Rail passenger satisfaction dips

18 November 2022

Rail passenger satisfaction overall has fallen from 87 per cent to 84 per cent in Transport Focus’s latest survey.

The Rail User Survey asks passengers about experiences of travelling by rail in Great Britain and how satisfied they were with their most recent journey.

Passengers rated how satisfied they were with their overall journey, the punctuality of their service, the value for money of their ticket and a number of other measures.

Some measures have seen notable decreases in satisfaction, and several are now at the lowest they have been since this survey began in September 2021.

Passenger satisfaction has fallen on every measure in the survey over the last four weeks when compared to the previous four weeks.

Key findings include:

• satisfaction with punctuality/reliability is down from 83 per cent to 76 per cent
• satisfaction with the level of crowding is down from 75 per cent to 69 per cent
• satisfaction with the frequency of trains is down from 73 per cent to 68 per cent.

We know that autumn can be a challenging time on the railway, but operators must continue to focus on delivering a reliable service which delivers on passengers’ key priorities – a punctual, reliable, clean train, with enough room to sit and stand and value for money fares.

Transport Focus will continue to use the evidence from the survey to monitor passengers’ experiences and challenge train companies to improve reliability and information during disruption.

What passengers say

One passenger said: “The train turned up on time and it arrived on time. But there were a lot of people on the train though which made it crowded and unpleasant.”

Another said: “Direct trains were cancelled, it was incredibly difficult to find anyone to help me, I had to change two times.”

One commented on the delays and information saying: “Long delays and cancellations with no information if trains were running correctly or when they would be running.”

Another passenger said: “I was satisfied with my train journey because the train arrived on time, I got a seat for the journey and I was able to travel to my destination on time without any major issue.”