National rail survey shows high passenger satisfaction on East Coast service (From York Press)

National rail survey shows high passenger satisfaction on East Coast service

7:57am Friday 5th February 2010 in

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YORK train companies today hailed new figures showing high passenger satisfaction with the services they provide on the East Coast Main Line.

Museum Street-based Grand Central said 95 per cent of its passengers on the route to London were “satisfied or very satisfied”, according to statistics released by the watchdog Passenger Focus following an autumn national passenger survey.

A spokesman said this meant the company was the country’s second top performing rail business in terms of overall passenger satisfaction.

Managing director Tom Clift said: “We are delighted by this vote of confidence from our customers.”

Station Road-based East Coast also welcomed a two per cent rise in its passenger satisfaction levels, from 87 last spring to 89 per cent in the autumn, which was its highest level since spring 2006.

East Coast managing director Karen Boswell said: “The survey results are very encouraging and give us a solid base on which to build improvements, with plans in place to raise standards further.

“Our people are doing a great job in delivering a higher quality of service for our customers.”

Mr Clift said passengers were consistently rating Open Access operators, such as Grand Central, above franchised operators, and he believed this should send out a clear message that Open Access had an important role to play in rejuvenating and growing Britain’s railways.

The number of passengers satisfied with the service provided by First TransPennine Express, which runs trains from York to places including Scarborough, Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool, also rose from 87 per cent last spring to 89 per cent in the autumn.

Edith Rodgers, customer services director for the operator, said: “We have seen an improvement in 27 of the 31 scores overall which is a testament to the dedication of our staff who continuously strive to provide the highest standards of customer service.”

But satisfaction levels with York-based Northern Rail, which runs a number of local services in this region, fell from 87 per cent to 82 per cent. Northern Rail said although their satisfaction levels had fallen since spring, they were unchanged between autumn 2008 and autumn 2009.

Heidi Mottram, Northern Rail’s managing director, said: “There is much more we want to do, including improvements to some of our larger stations, expanding our cycle storage facilities and refurbishing our trains, to provide an even better service for passengers.”

CrossCountry, which runs trains from York to cities including Birmingham and Bristol, saw satisfaction levels fall from 87 per cent to 85.