UK rail travel: Two thirds of commuters think train journeys are not good value for money, survey finds

Survey of British train passengers found overall satisfaction was down

Passengers are generally satisfied with rail travel - but not with the cost (PA)

The majority of commuters believe their journeys do not represent good value for money and are dissatisfied with the way delays are handled, according to a survey released today.

The National Rail Passenger Survey, conducted by Transport Focus, consulted with 27,819 passengers from all over Great Britain between September and November 2017 to gather data about travellers’ satisfaction with train travel in the UK.

Overall satisfaction in autumn 2017 was 81 per cent, down 2 per cent from spring the same year. The happiest passengers were those travelling for leisure purposes, with 89 per cent saying they were satisfied overall with their journeys, in contrast to just 73 per cent of commuters.

Commuters were the least satisfied with every aspect of rail travel when compared to those travelling for leisure or business. Some 67 per cent said they were dissatisfied with their journeys when it came to value for money, while 70 per cent weren’t happy with how delays were handled.

When it comes to individual train operators, Southern fared the worst – 28 per cent of respondents said they were dissatisfied with their overall journey.

At the other end of the spectrum, Grand Central, which connects Yorkshire and the North East to London with two routes, scored 96 per cent for overall satisfaction, with the remaining 4 per cent saying they were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied.

While the scores for satisfaction were all fairly high, the survey tells a different story when it comes to perceived value for money. Again, Grand Central is top of the heap, with 74 per cent of passengers responding that they were satisfied with this; however, it has dropped five percentage points since the last survey.

South Western Railway, Southeastern and Southern all scored poorly in this category with the first two garnering just 36 per cent in terms of satisfied travellers and the latter 38 per cent.

The Rail Delivery Group, which works with train operators and Network Rail, sees the results as fairly positive while acknowledging there is room for improvement. Jacqueline Starr, managing director of customer experience, said: “Four out of five journeys were rated satisfactory or good by our customers but we know there is much more to do, which is why rail companies are working together with a long-term plan to change and improve.

“Our plan commits us to increasing satisfaction through the introduction of 7,000 new carriages enabling an extra 6,400 services a week by 2021, better connecting communities and boosting local economies across the country.”

Virgin Trains performed well for a long distance operator, scoring 91 per cent for overall satisfaction and 63 per cent for value for money.

Phil Whittingham, MD of Virgin Trains on the west coast, said: “We’ve recently celebrated our twentieth anniversary and I’m proud that our customers still rate us highly when they travel with us. Our ambition is to continue to build on our record of innovation and to revolutionise the way customers travel by rail.”