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Rail firms urged to reveal 'real' punctuality figures
Rail companies should publish "real" train punctuality figures, a rail customer watchdog said today.
Currently, the rail industry regards trains on short routes as being on time if they arrive no more than five minutes late, while long-distance trains are said to be on time if they are no more than 10 minutes late.
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Now, following a survey, Passenger Focus is calling on the rail industry to tell customers how many of its trains are actually on time.
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Responding, the Association of Train Operating Companies (Atoc) said it was "working to establish the best way to measure punctuality".
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Helped by the National Express East Anglia rail company, Passenger
Focus has found that passengers judge lateness from the first minute the train arrives at the destination after the scheduled time.
For every minute that a train is late, passenger satisfaction drops by two percentage points.
Passenger Focus chief executive Anthony Smith said: "Passengers want their trains actually on time, not up to five or 10 minutes late. To drive passenger satisfaction higher, train companies and Network Rail should focus on running trains to the timetable - not just at the final destination, but at intermediate stations too.
"We found that less than half of passengers in this study get to their home station on time - even though many of the trains they caught will
have counted as on time at the final destination.
"Longer term, we are calling on the industry to move towards a system which reports to passengers whether trains are arriving on time rather than within five or 10 minutes."
An Atoc spokesman said: "Train companies devote much energy and resources to making sure that ever more services arrive on time, and don't need Passenger Focus to remind them that punctuality and reliability are vitally important to passengers.
"Working with Network Rail, operators have achieved historically high levels of punctuality and Passenger Focus's own figures show 83% of passengers are satisfied with punctuality on the railways.
"But train companies are not complacent. As private sector operators, they are in the business of keeping their customers happy and will keep on working hard to continue to improve punctuality and provide passengers with the service they expect and deserve.
"We are also working with other rail partners to establish the best way to measure punctuality in the future."
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Friday 25 May 2012
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