The Office of Rail and Road's latest survey shows once again
there remain too many instances of passengers not receiving the
help they had booked. As part of the regulator's priorities for
the coming year, it will benchmark and rate each operator on its
delivery of passenger assistance to better target interventions.
More than 8,700 people participated in the Experiences of
Passenger Assist survey, and while 94% of passengers were
satisfied with the assistance they received, the service remains
inconsistent with 11% reporting that they received none of the
assistance that they booked, similar to the 12% reported last
year.
Other key findings from the report:
- 88% were satisfied with the service from booking to receiving
assistance in 2024-2025 compared to 87% in 2023-2024
- Four in five (82%) passengers who booked assistance felt they
were met in an acceptable time frame, compared to 80% in
2023-2024
- The proportion of passengers who were not met at all stayed
the same in both 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 (10%).
- The proportion of passengers who received all of the
assistance that they booked (78%) remained comparable to
2023-2024 (76%).
Northern remains among the poorest performers for the reliability
of assistance, however ORR has noted it is making
good progress on the delivery of an improvement plan.
The regulator added it will focus its attention to monitoring
whether these improvements result in benefits for Northern's
passengers.
In its latest Annual Rail Consumer Report, out today, ORR set out
its priorities for rail accessibility for the coming year, which
includes its first report ranking each operator on how well it is
delivering assistance, having today published its revised
framework following a consultation.
Operators will be marked on reliability, passenger satisfaction
and staff training. The poorest performing operators will also be
assessed on their capability to improve, including considering
how they monitor their delivery of assistance and how they
identify risks that affect performance. The first report will be
published this autumn.
The regulator also said it would continue to support
operators looking to enhance how they communicate and record
assistance requests; and provide an update on how it will take
forward its proposal to revise its Accessible Travel Policy
guidance so that redress claims are always considered based
on the circumstances in each case.
ORR will also monitor Network Rail's improvement plan to address
the reliability issues with lifts at its stations. Recent annual
data showed a 42% increase in the number of faults
across the rail network that put lifts out of service for over
one week.
And the regulator will continue to liaise with operators acting
on recommendations for improving passenger information for
planned rail replacement services. In a letter to industry this
month, the regulator said further progress has been
made, with nine operators providing better accessibility
information about their replacement services on their
websites.
Stephanie Tobyn, ORR's director of strategy, policy and
reform said:
"Ensuring that disabled passengers consistently receive the
support they need to travel by train requires clear focus,
collaboration and a commitment to continuous improvement. Our
latest survey shows that overall passenger satisfaction has
plateaued, and we know that, in some instances, assistance
failures can leave passengers feeling powerless and frustrated.
"This new rating system will help us target our efforts and use
resources effectively, focusing on working with those operators
where improvement is most needed to deliver better outcomes for
passengers."
Contact Information
Saj Chowdhury
saj.chowdhury@orr.gov.uk
Notes to editors
Annual Rail Consumer
Report
Experiences of Passenger
Assist 2024-25
Benchmarking operators'
performance in rail passenger assistance - revised framework and
summary of consultation responses
The Annual Rail Consumer report looks at ORR's duties relating to
ticket retailing and passenger rights; passenger information;
accessible travel, complaints and compensation and The Rail
Ombudsman. It also notes the review of train operators' revenue
protection practices, commissioned by the Department for
Transport and published in June, and sets out ORR's priorities
for the year ahead.
Better rail customer service: ORR has a key role to improve the
rail passenger experience in the consumer areas for which we have
regulatory responsibility and take prompt and effective action to
improve the service that passengers receive where it is
required.
