Virgin Trains rated top long-distance franchise

LONDON, England – Virgin Trains has been rated best long-distance franchise operator for overall satisfaction – in the latest Spring 2011 National Passenger Survey.

LONDON, England – Virgin Trains has been rated best long-distance franchise operator for overall satisfaction – in the latest Spring 2011 National Passenger Survey. For the third survey in a row, passengers gave Virgin Trains the highest rating of any long-distance franchise operator when asked how satisfied they were with their overall journey. Ninety percent of those questioned rated Virgin Trains as satisfactory or good.

Top marks for punctuality and reliability

Figures for punctuality continue to soar, with 92 percent of customers giving Virgin Trains satisfied/good ratings (up from 89 percent for the same time last year), and 94 percent awarding top marks for journey times. Once again, these figures are the highest for any long-distance train operating franchise.

The station and onboard environment

Overall satisfaction with the station environment remains well ahead of the sector average, with 82% of customers giving a satisfied/good rating. The train environment performs ahead of the sector average in all areas with improvements in comfort, cleanliness and personal security. It’s also a big thumbs up for Virgin Trains’ staff with helpfulness and attitude of on train staff and provision of information during journey, rated 80 percent and 81 percent respectively.

Other highlights include…

At stations

– Overall satisfaction with station ( 82 percent, up from 80
percent)
– Provision of information about train times/platforms (86
percent)
– How requests to staff were handled (86 percent)

On Trains

– Cleanliness of the inside (88 percent)
– Upkeep and repair (89 percent)
– The ease of being able to get on and off (87 percent)

Regional successes

In terms of overall satisfaction on Virgin Trains’ routes, London-Scotland was the most improved, with 93 percent of customers giving a satisfied/good rating.

Across the industry, value for money for price of ticket scores poorly. While Virgin Trains received some of the best scores on this measure, only 59 percent of customers rated the company good or satisfactory. This is a disappointing result given the amount of work that has been done to improve and promote the availability of our many thousands of excellent value Advance fares on offer every week.

Tony Collins, Virgin Trains Chief Executive Officer, says: “I’m absolutely delighted that Virgin Trains has been voted top long-distance franchise operator – for the third time in a row. The start of this year was extremely challenging for us with some of the harshest weather conditions experienced under our stewardship of the West Coast franchise. We worked round-the-clock to limit disruption during this time and I think these results reflect our efforts.

“Passenger numbers have doubled from 14 million a year to over 28 million a year in the last six years and I would like to thank our passengers for this vote of confidence and pay tribute to the Virgin Trains’ people who continue to raise the bar in terms of the service they deliver. Of course, I recognise that there are areas where we can do more, such as at stations, and I’d like to assure customers that for the remainder of the franchise we will be focusing on providing them with best and most reliable service. We are continuing to work with Network Rail to keep a real focus on train performance.”

The National Passenger Survey is carried out twice a year – in Spring and Autumn – by rail watchdog Passenger Focus and is a key marker of train operating companies’ performance.

About the author

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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