ScotRail today welcomed the publication of the latest figures from a leading, independent passenger survey.
The National Rail Passenger Survey revealed that Scotland’s Railway has achieved a customer satisfaction score of 87 percent – equaling last year’s figure and seven points higher than the 80% average among UK train operators.
- Overall satisfaction maintained at 87% year-on-year
- Survey coincided with period of unprecedented challenges
- ScotRail in equal 7th place out of 26 UK train operators
The survey was carried out by Transport Focus at stations and on trains across Scotland from 11 January to 20 March 2016 and coincided with the:
- Aftermath of the Forth Road Bridge closure which required significant and short-notice timetable changes to keep people moving
- Closure of the Lamington Viaduct on the West Coast Mainline due to damage caused by Storm Frank
- Wide-ranging customer communications campaign for closure of Glasgow Queen Street tunnel
Key highlights include:
- Customer service - Higher scores for availability of station staff (+4 points giving ScotRail an all-time high of 77%) and attitude and helpfulness of staff on trains (+4 to 83%)
- Punctual trains - Punctuality and reliability (+2 to 86%)
- Transport connections - Connections with other forms of transport (+8% to 78%)
- Customer information - Provision of information during journey (+4 to 80%)
- Better facilities for customers - Facilities and services (+6 to 62%)
Jacqueline Taggart, Customer Experience Director for the ScotRail Alliance, said:
“These remarkable figures are testament to the incredible job by our people to keep customers moving every day. For us to maintain the same overall satisfaction score as last year during a period of unprecedented challenges is a significant achievement.
“The winter of 2015/2016 brought some of the worst storms in years. Nevertheless, we successfully kept customers moving through the closure of the Forth Road Bridge, the intensive repairs to Lamington Viaduct and, of course, the preparations for the improvements at Glasgow Queen Street.
“Heartfelt thanks go to our customers for their patience and for their continued faith that we will get them where they wish to be. We have a responsibility to keep our country moving and every member of the ScotRail team takes this very seriously.
“While these scores are welcome, we are aiming higher. Over the course of the next year or so we will be introducing new faster, longer greener trains across central Scotland, with more seats and shorter journey times. In addition, we are refurbishing the majority of our fleet so that our customers benefit from services such as at-seat power points and enhanced WiFi – and we will continue to invest in new ticket offers, SMART ticketing and improving our stations.
“When all of this work is complete, Scotland’s railway transformation will be something of which we can all be proud.”