New National Passenger Survey provides unprecedented detail on customer satisfaction

The autumn 2010 National Passenger Survey has given an unprecedented level of detail on passengers’ satisfaction with rail services. For the first time, performance is broken down to route level for each operator. On the best routes almost every passenger is satisfied compared with only 72% on the lowest scoring.

The research found the best routes are Grand Central, Southeastern’s high-speed, Virgin Trains’s North Wales route and the East Midlands Norwich-Liverpool service, which had improved substantially. The lowest scores were observed on First Capital Connect’s London-Bedford route, ScotRail rural services and National Express East Anglia main line routes (not including intercity services).

“Breaking the National Passenger Survey results down by routes marks a huge step forward in accountability and transparency,” Anthony Smith, Passenger Focus chief executive, commented. “Passengers can now get a much better idea of how their train services compare to others run by their company as well as those across Great Britain".

“The rail industry should be congratulated for agreeing to take this step. We can now move forward to discuss how the industry’s main punctuality figure, the Public Performance Measure, can also be broken down into routes which will help give passengers a much richer picture of how their services compare.”

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Anthony Smith will discuss the passenger survey outcomes and focus on what passengers want from stations at the UK Rail Stations 2011 conference.