Rail Delivery Group

Rail industry responds to National Rail Passenger Survey
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date 21 January 2014
source Rail Delivery Group
type Press release

Responding to the publication of the Passenger Focus Autumn 2013 National Rail Passenger Survey, Michael Roberts, Director General of the Rail Delivery Group which speaks on behalf of the railway, said:

“Even though overall passenger satisfaction remains at a near record high, these latest results are a sober reminder that the industry can never be complacent on the issues that matter to passengers.

“All parts of the rail industry are stepping up efforts to reduce delays and improve how we communicate with passengers, particularly during disruption. We will continue to listen to and act on what passengers tell us is important.”

ENDS

Notes to editors

1. 83% of passengers are satisfied with their journey overall (compared with 85% in the Autumn 2012 survey, a record high), 11% said they were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied, 6% of passengers said they were dissatisfied.

2. Since Autumn 2007 overall satisfaction has consistently been 80% or higher, and 82% or higher since Autumn 2009.

3. Measures planned by the rail industry to improve future performance include:

o Introduction of traffic management software at 12 state-of-the-art control centres, enabling more trains to use the network safely and quicker recovery when delays happen
o Electrification of more than 3,000 track kilometres of railway, enabling greener, quicker more reliable electric trains to run
o Completion of major enhancements to the network including Thameslink, Crossrail, Reading, and Edinburgh Glasgow Improvements Programme, adding capacity to some of the busiest parts of the network
o Further modifying trains to be more resilient to severe weather
o Wider use of remote fault finding and improving more depots so trains can be repaired more quickly

4. Train companies and Network Rail are building on progress made in improving how the railway deals with disruption and keeps passengers informed. For example, during the recent severe weather, the industry used various channels to communicate with passengers including:

Social media

o National Rail Enquiries (NRE) team delivered 2,899 messages to Twitter accounts;
o All train companies now have Twitter feeds to provide up to the minute information – many Twitter/customer information teams now sit in rail control centres to make sure that decisions made by controllers are relayed to customers.

Online information:

o The NRE website had over 17.5 million visits between 22 December and 4 January, a 37% increase on the same period last year
o There are now live departure boards on all train company websites, using real time data to provide passengers with up to date information on changes to their services.
o Regular information announcements were made at stations and on trains
o Train companies put on extra staff at stations, to advise passengers of changes to services and how to claim for refunds or compensation for delays and cancellations.

Railhub Archive ::: 2014-01-21 RDG-001