National Rail Passenger Survey
To mark the latest National Rail Passenger Survey results, published by Transport Focus on July 25, the independent passenger watchdog’s chief executive ANTHONY SMITH talks to RAIL about the survey’s past, present and future
Anthony Smith of Transport Focus looks to the future of the NRPS.
Seventeen years since its debut, and with more than one million passengers interviewed, the bi-annual release of the National Rail Passenger Survey (NRPS) results has become a firm and eagerly anticipated fixture in the industry calendar.
Providing a thoroughly detailed nationwide picture of passenger satisfaction with rail travel, it is used as an official tool by government to measure how well train operators are looking after their passengers.
Surveying more than 55,000 passengers each year, the unrivalled accuracy of NRPS scores is trusted enough to be incorporated into franchise terms by the Department of Transport, which will - in turn - fine operators (TOCs) in cases of underperformance.
Closer to home, it is also used as a highly respected benchmarking tool by RAIL’s National Rail Awards judges, and underpins the decision-making for the Operator of the Year Award.
But why does the NRPS have such elevated status when other independent consumer satisfaction surveys are also available, such as that compiled by Which? on an annual basis?
“The NRPS is an incredibly rich data source,” says Transport Focus Chief Executive Anthony Smith. “In fact, so much data is gathered on things like gender, age, region, operator and so much else that it takes five months from the first questionnaire being handed out to the results being known.
“The NRPS gives a snapshot over a 20-week period, not two days. This often gives us different results from other surveys, but that is very deliberate. It focuses on the journey just taken, which makes the data far more useful to TOCs trying to remedy specific problems. We can link individual NRPS questionnaire responses to particular trains, so that gives operators a forensic view of what their passengers are thinking and experiencing.
“Other surveys often just ask more generalised questions, and there is not always any effort made to corroborate that the respondent has actually taken the journey they have just been asked about.”
He adds: “We make sure that the sample is as representative of the British rail-using population as possible, and the questions have been tested to extremes by independent third parties.
“This relatively inexpensive research in a £10 billion industry drives a lot of change, not least in benchmarking. It is becoming more and more relevant in an age when, increasingly, the passenger is king, but it now needs to be supplemented by other bits of research.”
Smith is referring to the current efforts