Published on: Tuesday, 27 January 2015
Last updated: Wednesday, 5 October 2016
Overall satisfaction amongst train operator Abellio Greater Anglia’s customers in the Autumn 2014 National Passenger Survey (NPS) was 80%.
This result is the same as the Autumn 2013 survey despite 2014 being a more challenging period for train service performance. The score of 80% is also the same as the average satisfaction recorded amongst rail passengers surveyed across all other train operators in the London and the South East region.
Areas of the survey where rail passengers reported improvement included the attitude and helpfulness of staff, how requests to staff were handled and provision of information during the journey, reflecting the company’s continued investment focus in customer service training for its 3,000 employees. Customer satisfaction amongst Abellio Greater Anglia’s peak-time commuters also improved in the Autumn 2014 survey.
The regional train operator is firmly prioritising customer-focused improvements in its short franchise to October 2016, recently announcing a further £10 million investment in projects such as an upgrade for the on-train environment on its Class 317 and Class 360 train fleets (on the West Anglia and Great Eastern Main line routes) and the hire of an additional set of intercity carriages to maintain service standards on the Norwich – London line during the refurbishment programme for the key intercity fleet. In addition, the intercity refresh programme will now see more seats being provided for passengers, so that over 2,500 extra standard seats will be available every weekday and over 600,000 every year, once the programme is completed. On some services it will lead to an increase of up to 15% in standard seating. Abellio Greater Anglia is also investing a further £1.5 million in train performance and service reliability initiatives.
Jamie Burles, Managing Director, Abellio Greater Anglia said: “Although customer satisfaction has remained consistent in the Autumn 2014 survey, we know there is much more to do to improve train service performance and customer service in key areas such as cleaning and rolling stock upgrades.
“We have now announced investment of over £30m in our current short franchise to October 2016 to improve the on-train environment, employ more train cleaners, recruit more technicians to increase rolling stock reliability and provide more customer service staff, as well as upgrade the Mark III carriages on our intercity services. We have more initiatives planned - both new projects and the completion of projects already announced, such as the introduction of more Sunday timetable improvements and enhancements to the customer compensation claims process. We are absolutely committed to consistently raising customer service standards and improving customer satisfaction”