Transport Focus, the independent watchdog for transport users, has published its ‘Rail Passenger Scorecards’, ranking punctuality, cancellations and complaints from passengers.
The passenger satisfaction survey highlights six criteria including journey overall, punctuality and reliability, crowding level, value for money, station overall, and train overall.
The Overground network, run by Transport for London (TfL), covers 100 miles of railway, 113 stations and all nine fare zones in the capital.
More than three million passengers use the service each week.
The network spans six routes that are Stratford to Richmond/Clapham Junction, Euston to Watford Junction, Gospel Oak to Barking Riverside, Liverpool Street to Cheshunt/Enfield Town/Chingford, Highbury & Islington to New Cross/Clapham Junction/Crystal Palace/West Croydon and Romford to Upminster.
The London Overground score card screenshot from Transport Focus (Image: Transport Focus)
For the ‘journey overall’ the network came sixth nationally with a score of 89. First was London North Eastern Railway (94), followed by Merseyrail (93) C2C (91), Greater Anglia (91) and ScotRail (90).
The London Overground scored highest on value for money, with a score of 71. Southern scored the worst with 40 points.
The London network was fourth best for ‘train overall’ with 86 points, had higher than average punctuality, and lower than average cancellations.
The line also only had one complaint per 100,000 journeys, with the average being 38 and the maximum being 116 complaints per 100,000 trips.
In the survey, passengers gave varied responses.
One said: “Very rowdy passengers. Someone sat in my seat and wouldn’t move even though I am disabled. No conductor around to help.”
Another said: “Seats were dirty and I didn’t feel safe with the other passengers. The train arrived on time and the staff were nice.”
Rory O’Neill, TfL’s general manager for London Overground, said: “It’s great to see customers recognising our efforts to improve the London Overground and rating it so highly in the recent Transport Focus survey.
“We firmly believe every journey matters and we put our customers at the heart of everything we do, so we’re really pleased that our hard work is being noticed.
“We know there is always more to do and we will continue to look at ways to make our service even better.”
Transport Focus said on its website: “In creating this comparative snapshot for each train operator we want to foster improvements for passengers and ultimately drive-up their satisfaction.
“Transport Focus will use the evidence from the scorecard to monitor passengers’ experiences and challenge train companies to improve reliability and key issues such as information during disruption and crowding.”
Visit https://www.transportfocus.org.uk/insight/rail-passenger-scorecard for more information.
