Before the Coronavirus pandemic, Transport Focus consulted more than 50,000 passengers a year to produce the National Rail Passenger Survey (NRPS) – a network-wide picture of passengers’ satisfaction with rail travel. Passenger opinions of train services were collected twice a year from a representative sample of journeys.

Passengers’ overall satisfaction and satisfaction with 30 specific aspects of service can, therefore, be compared over time.

NRPS was the largest published rail passenger satisfaction survey in the world, an official statistic used as a key performance indicator in most rail franchises.

The latest wave of the survey was published on 2 July 2020. Due to the pandemic and a significant drop in the numbers of people using public transport, NRPS has been paused. Transport Focus continues to speak to thousands of passengers and former passengers to get a picture of future travel plans, feelings about travel and experiences of travel. This is reported weekly – please see our Coronavirus insight page.

Meanwhile work is underway to develop an innovative way to measure passenger satisfaction once lockdown is eased and people start to return to transport.

Insight Team