Commuters dissatisfied with value for money

JUST a third of commuters are satisfied that they are getting value for money from their train journeys, according to the latest National Rail Passenger Survey (autumn 2017).

Conducted by Transport Focus and released on January 30, the bi-annual statistics reveal the proportion of journeys rated ‘satisfactory’ regarding value for money for the price of a ticket was just 33% for commuters. The figure was 64% for leisure travellers and 48% for business users.

While that means the overall national value for money figure remains the same as autumn 2016 (47%), satisfaction among commuters has fallen by one percentage point (pp). It remained the same for leisure travellers, and increased by two percentage points for business passengers since the exercise was carried out a year ago.

At 81%, the overall satisfaction level of rail passengers has remained the same as autumn 2016, but has declined by two percentage points since spring 2017.

When ranked by individual operator, open access operators Grand Central (96%) and Hull Trains (95%) retain the top two positions, with Virgin Trains East Coast (92%) and Virgin West Coast (91%) the highest among franchised operators.

At the other end of the table, the lowest-scoring operator remained Southern (72%) - this is the same score as spring 2017, but a sevenpercentage point rise on autumn 2016.

TfL Rail (75%) and South Western Railway (75%) make up the bottom three, having recorded 12pp and 7pp drops since spring 2017 (SWR took over the franchise on August 20 from South West Trains).

Other notable results included a rise of 1pp in the national total number of passengers satisfied with punctuality and