Arriva continues to deliver improved passenger satisfaction

Latest research published by independent watchdog Passenger Focus shows that rail travellers recognise Arriva’s UK train businesses are delivering improved levels of passenger satisfaction.

Leading European transport group Arriva manages five rail businesses, providing business, commuter and leisure journeys for passengers across most of Britain.

Passengers from all the group’s UK rail businesses scored their overall travel experience higher than the UK national average in the latest National Rail Passenger Survey.

Key highlights from the autumn 2013 National Rail Passenger Survey show:

• four of Arriva’s five UK rail businesses outscored their peer groups for ‘overall satisfaction’, with the fifth, CrossCountry at 86 per cent, still being three per cent higher than the national average
• open access business Grand Central’s overall satisfaction score of 95 per cent was seven per cent higher than its long distance peers and 12 per cent above the national average
• all five businesses comfortably outperformed the industry average of 79 per cent satisfaction for ‘punctuality’, with Chiltern Railways scoring an impressive 92 per cent
• Chiltern Railways, Grand Central and Arriva’s joint-venture business London Overground each had a score of over 90 per cent for ‘overall satisfaction with the train’, compared to the national average of 80 per cent, and
• employees at Arriva Trains Wales, Grand Central and CrossCountry scored significantly higher than the national average for ‘helpfulness and attitude of staff’, with each scoring over 80 per cent compared to the industry average of 66 per cent.

Commenting on the latest statistics, Steve Murphy, Arriva UK Trains’ chief operating officer, said: “These figures show the hard work and dedication of everyone at Arriva UK Trains is resulting in high levels of passenger satisfaction. With expectations increasing each year as investment flows into Britain’s railways, to have an average of almost nine out of ten customers satisfied with Arriva UK Trains’ services is great news.

“Grand Central’s performance is particularly outstanding as it outperformed all other rail businesses with a fantastic 98 per cent of customers satisfied with its services between Bradford and London. With our requests for other new open access services currently being reviewed, these results help strengthen the case for open access services and show how competition to regular franchised services can deliver improvements for passengers and the wider rail industry.

“While these results demonstrate the success of our investing in improvements across our businesses, we know there is more we can do as we focus on delivering continued customer satisfaction, and we will be studying the results of this research closely to see where we can make further improvements.”

Notes to editor:

• Arriva UK Trains is part of the Arriva group - one of the largest providers of passenger transport in Europe with some 56,000 employees operating in 14 countries.
• Every year Arriva UK Trains’ rail businesses operate more than 1.2 million services and deliver more than 245 million passenger journeys. Arriva also operates rail services in the Czech Republic, Denmark, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Sweden.
• Arriva is part of Deutsche Bahn, one of the world’s leading passenger transport and logistics service providers. Headquartered in Sunderland, UK, Arriva is responsible for Deutsche Bahn's passenger transport services outside Germany.