Punctuality and reliability continue to top passenger complaints statistics, with 18.6% of all rail passenger complaints in the last three months of 2022. Crowding (12.1%) and issues with ticketing and refunds (9.2%) complete the top three complaint categories.
Official figures on passenger rail service complaints released today by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) show that train companies dealt with 97,254 complaints in the latest quarter, an increase of 8% from the same quarter in the previous year. This amounts to of 26.4 complaints per 100,000 journeys.
ORR requires train operators to provide passengers with a timely and good quality response, as a minimum responding to 95% of complaints within twenty working days (four weeks).
But in the latest quarter, the companies fell short of this, closing only 92.9% of complaints within twenty working days, mainly been driven by the poor performance of Grand Central and CrossCountry. ORR has taken action and recovery plans put in place by Grand Central and CrossCountry are showing some progress.
Between July and September 2022, Grand Central only responded to 22.9% of complaints within twenty working days. This has increased to 66.2% in the latest quarter. CrossCountry has increased from 13.9%.to 30.3%. This is still far from full compliance and ORR is continuing to engage with the companies to ensure that they are doing everything possible to ensure a sustained and robust improvement.
The latest statistics are published shortly after ORR’s new Complaints Code of Practice for all train companies came into force on 1 April 2023. The new Code is designed to embed a culture where companies use insights from complaints to drive continuous improvement and to deliver quality and timeliness in handling complaints, which are the key drivers of passenger satisfaction with the complaints handling process.
Stephanie Tobyn, Director of Strategy, Policy and Reform at ORR said: “Passenger complaints are a barometer of how train companies are performing. No passenger wants to have to complain, but when they do the process needs to be simple, in a suitable format and timely.
“Grand Central and Cross Country have not been delivering the complaints service they should and we’re starting to see improvements following our intervention. We will be watching closely as this progress need to continue apace.”
Responses
Grand Central is in desperate need of a new fleet. We all know that the 180’s where always troublesome, a highly flawed design, and after 23 years are battered to within an inch of falling apart. From what I hear, they’re held together with proverbial chewing gum, spit, and a good deal of hope. They’re also fitted with the same engines as the Voyagers, the QSK19 from Cummins. It’s an engine well know for being inefficient, thirsty, and particularly dirty. Grand Central needs to give in and go Bi-mode, and the sooner it does so the better. It should go for the well proven Class 802 design. Bounds Green, Doncaster, Heaton, and Neville Hill all are bases for Class 80X’s and lie on, or close to Grand Centrals route supporting maintenance. The 802 is an excellent, reliable, flexible, efficient design and would finally see the back of long-distance diesel under the wire operation on the southern ECML, and depending on Grand Centrals internal specifications would boost their capacity.