COVID-19 prevents NRPS completion

The COVID-19 pandemic prevented the completion of Transport Focus’ National Rail Passenger Survey for spring 2020, with only one train operator’s fieldwork completed.

Published on June 27, the survey shows a one percentage point (pp) drop in overall journey satisfaction since spring 2019 (to 82%), with a 3pp fall in satisfaction in terms of punctuality and reliability.

Great Northern recorded the largest increase in passenger satisfaction (up 9pp to 86%), followed by Grand Central (up 6pp to 95%) and ScotRail (up 5pp to 90%).

Satisfaction with Avanti West Coast fell by 7pp to 84%, TransPennine Express by 5pp to 78%, West Midlands Trains by

5pp to 79%, and South Western Railway by 4pp to 75%. No other train operators had any significant change in their results compared with spring 2019.

LNER recorded the highest satisfaction rating of 91%, followed by Merseyrail and ScotRail (90%), and Gatwick Express and TfL Rail (both 89%). Passengers were least satisfied with South Western Railway (75%), Greater Anglia and Northern (77%), and TPE and Southern (78%).

Satisfaction fell by 3pp in the long-distance sector to 84%. Ratings for the London and South East (82%) and regional (85%) sectors were largely unchanged.