The independent Which? survey published today once again puts Southeastern and Thameslink at the bottom of the league for customer satisfaction.
What’s more, over 10% of their customers think that they have got even worse over the last 12 months.
Which? conducts an annual passenger satisfaction survey. Its methodology looks at the overall experience over a period of time. That’s different from that of the twice-a-year Transport Focus survey which focuses on the last journey and may underestimate the overall experience of regular commuters.
The results show that once Southeastern and Thameslink have the worst overall customer score (46% each). They have technically swapped places at the bottom since the last survey, but the differences are marginal. Southern are again not much better.
Southeastern does worse than pretty well every other company on important aspects like clean trains and functioning toilets on trains and at stations. Over a third of Southeastern commuters, and 42% of Thameslink commuters, had a delay on their last journey.
Passengers say that they want better reliability and punctuality, manned stations throughout the day, better information, better waiting facilities and free wifi – which they are not getting from Southeastern.
Over 3 in 4 of Southeastern’s and Thamelink’s customers think that they are overcharged for the service that they get.
Unsurprisingly Southeastern’s and Thameslink’s customers seem to know that there’s little point complaining – only 1 in 8 of those who think of complaining now bother to do so, and less than half of those who did were satisfied with the response.
By contrast London Overground, Chiltern and C2C are over 10 percentage points better than Southeastern and Thameslink. Indeed even South West Trains are rated 5 percentage points better. London Overground are also rated better than Southeastern in 5 of the 8 categories of customer satisfaction, including 4 of the 5 categories that are solely within Southeastern’s control – seatings, toilets, cleanliness of carriages, train condition and value for money.
The Which? report offers meagre pickings to Southeastern’s spin doctors. It’s true that Southeastern’s score this year is marginally higher this year, at 46% up from 44% last year. However that’s a small difference and is within the margins of sampling error. And at that rate of increase it will take them five years to reach where London Overground is now.
Commenting on this Survey, SRTA Chairman Tony Clayton said:
“This independent survey confirms what our members and supporters see every day from Southeastern and Thameslink – poor, unreliable, delayed and dirty services with over-priced fares. This should be a wake up call for local MPs to support the Department for Transport and Transport for London proposals for changes. These will raise standards, increase competition, enhance democratic accountability to customers, and give Kent and South East London the services they needs for economic and social development.”