Survey launched to gauge passenger satisfaction on Britian’s railways

According to Railway News, the survey will be the biggest in the history of the British Railway with roughly ten thousand passengers a month being asked their views on the rail network with an overall aim of speaking to 130,000 passengers a year.

The survey was developed collaboratively by the Rail Delivery Group, Network Rail, the Department for Transport, train operating companies, and other partners in replacement of the National Rail Passenger Survey.

Suzanne Donnelly, Customer and Revenue Growth Director for Network Rail said: “It lays a crucial foundation for understanding current customer needs and creating the right conditions for Great British Railways - which will ultimately help to rebuild public trust and encourage more people to travel by train."

The results of the last National Rail Passenger survey were published on 2 July 2020. The survey was paused following a decrease in the number of people using public transport after the pandemic. A survey hasn’t been carried out since.

It asked passengers about how satisfied they were with their relevant train operating company as well as the likes of station facilities, cleanliness and value for money.

The 2020 report results showed punctuality and reliability to have the biggest impact on customer satisfaction at 37% while how the train company delt with delays was the biggest impact on passengers’ dissatisfaction at 49%.

Satisfaction for punctuality and reliability of individual routes within each train company varied between 56% and 96%.

Nationally the proportion of journeys rated as satisfactory by passengers regarding punctuality and reliability was 74%, a decrease from the previous survey conducted in 2019 when 77% were satisfactory.

Many rail customers have been unhappy with Britian’s railways in recent years following industrial action . Data from the Department for Transport in 2022 showed that 81% of respondents who intended to travel by rail during a strike week had their journey impacted in some way.

The new survey is planned to be held continuously with no set end date.

Rail Minister Lord Hendy said: “Great British Railways is putting passengers back at the heart of our transport network. Hearing directly from those that use our trains about how to improve them will help us return services to a standard we can be proud of again.”