficiency. Toilets are checked and cleaned on a time-defined schedule, which could be hourly for staffed stations or three times a week for unstaffed.

It’s easy to see why those facilities would need special care in Covid-19 times and beyond. Toilet presentation is what sticks in the mind of any customer in any facility – and is used as a benchmark to assess the overall cleanliness and quality of their experience.

Yet, is it sensible to send cleaners even though nothing’s changed since their last visit, and their presence is adding no value? In less busy stations, only a few people could use the facilities in several hours – and in peak times, several hundred could descend upon them.

With the right station monitoring, you can pinpoint where your cleaners’ efforts are most needed. By blending real-time data with information gathered from planned general inspections, service quality audits, and the like, you can prioritise and assign tasks to the right people at the right time.

This reduces inefficiencies and eliminates wasted work, while actively driving improvements in passenger experience.

You might find, for example, that your cleaners’ time could be better spent wiping down frequently used handrails, escalators, and counters, or focusing on areas such as brightwork and ticket machines.

These are all highly visible to passengers. And when they sparkle, it sends a subconscious message: this company cares, I’m safe on their services, and I won’t have an issue using them again.

Breaking down that fear barrier will be key to getting people back on the trains regularly. Customer satisfaction will increasingly be defined by how safe people feel – and their feelings of safety will be heavily influenced by the cleanliness of their surroundings. It will also have a far-reaching impact on TOC’s finances thanks to SQRs and the Williams-Shapps reforms.

By using tech and data to deploy resources smartly, and anticipate and solve problems proactively, they have the chance to stay one step ahead of the auditors. This, in turn, will build an organisational culture of continuous improvement, customer care, and – you guessed it – cleanliness.

Ultimately, when your facilities feel clean, your passengers will feel safe, and the auditors will be happy. All of this means higher footfall, better ratings, and a tastier profit as a reward.