We’ve done an initial analysis on this morning’s publication by Passenger Focus, the independent watch-dog, of its Annual Passenger Satisfaction Survey. For Southeastern it’s not good.

The survey shows that in Autumn 2014 Southeastern had the lowest level of customer satisfaction (74%) of all the Train Operating Companies. Southeastern’s overall customer satisfaction score has fallen 11 percentage points in the last year.

The detailed results show that Southeastern has the lowest or second lowest level of satisfaction on most of the individual indicators:

• Southeastern has the worst level of customer satisfaction with the value for money of tickets – only 35%
• Southeastern has the second worst level of customer satisfaction with punctuality – only 72%
• Southeastern has the second worst level of customer satisfaction on providing sufficient room for passengers – only 57%
• Southeastern has by far the worst level of customer satisfaction for dealing with delays – only 22%. (The second worst train company scored 29%, showing how much worse Southeastern are than anyone else.)

The survey field work was carried out last Autumn – before ticket prices were put up yet again and before the new timetable was introduced which has slashed services to London Bridge and has introduced serious overcrowding every day.

If anything even these appalling results tend to flatter Southeastern because of Passenger Focus’ methodology:

• The Chief Executive of Passenger Focus has said: “Satisfaction falls off markedly when you ask passengers to recall their most recent or most frequent journey rather than – as our passenger survey does – the precise journey they have just made. In some cases the scores plummet. Passengers start to recall recent bad days, remember perhaps when information during disruption was not good, or when cancellations meant they stood crushed together.”
• The Survey excludes journeys wholly or partly made by replacement bus services, and excludes journeys not made at all because there were no train services due to planned engineering work.

Commenting on the Passenger Focus survey results, Tony Clayton, Chairman of the Sevenoaks Rail Travellers Association, said:

“Passenger Focus’s survey shows that Southeastern’s customer satisfaction has followed its on-time performance inexorably downward over the last year. If anything customers have been rather kind given what has happened to actual performance.

The detailed charts comparing physical performance and customer perception show that this is nothing to do with commuters feeling grumpy on Monday mornings going to work, and everything to do with worsening timekeeping and cancellations. Our rail services are the worst performing in Britain, and there is ever increasing evidence to back our call for a refund of the January increase – and more.”

Southeastern have put out a statement in response to the Passenger Focus report.

Update: In a recorded interview on on BBC Radio Kent at 0655 on 28 January David Statham, Managing Director of Southeastern, added to his statement by promising:

• deep clean of every single train in the Southeastern fleet over the next 8 weeks
• upgrading customer information system at stations
• about 1,500 tablets/iPads to front-line staff so that they have access to better information and to information passengers have
• 100 more front-line staff so that Southeastern have a more human face, particularly when things are not going to plan.

Asked to respond live on air SRTA Secretary Andrew Stott cautiously welcomed these specific steps but said that the test would be whether the trains were kept clean and the toilets kept working, what information would be on the tablets, whether passengers would really get accurate and up-to-date information and whether staff would be actually be more rather than less visible at times of disruption.

What’s your experience please? Do you feel 74% satisfied with Southeastern’s performance? Please use the comment box below to let us know.