West Midlands passengers registered disapproval with recent ‘awful’ performance, as rail satisfaction dropped by 11 percentage points to its lowest score in 10 years.
The transport user watchdog today releases its latest National Rail Passenger Survey of almost 28,000 passengers. More than 1,000 were West Midlands Trains passengers.
West Midlands Trains operates West Midlands Railway, which runs local services across the West Midlands encompassing Birmingham, Worcester, Staffordshire, across the black country and extending into Shropshire and Herefordshire.
It also runs London Northwestern, which operates services through the Midlands, linking London Euston all the way through to Liverpool as well as services through the Trent Valley.
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 on time, or home at a reasonable hour. When that doesn’t happen, it impacts the rest of their day.
“West Midlands passengers will welcome the additional compensation announced recently – and we urge them to claim everything they can, to send a strong message to the industry and to Make Delay Pay. But ultimately the trains still need to run on time and we want to hear from the operator how it intends to get services back on track.”
Transport Focus will use the evidence from the survey as it continues to push for wide-scale reform of the industry, and immediate improvement in reliability for the worst-affected areas.
Key West Midlands Trains results (for more, please see the full report)
All
London Northwestern
West Midlands Railway
Overall satisfaction
73
70
76
Value for money
51
47
55
Punctuality/reliability
60
58
63
Information provided during the journey
72
69
75
How well the train company dealt with delays
37
39
35
Level of crowding
65
60
69
