South Western trains – what passengers want

12 January 2016

South Western rail passengers are calling for better value fares and more innovative ticket options.

The independent watchdog Transport Focus spoke to passengers to understand their current experiences and explore their hopes for future South Western services, ahead of a new franchise contract.

Transport Focus passenger director David Sidebottom said:

“Like passengers across the country, South Western passengers are concerned with value for money. This is more than the cost of fares – it’s about ticket options that reflect people’s travel patterns and how they want to buy and manage that process. It also reflects the ease and comfort of their journey, particularly whether they can get a seat and how any disruption is handled.

“We’ve provided some detailed insight here and will continue working to ensure that the final franchise contract has passengers’ needs at the heart.”

The research found that passengers were generally happy with trains and could see that there had been efforts to improve punctuality. But they still wanted to see more trains running, better information and better value ticket products.

You can download a summary of the research here.

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