The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) wants an improvement plan from train operator Northern after ongoing poor performance ratings in ORR surveys of disabled passenger assistance experiences.

The regulator has stated that disabled passengers must be allowed to travel with confidence by pre-booking assistance at railway stations before their travel and having that assistance delivered promptly and reliably by the rail operators.

Accordingly, they have a program of passenger surveys, designed to monitor the operators’ performance in this area.

Yet it seems that Northern has, since 2019, been achieving poor results in these ongoing surveys of passenger experiences with booked assistance.

The regulator raised concerns with Northern in 2019 and again in 2022 and received assurances that action would be taken.

Then, in 2023 the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) commissioned audits of the disabled passenger assistance processes of five operators (including Northern).

The findings raised further concerns about Northern’s processes and suggested, in particular, that the operator needed to improve the training of staff responsible for delivering this assistance.

In July 2024, the results of the regulator’s 2023-2024 passenger surveys were published. 18% of respondents who booked assistance at a Northern-managed station reported that they did not receive any assistance.

This led the regulator to conclude that Northern’s previously submitted plans had either not been fully implemented or had not successfully addressed the underlying causes of failed assists.

That month, ORR wrote to Northern, but their response was not reassuring. The ORR is now concerned that Northern may not fully understand the causes of its poor performance, and still may not have adequate plans to deliver real improvements.

And so on September 19th, The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) formally wrote to the Managing Director of Northern. The letter requested Northern to submit an improvement plan to the regulator, detailing specific actions, and explaining how these actions will improve Northern’s reliability in assisting disabled passengers at their stations.

The rail regulator will meet senior industry figures and constructively challenge Northern as it develops its plan. It will also organise a senior roundtable for a date in October and invite representatives from the Rail North Partnership (the Department for Transport and Transport for the North) to ensure a transparent and cooperative approach.

Northern is not reliably helping disabled passengers on its trains. It is important that Northern understands why this is, and reduces the risk of failing these passengers. While passengers regularly give positive feedback for Northern when it does get things right, doing this reliably remains a significant problem.

Our call today is for the train company to focus its attention on the right areas and to get to grips with why it is not delivering for passengers who need assistance.

We will be keeping our focus on this issue and continue to have constructive discussions with the operator.

Stephanie Tobyn, ORR’s director of strategy, policy and reform