\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 It was in a huff at not getting the head of legal role at Which? magazine, where he had spent five happy years that led Smith to take on a job regulating premium rate phone lines, many of which were of a highly salubrious nature. And then he saw an advert for the chief executive at the CRUCC in The Sunday Times<\/em>. Having qualified as a solicitor, but not wanting to follow a profession in this field, he had the right credentials for the top job at the organisation that ultimately became known as Transport Focus. <\/p>\n 24 \u00be years later and Anthony is preparing for his last week at Transport Focus, I\u2019ll be honest, even though he has this avuncular looking beard and more of a professor look about him, eternally posh-speaking Smith (he was brought up in Sevenoaks Weald), still looks like the work experience boy that I thought he was when he turned up at a meeting in which I was present at the Strategic Rail Authority a few months into his job. The going might have got tough having to challenge a litany of customer service farces by the transport sector over the years, but he\u2019s still got those customary youthful good looks and sense of wide-eyed energy and excitement as he moves onto pastures new.<\/p>\n I caught up with Anthony, a couple of weeks ago and learned that he didn\u2019t think he\u2019d actually stay long at Transport Focus but the \u2018addictive\u2019 nature of the industry was very seductive indeed. \u201cIt matters to people, and the country,\u201d he tells me. \u201cIt\u2019s important.\u201d For Anthony, transport is a \u201cfascinating blend\u201d of government, local authorities and the private sector, \u201cbut it\u2019s all about people\u201d.<\/p>\n Back in 1999, CRUCC only worked in rail, but the organisation added bus and coach to its portfolio in 2009\/10 and then, in 2015, national highways joined the family. With his trademark \u2018less is more\u2019 brevity, Smith sums up nearly a quarter of a decade of work in one paragraph: \u201cThat was crucial, as we became genuinely multi modal . We got out of the public transport ghetto because people travel the way they need to travel. So getting into roads was really important for the organisation. We then got through Covid, and the last thing was ticket office closures. All this kept me interested, intrigued and there\u2019s great people here. It feels like leaving a family and they really do care.\u201d <\/p>\n Society has become more customer centric and it has percolated into transport<\/p>\n Anthony asserts that the industry is more customer focused now. There was much less talk about customers in the early days. He explains: \u201cSociety has become more customer centric and it has percolated into transport, helped by franchising incentivising folk to get happy customers in rail, and buses being more naturally focused on customers because they are more like a business \u2026 Meanwhile, roads are a monopoly provider, crucial to have a customer outlook otherwise it becomes an engineering guerrilla producing things customer doesn\u2019t want.\u201d <\/p>\n All this is well and good, but I ask if we\u2019re living in a more customer-focused sector, then how did the idiocy of the abolition of the one day travelcard and ticket office closures come about? Smith believes that the former was a result of devolution providing odd side effects, such as a fractious relationship between mayor and the Department for Transport, where a decision in one place affects a broader area. But, as we found with the subsequent uprising, consumer pressure works still even today.<\/p>\n Despite this, though, I express my frustration with Transport Focus for not instigating riots with every annual fares hike. Smith, far more mature than I, explains: \u201cThere\u2019s always been a creative tension because we are sponsored by the DfT and we are an arm\u2019s length body of government, but it has always felt independent and department never told us what to do. But there is subtle tension and we are funded by taxpayers, so there is a degree of responsibility that comes with that because the people you are criticising, the next day you have to sit down and talk to them about how you improve things in the future.<\/p>\n \u201cYou could shout and get headlines every other day, but you wouldn\u2019t have a relationship with the industry and a government that think you are useful. They\u2019ll stop listening. The quality of that relationship needs constant curating and tending. You have to earn respect, keep it, and look out for it every day.\u201d<\/p>\n Importantly, he adds: \u201cYou spot good practice, there\u2019s tons out there, and pointing that out is as important as pointing out weaknesses\u201d.<\/p>\n All this conciliatory, sensible stuff doesn\u2019t mean he doesn\u2019t think the current fares situation is nonsense. Smith coined the headline years ago \u201ceye watering fares rises\u201d and he says that fares have long passed this point and remain \u201creally worrying\u201d. He also first used the header \u201crich man\u2019s railway\u201d. <\/p>\n An empty seat is an offence. Ryanair wouldn\u2019t do that. We\u2019ve got to get that mentality into the system because if we just go for cost reduction, we\u2019re doomed<\/p>\n \u201cTransport is meant to be available to all,\u201d Anthony says. \u201cWhen you look at the landscape of railway, the private sector has got to be involved. We have got to drive costs down and drive customer focus up. The more open access the better. The current state of rail costs a lot of money and its ability to change and improve customer focus is not on an even keel. If you go for cost reduction, you go for managed decline. You\u2019ve got to go for growth. Any seat for a \u00a31 is good as costs are fixed. An empty seat is an offence. Ryanair wouldn\u2019t do that. We\u2019ve got to get that mentality into the system because if we just go for cost reduction, we\u2019re doomed.\u201d<\/p>\n Apart from thwarting the scandalous ticket office closure plot, Smith\u2019s second finest achievement, in my view, was the National Passenger Rail Survey \u2013 the results of which take pride of place on my CV.<\/p>\n \u201cNRPS has been at the core of our business model,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s simple, you go out and talk to people and ask what they think of their last journey, so it\u2019s current, and then you print a league table. Whatever people say about league tables, they are concerned about it. Motorway services fight tooth and nail not to be bottom and they invest to get up the league table. You talk to customers, they give views, you invest to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n He adds: \u201cOne of my great regrets in life was post-Covid we didn\u2019t re-start NRPS,\u201d Anthony admits. \u201cAn Achilles heel post-Covid was that we did not have a public measure. We still get people asking about NRPS.\u201d<\/p>\n There will be a successor \u2018Customer Experience Survey\u2019 which the DfT is funding. The department will procure it and then hand it over to GBR and everyone will have access to it. Transport Focus has been heavily involved in developing and piloting the new survey alongside its own regular Omnibus survey \u2013 the only current published passenger satisfaction data. <\/p>\n The Bus Passenger Survey has been replaced with \u2018Your Bus Journey\u2019 and full results will be published next year. This is a key part of BSIP\/Enhanced Partnership programme in England, providing the government with some sense of what they are getting back for their investment.<\/p>\n \u201cThe benefit of Transport Focus has been that it does a lot of work helping the industry determine what to buy going forward,\u201d says Anthony. \u201cYou spend time helping those with power to buy the right thing for customers.\u201d <\/p>\n I wonder whether Smith is aware that he has created legendary status and become Mr Customer. Though he is modest and says he hasn\u2019t, he gives an impressive insight into the importance of a strong leadership style. <\/p>\n \u201cWhenever you are leading an organisation, it has to appear you are utterly crucial to the success of the organisation, figurehead, energetic, talk to people, the be all and end all,\u201d he says, \u201cbut underneath the organisation has a strong DNA and when I leave it will continue.\u201d<\/p>\n Smith created an impression of being indispensable despite not really knowing much about transport when he arrived in 1999. <\/p>\n I knew I\u2019d end up in transport at some point<\/p>\n \u201cI was interested in trains because that\u2019s what my Dad was,\u201d he says, \u201cI knew I\u2019d end up in transport at some point.\u201d<\/p>\n But Smith is not a hardcore transport nut. Modern traction is his gig, steam \u201cdoes nothing for me\u201d and he forcefully tells me that he has \u201cabsolutely zero interest in model railways\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I arrived [at CRUCC] I just asked who the people were who were making noise and I went round and spoke to them,\u201d Anthony recalls. \u201cSo I spoke to Stephen Joseph, David Begg, to everybody I could find who was a noisemaker, and that\u2019s how you get intelligence, gossip and that\u2019s how you know what\u2019s going on, constant feedback coming through.\u201d<\/p>\n I feel quite proud to be a noisemaker then as Smithy quite a few times invited me to his perpetually moving office, to chew the fat. He\u2019d always sit and listen with that pontificating face he pulls, whilst I gossiped, berated and dreamt up some whacky innovation that he would politely endorse.<\/p>\n He continues: \u201cI go and get to know journalists. Don\u2019t be frightened of them because they are really important in terms of you getting your message out \u2026 Get yourself to be the first person they\u2019ll ring up. It felt instinctive but I also enjoyed it.\u201d<\/p>\n I ask whether he ever got into trouble? I know he\u2019s a smooth talker, but it\u2019s impossible in an industry that is quite often prickly and defensive not to wind someone up.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, no,\u201d he responds. \u201cWe\u2019ve had to keep a close eye on the department and various secretaries of state \u2026 When you publish stuff, they don\u2019t like, they get on the phone. We always made sure we base our stuff on evidence, not anecdote. We\u2019ve prided ourselves on the quality of the insight. They may question the interpretation but the core insight is always good quality and professional, and that gives you a tremendous shield.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we do is good for the industry, but to earn trust you have to be responsible, reasonable, proportionate in what you do.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 He\u2019s also always been known for his succinctness. Emails with literally one sentence that tell the tale, and his mantra is that if you can\u2019t do a presentation on one slide then it\u2019s not worth doing. So it\u2019s a surprise that towards the end of our chinwag he can\u2019t stop reiterating that reliability is the only thing that really matters. <\/p>\n \u201cLook, reliability is really boring,\u201d he says. \u201cEverything I\u2019ve learned points to the need to stick to timetables. If you can deliver that you can deliver 90% of what customers want, and if you do that you gain the trust of your customers and they\u2019ll forgive you for a lot.<\/p>\n You cannot give enough attention to reliability and delivering that basic promise. That\u2019s what people are buying when they buy a ticket<\/p>\n \u201cThe way you handle disruption is key. Like food in a restaurant, if the food isn\u2019t good you worry about a whole load of other things. You cannot give enough attention to reliability and delivering that basic promise. That\u2019s what people are buying when they buy a ticket \u2026 If you don\u2019t get that right, you\u2019re going uphill.<\/p>\n \u201cA clean, new electric train that\u2019s late is a late train and this is more important to people than the green agenda. They\u2019d rather swap an old diesel for an electric if it is reliable. If it is reliable, they\u2019ll tell other people.\u201d<\/p>\n Smith is so entwined and embedded in the customer cause that\u2019s it\u2019s hard to think he has a life outside of transport, but he does. Living in Wandsworth, he hangs around Plough Lane watching AFC Wimbledon and is also a fellow regular at Crystal Palace FC. He loves military history (\u201cI could give you a really good tour of the Battle of Waterloo\u201d) and he\u2019s a big music man. He particularly loves tribute bands (\u201cthey\u2019re often better than the real thing!\u201d). A Neil Young tribute band from Belgium is his favourite (\u201cI mean, how completely weird is that Alex?\u201d), and he can\u2019t wait to go to Abba Voyage next year.<\/p>\n The degree of cooperation that gets the plane airborne is incredible<\/p>\n A walk and pint are other favourite pastimes but he\u2019s not looking to scale back work too much \u2013 he\u2019s chair of the Heathrow Area Transport Forum, which he excitedly explains is about making transport more sustainable and less polluted, and keeping customer experience good. \u201cThe degree of cooperation that gets the plane airborne is incredible,\u201d he remarks. The previous day he was at a meeting at Hounslow Town Hall and he describes looking out onto the flight path, with child-like awe and wonder. <\/p>\n For sure, there will be countless folk tapping up Anthony, the definitive customer service guru, for advice and support, including myself. He\u2019s a good bloke too and I say this not just because he\u2019s always been on our side in fighting for the rights of customers. I\u2019ve received a few WhatsApp messages of late from people in his team, unprompted comments that aren\u2019t platitudes but deeply affectionate, sincere and admiring remarks, the kind you tend to say about a really close friend or family member, not some bloke you\u2019ve worked for.<\/p>\n My consultancy recently commissioned a high-brow insight programme, so impressive it could have been commissioned by Smith\u2019s team. It consisted of me saying the words \u2018Transport Focus\u2019 to a sample size of 25 people, spanning the full demographic spectrum of UK society. Within five seconds, 96% of respondents, shouted out the name \u201cAnthony Smith\u201d, such is the extent to which he is instinctively synonymous with the organisation. The responses of the other 4% consisted of \u201ccomplaints\u201d, \u201ccustomer\u201d, \u201cconsumer\u201d and \u201ctrains\u201d. <\/p>\n It feels unique for the chief executive of a public sector consumer body to be as revered, renowned and in folklore as Anthony Smith. I can\u2019t think of it occurring before in transport history, nor in other sectors, and he\u2019s up there with those iconic industry names who have been doing more glamorous stuff, such as founding or running transport organisations \u2013 household names, such as Giles Fearnley, Moir Lockhead, Bob Reid, Chris Green, Adrian Shooter, Peter Hendy, Brian Souter and so on.<\/p>\n He hands the baton onto his successor, Alex Robertson, who, as Anthony concurs, is a \u201cgreat appointment and has a fabulous CV\u201d. Transport Focus is an organisation that has stood the test of time, through ebbs and flows and threats within the industry, but it is still alive, vibrant and has a great future. For this, customers and the sector owe him a huge debt of gratitude. To say Smith has left a legacy would be an understatement. <\/p>\n \u00a0 DON\u2019T MISS OUT \u2013 GET YOUR COPY! \u2013\u00a0click here to subscribe!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n The post A quarter century of caring for customers<\/a> first appeared on Passenger Transport<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u200b\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 For almost 25 years Anthony Smith has represented transport users. He\u2019s about to move on and leaves behind a strong legacy \u00a0Anthony Smith received the \u2018Lifetime Contribution to Transport\u2019 award at this year\u2019s National Transport Awards \u00a0 The internet was just a novelty, text messaging was starting to replace pagers, compact disc players were in their pomp, Connex ran…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3547,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-camcab"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3546"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Anthony Smith received the \u2018Lifetime Contribution to Transport\u2019 award at this year\u2019s National Transport Awards<\/em><\/p>\n
\nThe internet was just a novelty, text messaging was starting to replace pagers, compact disc players were in their pomp, Connex ran two rail franchises, Manchester United were unstoppable, Tony Blair was prime minister and \u2018When the Going gets Tough\u2019 by Boyzone topped the charts, when Anthony Smith, aged 39, first walked through the doors at the Central Regional Users Consultative Committee (CRUCC) on Monday, March 15, 1999. He was the new chief executive and, by his own admission, he knew hardly anything about public transport.<\/p>\n
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\nSmith is a consummate professional. He\u2019s one of the most polished smoothies I\u2019ve come across, but not in a boring, anodyne corporate clone way. He manages to get his point across with animation, but carefully worded. In late March this year, he lit up a conference I was hosting in Birmingham, attended by both frontline staff and industry bigwigs, with a speech so eloquent around customer service that everyone was talking about it in the pub afterwards. He did it with one crib-card in his hand and it was all on the hoof.<\/p>\n
This story appears inside the latest issue of\u00a0Passenger Transport<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n