Autumn 2014 National Passenger Survey results published

Overall satisfaction amongst train operatorAbellio Greater Anglia’s customers in the Autumn 2014 National Passenger Survey(NPS) was 80%.

This result is the same as the Autumn 2013survey despite 2014 being a more challenging period for train serviceperformance. The score of 80% is also the same as the average satisfactionrecorded amongst rail passengers surveyed across all other train operators inthe London and the South East region.

Areas of the survey where rail passengers reportedimprovement included the attitude and helpfulness of staff, how requests tostaff were handled and provision of information during the journey, reflecting thecompany’s continued investment focus in customer service training for its 3,000employees. Customer satisfaction amongst Abellio Greater Anglia’s peak-timecommuters also improved in the Autumn 2014 survey.

The regional train operator is firmlyprioritising customer-focused improvements in its short franchise to October2016, recently announcing a further £10 million investment in projects such asan 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 anadditional set of intercity carriages to maintain service standards on theNorwich – London line during the refurbishment programme for the key intercityfleet. In addition, the intercity refresh programme will now see more seatsbeing provided for passengers, so that over 2,500 extra standard seats will beavailable every weekday and over 600,000 every year, once the programme iscompleted. On some services it will lead to an increase of up to 15% in standardseating. Abellio Greater Anglia is also investing a further £1.5 million intrain performance and service reliability initiatives.

Jamie Burles, Managing Director, AbellioGreater Anglia said: “Although customer satisfaction has remained consistent inthe Autumn 2014 survey, we know there is much more to do to improve trainservice performance and customer service in key areas such as cleaning androlling stock upgrades.

“We have now announced investment of over£30m in our current short franchise to October 2016 to improve the on-trainenvironment, employ more train cleaners, recruit more technicians to increase rollingstock reliability and provide more customer service staff, as well as upgradethe Mark III carriages on our intercity services. We have more initiativesplanned - both new projects and the completion of projects already announced,such as the introduction of more Sunday timetable improvements and enhancementsto the customer compensation claims process. We are absolutely committed to consistently raising customer servicestandards and improving customer satisfaction”