Britain’s "broken" rail complaints system has led to ScotRail failing to deal with passenger concerns effectively and failing to treat customers with basic courtesy, new analysis from Which? reveals.
The consumer champion looked at 12 months of rail regulator data and found fewer than half of UK rail passengers were satisfied with how their complaints were dealt with by train companies.
Which? found that less than were in four of ScotRail customers were satisfied with the outcomes of complaints and less one in three were satisified at how they were handled.
That compares to the record of CrossCountry, whose UK network connects cities across Britain, including Glasgow and Edinburgh, which boasted the best approval rating with just less than half of customers satisfied with complaint handling.
For ScotRail, as many as 57% of passengers felt more negatively about the Dutch-run rail operation after the way their complaint was handled.
The consumer organisation which said the ScotRail results were "shocking" felt the findings demonstrate why it is vital that the new rail ombudsman helps ensure train companies deal with passenger complaints better in the first instance.
Users of the rail industry will benefit from the independent rulings of a dedicated ombudsman from November this year, allowing passengers who are unhappy with how TOCs handled their complaints to refer them to experts in consumer rights.
It was announced in July that a new rail ombudsman service to handle complaints about train travel was set to be launched this month. It has emerged the Rail Delivery Group has not yet got a date for the launch saying only that it will be "this side of Christmas".
The Which? analysis came a day after it emerged the number of trains being cancelled across Scotland has risen to a new high, with the latest figures showing an average of around 70 services were scrapped every day.
New figures put the number of ScotRail services being cancelled at almost four per cent in the month to mid-October, three times higher than in the first two years of the franchise.
ScotRail managing director Alex Hynes is today (Wednesday) due to appear before MSPs on the Scottish Parliament rural economy and connectivity committee to give evidence on the state of rail services in Scotland.
On the same day MSPs at Holyrood are to vote on whether the Government should enforce the ScotRail “break clause” to bring the current franchise to an end in 2022. The vote has been initiated by Labour which supports renationalisation of the railways.
Which? looked at Office of Rail and Road data on satisfaction with complaint handling from April 2017 to March this year - a period in which there were more than 500,000 complaints about rail services across the UK.
For some train companies as many as seven in 10 (71%) passengers felt more negatively about the train company after the way their complaint was handled. And across every train operating company in the analysis, no more than half of passengers thought their complaint had even been taken seriously let alone resolved. Alex Hayman, Which? public markets managing director said: “Clearly there are serious underlying problems in the current rail complaints system, which need to be addressed.
“Train companies have to step up and start delivering good customer service when things go wrong - informing passengers about their rights and dealing properly with any complaints that arise.
“We have been calling for this much-needed and independent new rail ombudsman. It should incentivise train companies to listen to passengers in the first place and, when necessary, step in to make sure passengers get the redress they deserve.”
In September ScotRail recorded its worst reliability performance in more than 20 years.
Office of Road and Rail said that the train company's reliability analysis which studies cancellations and significant lateness between April and June this year was the worst it has been since records began in 1997/98.
The analysis reveals that punctuality failures attributed to Network Rail, which is responsible for Scotland's railway infrastructure rose by 51% over the year. Failings blamed on Network Rail’s management of the network rose by 56%.
Paul Plummer, chief executive of the Rail Delivery Group said: “We’re committed to improving the service for our customers and to upholding the highest standards in our complaints process."
A ScotRail spokesman said: "We have a specially trained team of Customer Relations advisors dedicated to dealing with complaints.
"We also ensure that our station and on-train staff have the appropriate training and tools to help resolve customer complaints.
"Our customers rightly expect high standards of service when travelling with us, and we do everything we can to deliver that."
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