SCOTRAIL is to spend £100,000 on undercover ‘mystery shoppers’ to ride its trains amid growing criticism of the services being provided by the Dutch operator of the franchise.
A London-based firm, BDRC Continental, has been awarded the lucrative contract to carry out the audits and will see up to 220 journeys taken by people tasked with discretely monitoring services every month.
The secret shoppers, who are paid “a small incentive” in addition to train fares, will visit stations and interact with staff before going on their journeys, even riding on replacement buses when necessary. They will then report back on their experience in a bid to help bosses understand its service from a customer’s perspective.
While sources at Scotrail said the new contract was part of a standard re-tendering exercise and not linked to concerns over performance, it comes as operator Abellio faces increasing scrutiny.
Last week, Nicola Sturgeon faced calls to take a firmer line with the operator of the £6 billion franchise, with new figures showing that a third of all routes in Scotland had services that were late more often than they were on time despite peak-time prices soaring over recent years. An online petition calling for Abellio, which makes £1m-a-month profit from the franchise, to be stripped of its contract if no improvements are made has been signed by more than 14,000 people.
Neil Bibby, Scottish Labour’s transport spokesman, said: “While services are delayed, cancelled, overcrowded, and overpriced, ScotRail has found £100,000 to spend on mystery shoppers to tell them that their trains are delayed, cancelled, overcrowded, and overpriced.
“The real mystery here is the case of the missing transport minister - when is Humza Yousaf going to tell us what improvements will be made and when?”
While Scotrail has provided an improvement plan to ministers, the Scottish Government has faced calls to spell out a timetable for specific upgrades.
A ScotRail spokesman said: “Mystery shopping audits provide valuable insight on the level of service we provide every single day. By highlighting areas where were performing well and areas where we can improve, mystery shopping allows us to focus on continuous customer service improvement.”
There has been further frustration this week after passengers were warned they face seven weeks of disruption on services across the Central Belt, with more trains cancelled, less frequent, diverted or replaced by buses as part of ongoing electrification works.
Pressure Group Transport Focus said: “Investment in maintenance and improvement is to be welcomed. But our research is clear: passengers want to stay on the train wherever possible, they want to know before buying a ticket if part of the journey will be by bus, and they want plenty of staff on hand to help.”
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