Satisfied with Southern?
Passenger satisfaction at ‘seven-year high’:
Satisfaction levels among Southern train passengers are at the highest level for seven years, according to new figures. Watchdog Transport Focus has released its latest passenger survey, with fieldwork carried out between February and April. It found 81 per cent of Southern customers surveyed said they were satisfied or very satisfied, a 12 per cent increase from last spring, while the proportion of people saying they were happy with punctuality rose 19 per cent to 74 per cent. Passenger satisfaction on Gatwick Express services is two per cent higher, at 89 per cent, which is also the highest in seven years. Thameslink, which had fallen to 77 per cent in the autumn 2018 survey following the chaos caused by the timetable changes in May last year, has recorded its second highest-ever figure of 83 per cent. All three train companies are run by rail operator Govia Thameslink Railway. Patrick Verwer, chief executive officer of GTR, said: “Passengers on Southern are now happier with the service than they have been at any time in the past seven years. “Across the board, they are more satisfied with the standard of our stations and trains and the smoothrunning of the timetable. “Underpinning these scores is a consistently reliable service, with nine out of ten trains running on time.” He added: “Passenger satisfaction has bounced back on Thameslink and Great Northern as services have recovered from the disruption caused by the spring 2018 timetable change. “On Thameslink, passenger satisfaction is at its second highest level. Punctuality and reliability on Thameslink are good, with almost nine in ten trains arriving on time.” The company has been beset by problems since 2015 including inadequate staffing levels, widespread industrial action and mishandled timetable changes. But for the last reporting period between late April and late May, 91 per cent of Southern services reached their destination less than five minutes late, with the figure at 86 per cent for Thameslink. In light of GTR’S recent performance coupled with the passenger satisfaction levels a number of Sussex figures have weighed in on the current state of services. Mid Sussex MP Sir Nicholas Soames is co-chair of the all party Parliamentary group on Southern rail. He described how GTR’S performance was in a ‘different planet’ compared to the ‘terrible crisis’ passengers had suffered in recent years and it was now up to the company to continue to deliver good performance and even improve on it. He described never believing the answer was to take the franchise away and like many others is now awaiting the publication of the Williams Review, which is looking at the entire structure of the rail industry and the way passenger services are delivered. Meanwhile Arundel and South Downs MP Nick Herbert, who represents Petworth, added: “Looking back there were particular causes of the dismal rail service – driver shortages, the London Bridge station upgrade, terrible implementation of the new timetable, and union disruption – so it does seem to be over the worst. “But the service needs to improve further to become more reliable - trains are still being cancelled and creaking rail infrastructure in the south needs a major upgrade to match rising demand.” GTR’S contract with Government ends in 2021 and tendering for a new operator would likely begin next year. Tim Loughton, who is MP for East Worthing and Shoreham, described how Thameslink and Southern services had ‘definitely improved’ over the past year but they started from a ‘very low base and there are still a large proportion of dissatisfied customers’. But for Mr Loughton the fact remained that GTR’S inability to run a ‘decent and reliable’ service has led to a ‘serious loss of confidence’ among many commuters and had caused ‘untold damage’ not reflected in compensation levels paid to passengers to date. Emily Yates is the cofounder of the Association of British Commuters, a group which has fought to hold GTR to account for its past failures. She felt there had been ‘no justice’ for passengers since GTR first breached its performance benchmarks in 2015 ‘nor all the years of chaos in between’. Ms Yates was also highly critical of the Government’s Department for Transport for its handling of the contract and raised the fact that after the operator was told to pay a £15million fine for the 2018 timetable chaos it is now advertised as a passenger benefit fund. She added: “GTR has failed to take responsibility for years of crisis and is now happy to represent the fine they received as a ‘contribution to passenger benefits’ for maximum PR value. “That this travesty of transport justice has been enabled every step of the way by the Department for Transport remains a matter of shame for the government.”
Underpinning these scores is a consistently reliable service PATRICK VERWER Chief executive officer at GTR