Watchdog says fundamental change needed with more than one in five passengers dissatisfied

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Rail passenger satisfaction has fallen to the lowest level in more than a decade, according to the official national survey.

Transport Focus, the passenger watchdog that conducts the biannual survey, said the results showed the need for fundamental change in rail services as overall satisfaction with journeys fell to 79%, meaning more than one in five passengers were not satisfied.

In a year marked by cancellations and chaos after the introduction of new timetables, as well as numerous strikes, passenger satisfaction declined significantly on seven operators: Great Northern, Northern, TransPennine Express, Greater Anglia, Thameslink, ScotRail and London North Eastern Railway.

Great Northern has now replaced Southern, its sister company in the Govia Thameslink Railway franchise, as the train operator with the least satisfied customers.

Scotrail recorded its lowest score since 2002, with just 79% satisfied, in a year marked by cancellations and the late delivery of new trains.

Only two operators, Heathrow Express and Chiltern Railways, improved markedly on their autumn 2017 score in the national rail passenger survey, which records the satisfaction of more than 25,000 passengers with their latest journey.

The overall ratings in the survey were the lowest since spring 2007, and the worst in the directly comparable autumn survey since 2004.

Anthony Smith, the chief executive of Transport Focus, said: “Government and the industry must continue to focus on performance. In the longer term the government’s rail review must bring about fundamental change.

“Passenger irritation at poor performance erodes their most basic trust in the industry. Passenger frustration at continual fare increases saps confidence in the system to reform itself. “A better value for money and more reliable railway must arrive soon for passengers.”

The proportion of journeys rated satisfactory value for the fare was 46% overall and 31% among regular commuters.

Passengers on Northern were most dissatisfied with how the train company dealt with delays, with 38% actively expressing dissatisfaction and only 31% happy with the service. TransPennine Express passengers were by some margin the least satisfied with the amount of space onboard, with 35% unhappy with the level of crowding.

The Rail Delivery Group, which represents the industry, said it agreed fundamental reform was needed to “fix the railway for the future”, including overhauling the fares system. Jacqueline Starr, the RDG’s managing director for customer experience, said: “Punctuality is the bedrock of satisfaction for our customers and at the moment in too many places we are not getting it right.”