ScotRail spends £100k... to see how awful it is!

Anger after ‘mystery shoppers’ hired

SCOTRAIL has spent nearly £100,000 on mystery shoppers to gauge customer satisfaction – at the same time as more than 19,000 travellers demanded action over its service.

The government-subsidised firm splashed £99,000 to hire 130 mystery shoppers every month.

ScotRail claims the move will ‘assist with customer service delivery’ and identify ‘areas to improve customer satisfaction’.

But the spend can be revealed just a day after a petition was delivered with 19,242 signatures telling commuters’ horror stories to the Scottish Government.

ScotRail’s decision not to simply listen to commuters’ accounts has provoked a strong reaction.

Scottish Labour transport spokesman Neil Bibby claimed the scheme would reveal complaints already voiced by disgruntled passengers. He said: ‘While services are delayed, cancelled, overcrowded, and overpriced, ScotRail has found £100,000 to spend on mystery shoppers to tell them that their trains are delayed, cancelled, overcrowded, and overpriced.’

As the petition was delivered in Glasgow on Wednesday, campaigners from activist group 38 Degrees said they wanted to present passengers’ ‘accounts of ScotRail’. A spokesman said: ‘There is an awful lot people are very, very unhappy about.’

They urged transport minister Humza Yousaf to strip operator Abellio of its £6billion contract to run ScotRail if significant improvements are not made.

Bruce Williamson, of transport campaign group Railfuture, said mystery shopping could be useful for many firms. But he added: ‘I suspect that [ScotRail] know where the weaknesses are already. It’s up to them to get on with it.’

Yesterday ScotRail communications director Rob Shorthouse insisted that forking out for mystery shoppers was justified.

He said: ‘We’re not going to criticise anybody for signing a petition. But we’re not going to use that for the basis of improvements we’re going to make.

‘We’re going to continue to be looking for ways in which we can do things better, and that’s why we have the mystery shoppers.’

Mr Shorthouse was speaking at ScotRail’s release of its performance improvement plan.

Transport Scotland demanded the blueprint as a result of more than 10 per cent of trains arriving late.

ScotRail bosses listed the plans to improve train services – and said they were ‘playing a wee bit of catch-up’. They claimed the effects of their changes were already being seen but added that they ‘won’t put a time scale’ on when they will reach targets.

David Dickson, ScotRail infrastructure director, refused to admit that the company is letting commuters down, blaming disruption on an ‘unprecedented level of change on the network’.

But he said: ‘I think our performance isn’t good enough – that we’re kind of “hands up”.

‘We do have a plan, we are delivering it and we are beginning to see green shoots.’

He promised a marked improvement before Christmas and continued: ‘There should be less disruption to the service. More on-time running, less times of trains being cancelled, and just a more reliable service.’

A 38 Degrees spokesman warned: ‘Only time will tell if passengers experience fewer delays and overcrowding. The huge level of public anger means that this issue won’t go away any time soon unless things get better.’

‘Playing a wee bit of catch-up’