Passengers on Northern rail are the least satisfied with their service, according to the official national survey which shows that the network – which stands on the brink of renationalisation – is rated the worst of all train operators.
The results come as the government is poised to announce that the Arriva-operated Northern will have its franchise terminated five years early, with the network most likely to be taken back under direct state control. The announcement is expected to come as soon as Wednesday.
The national rail passenger survey, a biannual report based on almost 28,000 passengers’ journeys, found that satisfaction on West Midlands had deteriorated the most, down by 11 percentage points since autumn 2018.
South Western Railway (SWR) passengers – many of whom pay thousands of pounds for season tickets – were the most dissatisfied with the value for money of their journey. Barely one in three SWR passengers thought their fare represented good value.
TransPennine Express (TPE) passengers were the most dissatisfied at the levels of overcrowding, with more than one in three objecting.
Northern and SWR passengers were least satisfied with how their train operators dealt with delays, with just 34% feeling it was good or satisfactory.
The dire results come in spite of the survey being completed in the autumn before some of the worst problems on the railway occurred, including a month-long strike on SWR in December and regular walkouts on West Midlands.
TransPennine Express may have also escaped a far more critical appraisal due to the worst problems, widespread cancellations and delays having taken place around the timetable change in mid-December. According to the survey, 79% of TPE passengers were satisfied, while even Northern scored 72%.
The methodology of the survey, which asks only about the last journey taken, within a limited time period, has been criticised by the statistics regulator for not fully reflecting passengers’ experience.
The independent passenger watchdog Transport Focus says it needs more funding to run the survey continuously, but argues it still provides evidence “to push for wide-scale reform of the industry, and immediate improvement in reliability for the worst-affected areas”.
The Transport Focus chief executive, Anthony Smith, said: “Passengers tell us that their biggest priority is rail services they can rely on to actually get them to work or home on time. Until train companies and Network Rail can consistently deliver on their promises across the country satisfaction will continue to vary.
“In the meantime passengers hit by poor performance must make their voice heard and claim Delay Repay compensation.”
Less than half of passengers nationwide are satisfied with the value of their ticket, with commuters in the south especially dissatisfied.
However, performance in London and the south-east has improved markedly since the disruption sparked by the calamitous introduction of new services in the May 2018 timetable. The fallout resulted in overall national satisfaction with rail journeys sinking to its lowest level in a decade in the autumn 2018 survey released a year ago.
While Northern and TPE have barely recovered, greater reliability across the Govia Thameslink Railway services has led to Great Northern, which languished at the bottom of the table in the autumn 2018 and spring 2019 surveys, making a 12% improvement over the year.
The best-scoring rail operators were the smallest operations: Heathrow Express, Grand Central and Hull trains.
Industry body the Rail Delivery Group welcomed the slight improvement from autumn 2018 – although the results are worse than the spring survey, which consistently shows happier passengers than the autumn poll.
The RDG director of nations and regions, Robert Nisbet, said: “While we are working hard to address challenges on some routes where train punctuality should be better, today’s improved satisfaction scores show that passengers are feeling the benefits of investment in thousands of new carriages and extra services.”
