Performance Targets

Unfortunately, in Period 01 we missed our Department for Transport Targets for: T-CS1 - Overall Customer Satisfaction and T-CS2 - Satisfaction with Dealing with Delay.

What are we doing about it?

Whilst a reliable and punctual train service performance is the biggest driver of customer satisfaction, we also need to provide customers with an excellent and consistent customer service.

Using a variety of insights, including the recently launched Rail Customer Experience Survey (RCXS) and our Customer Panel, we are working to use customer insight to “home in” on the key issues which are affecting our satisfaction results. This of course requires us to work in lockstep with other industry partners across the North of England and Scotland, recognising that we are collectively delivering for customers across the entire railway together.

We have more work to do to mature some of our targeted plans to improve upon key areas, but we recognise that our immediate focus needs to be on:

• Managing Performance and reliability across the railway network – reducing cancellations and delays
• Driving up consistency for customers – addressing the on-board and at-station experience to ensure customers enjoy value for money
• Ensuring our experience is inclusive and safe for everyone – everyone deserves to feel welcome, supported and safe during their journey.
• Improvements to customers who experience delays – acknowledging that delays are never what we strive for, they can happen and customers need up-to-date information and support to complete their journey.

Managing Performance and reliability across the railway network

We work extremely closely with industry partners including Network Rail (who are responsible for the railway’s infrastructure) as we recognise that performance must be better and more consistent. We are building a Joint Performance Plan with partners across the North and are working hard to deliver essential engineering upgrades, such as the Transpennine Route Upgrade and significant works across the West Coast Mainline.

Billions of pounds are being invested into the railway across the North and we recognise our vital role to support customers throughout these upgrade schemes and to do better on reliability and consistency in the meantime. You can read more about the investment in the North’s railways here.

Driving up consistency for customers

Across stations, we are working with industry partners, including Network Rail and Northern Trains, to improve the customer experience across all stations, particularly the main gateways to the North like Liverpool Lime Street, Manchester Piccadilly, Leeds and Manchester Airport. We are in the process of embedding a 10% uplift in station colleagues across our managed stations and are introducing additional staff at other locations such as Glasgow Central.

For our on-board experience, we recognise cleanliness, toilet reliability, WiFi and our First Class experience are key areas of focus. We are working on refresh plans for our fleets, are bedding in and introducing additional toilet tanking equipment at Liverpool and Leeds, preparing to procure new WiFi services and are investing in the First Class experience including the recent introduction of our hot food, at-service TransPennine Kitchen proposition (you can read more about that here).

Ensuring our experience is inclusive and safe for everyone

A key focus for this year is to invest in our safeguarding schemes, this includes the introduction of 8 dedicated TPE Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs), whom we are embedding into our network. We are recruiting PCSOs at several locations, with PCSOs already in place at a number of locations including Preston, Manchester and Hull. These officers are undertaking regular patrols both on-board TPE services and at TPE stations, in partnership with our existing security personnel and the wider BTP, to provide support and reassurance to colleagues and customers. This includes targeted support at anti-social behaviour hotspots.

Improving the inclusivity of our offerings, particularly Passenger Assist, is a critical focus and we are in the process of delivering our Passenger Assist improvement plan (including the additional staffing at our managed stations) and working with other parties to ensure a customer’s end-to-end journey is consistent and high quality, agnostic of who they are traveling with. We also continue to deliver industry training (and refresher training) to our teams in this vital area.

Improvements to customers who experience delays

Reviewing our communication during delays is important to ensure they meet customer requirements. Further to insight from our Customer Panel, we are ensuring that our customer facing colleagues on-board and at stations are equipped, confident, and empowered to deliver consistently for customers each and every journey. This includes giving colleagues the right tools and support so they can provide accurate and timely information to customers, including during times of disruption, and support them with their roles. A range of tools are currently available, but we are providing additional support for colleagues by working to refresh them on key skills and information sources which will be beneficial to driving greater consistency of customer experience. We are working to deliver greater staff visibility at key locations during period of disruption (as mentioned above) and we are working to simplify Delay Repay, by working with the industry on the recently announced reforms.

We continuously review the insights from customer surveys and panels, including the Rail Customer Experience Survey, and use this information to inform the development of our plans going forward. If you wish to register your interest for our customer panel you can do so here.