News

For the fourth time, Merseyrail has been awarded the highest mark among franchised operators in the National Rail Passenger Survey (spring 2017), published today, securing 94 per cent for overall satisfaction. 

These results show that broadly, passengers are content with our service. But, with the Wirral line disrupted over six months this year to allow Network Rail to undertake essential track renewal, we know that we have some work ahead to regain the confidence of passengers using that part of the railway.

Jan Chaudhry-van der Velde

Managing Director

This encouraging result is in spite of the fact that the research was undertaken while the Wirral line, comprising half the network, was partially closed over six months to allow Network Rail to undertake major track renewal work.

The score is our third highest ever score and four percentage points above the same period last year. Merseyrail outperformed all other regional rail operators in 29 of the 39 areas covered, with overall satisfaction coming in at seven percentage points above the regional score.

The bi-annual survey is conducted by independent consumer watchdog, Transport Focus, and is a respected industry barometer.

 Jan Chaudhry-van der Velde, Merseyrail's managing director, commented:

‘These results show that broadly, passengers are content with our service. But, with the Wirral line disrupted over six months this year to allow Network Rail to undertake essential track renewal, we know that we have some work ahead to regain the confidence of passengers using that part of the railway.

‘Another area of improvement is how we deal with delays. We have introduced a raft of initiatives to tackle this, including strengthening our social media team based in our control centre, extending their hours and a commitment to rapid response.’

Cllr Liam Robinson, chair of The Combined Authority Transport Committee, which oversees the work of Merseytravel concluded:

‘We're really pleased to see that customer satisfaction levels for Merseyrail passengers are rated as the highest in the country once again, despite the six-months of disruptions during the Wirral Line track renewal work.

‘We strongly believe that our local management of services through our partnership with Merseyrail and our ability to react quickly to meet the needs of our passengers has played a big part in continuing to meet the high standards we've set ourselves during this period.

‘While we're really pleased by the results, we're not going to rest on our laurels. We'll continue to work together to provide high quality rail services that meet the modern day needs of passengers across the city region.’