Overall satisfaction with UK rail near record levels

[John Ashworth]

ATOC: Overall satisfaction with rail services near record levels

Breaking Travel News 4th July 2012

In response to the publication of the latest National Passenger Survey, Michael Roberts, Chief Executive of the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC), said:

“Overall passenger satisfaction is still at near record levels with over a third of all categories surveyed showing improvements year on year. But, despite this progress, train companies understand that there is no room for complacency.

“Satisfaction has risen significantly in areas such as information on train times, personal security and the availability of staff to help passengers. This reflects the hard work of train companies in providing better services that are attracting more and more people to rail.

“We recognise that value for money scores remain lower than others and that is why the railways are already focussed on tackling costs as well as improving services.”

83% of passengers are satisfied with their journey overall compared with the record 84% satisfaction levels reached in the Autumn 2010 survey. 10% said they were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied and 7% of passengers said they were dissatisfied.

Compared to Spring 2011, Passenger Focus says 13 out of 32 areas have improved significantly and one, value for money, has declined.

Areas that have shown a significant improvement include provision of information at stations about train times and platforms, (rising 2% to 81%), the upkeep of station buildings and platforms (rising 2% to 67%), personal security at stations (rising 2% to 68%), the availability of station staff (up 2% to 60%), upkeep of the trains (up 2% to 75%), and there being sufficient room for all passengers (rising 2% to 69%).

[Kevin Wilson-Smith]

Like all of these surveys I am always interested in actual number of responses and where they were geographically........!

[John Ashworth]

Often these surveys are of very little real value except for meeting artificial performance levels. It is telling though that the one issue people are not satisfied with is value for money. I've just booked online for train journeys in Germany and Austria and it was so ridiculously cheap compared to UK that we decided to book first class!