Buzz will not be enough to put Northern Rail back on track
Following a year of cancellations and chaos across the network Northern Rail looks set to lose its franchise this week.
With the least satisfied customers in the UK, the railway had a terrible 2019 — and its improved buzz scores (a net measure of whether consumers have heard anything good or bad about a brand in the past two weeks) will be little consolation for the operator.
YouGov Brand Index shows that Northern Rail’s public perception rose more than any other brand’s over the last year.
But the the operator’s increasing buzz isn’t necessarily a sign of a wider rehabilitation with the British public: its scores rose from minus 13.6 to minus 5.5 — an improvement of plus eight that still leaves it with firmly negative buzz.
From a PR perspective, 2018 was so bad that even a clearly troubled 2019 represented an improvement.
As the chart to the right shows, Northern Rail hasn’t had a dramatic reversal of opinion among its current customers.
Positive buzz has been consistently low between June 2018 and January 2020, and its improved scores had more to do with a significant increase in neutral buzz and slight dips in negative buzz.
YouGov data reveals that just one in five would recommend Northern Rail to a friend or colleague, while three in 10 would advise them to stay clear.
While 13 per cent say its services are good quality, two-fifths say they’re of a low standard.
Almost the same proportion (38 per cent) say the brand represents poor value for money.
Northern Rail is certainly not the only underperforming operator; the transport secretary has also suggested that South Western Railway could be nationalised in the near future.
The rival has also bettered a rock-bottom 2018, where driver shortages and disrupted services brought tensions between the operator and its passengers to a head.
But the railway’s public perception and its reputation among customers has been consistently negative.
In the face of a government that’s taking an increasingly hard line on underperforming travel companies such as Thomas Cook, it’s ultimately no surprise that Northern Rail may have reached its final stop.
Stephan Shakespeare is chief executive of YouGov