COMMENT
Ashwin Kumar, Passenger Focus’s rail director, explains the importance of passenger involvement in the decision to award the West Coast Main Line franchise.
I
f you ask passengers what they want im- proved when it comes to the railway, top of the list is value for money, more punctual services and frequent trains.
Who runs the train is less important. How- ever, the independent passenger watchdog is making sure that passengers play a central role in the Government’s decision making process to set the next West Coast franchise.
One of the first big changes to the rail indus- try that the new Government ushered in was the option to create longer franchise con- tracts for those train companies appointed to run Britain’s rail companies. The Inter- City West Coast franchise is one of the first to come up under this process, with the next contract due to run from December 2012 un- til 2026.
In our capacity as the independent pas- senger watchdog, we have been talking to passengers from the very early stages of the re-franchise to ensure that the passenger’s needs from the new operator and its services are explicit. After all, with the Government’s policy on awarding train companies longer franchises, it is essential that the new West Coast contract is ‘passenger-focused’ from the outset.
Passenger Focus has long spoken of the advantages of longer franchises but we rec- ognise there are pros and cons to extend- ing deals. Yes, one significant benefit is the capacity to see greater investment by the private sector. It also allows the operator to keep focus on its services, learn from passen- gers’ feedback and build on satisfaction rat- ings. On the other hand, consideration must be given to passenger needs from the train company, how performance will be reviewed over such a long period of time and how the franchise can remain flexible and respond to a changing economy, passenger needs and operating environment. Just as important are passenger satisfaction monitoring and consequences for those train companies not meeting standards.
Due to the extended length to the franchise, a franchise designed around passenger pri- orities is crucial. Therefore Passenger Focus has welcomed the opportunity to research passenger views from the start. As part of our submission to the Department for Transport on the InterCity West Coast franchise, we un- dertook new research with more than 4,000
passengers currently using Virgin Trains’ services which revealed passengers’ priorities for improvement include:
1. Value for money 2. Punctuality and reliability 3. Journey time 4. Capacity; and 5. Cleanliness.
Our research shows that passengers using the current Virgin services are among the most satisfied in Great Britain. Compared with other long-distance train operating compa- nies, passengers rate Virgin Trains ‘number one’ for several aspects of train and station facilities including overall satisfaction and on their top priorities of frequency, punctuality, journey time, information during the jour- ney and sufficient room to sit or stand on the train. In regards to passengers’ top priority for improvement – value for money – scores are propped up by the leisure passengers’ sat- isfaction score, with the overall result mask- ing lower levels of satisfaction for commuters and business passengers.
The power of investment is clear. Virgin’s new trains and the work to establish a turn- up-and-go frequency on the West Coast have been fundamental to keeping passengers happy over recent years. The challenge for the next operator is to build on the high levels of passenger satisfaction already achieved. Given the good passenger rating, we believe it is important that as part of the procurement process bidders should demonstrate how they intend to improve National Passenger Survey satisfaction scores and meet passen- gers’ priorities for improvement.
Also, due to the length of the next InterCity West Coast franchise, we also want the Gov- ernment to ensure that targets are put in place to monitor the train company’s service. These should include punctuality, reliability and crowding measures as well as passenger satisfaction scores.
Passenger Focus’ recommendations to gov- ernment include:
• Giving passengers a voice in the new fran- chise through monitoring of passenger satis- faction in the National Passenger Survey; • Improving value for money, trust among passengers and ease of buying a ticket; • Improving overall performance, measure- ment and transparency of punctuality and reliability for the benefit of passengers; • Timetable improvements; • Increasing capacity; • Keeping trains clean; • Addressing passenger satisfaction with per- sonal security; • Providing better information to passengers during disruption; • Improving passenger satisfaction with sta- tions and facilities; • A commitment to meet the needs of disa- bled passengers; and
• Introduce a new passenger charter.
Passenger Focus will be reporting its re- search findings and making recommenda- tions to the shortlisted bidders.
Longer franchises have the potential to im- prove rail services for passengers but they must be focused on passengers’ needs from the outset of the deal. There must be passen- ger satisfaction targets, checks and balances to monitor service quality and repercus- sions where a train company isn’t perform- ing. Passengers won’t want to be stuck with a company providing a lacklustre railway service. We therefore hope that this research and ongoing passenger consultation and feed- back is central to this next rail franchise.
Ashwin Kumar FOR MORE INFORMATION
The DfT consultation is available at tinyurl. com/6aj59er
rail technology magazine Apr/May 11 | 33
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