Virgin Trains leads the way in customer satisfaction and performance for long-distance operators

• Virgin Trains top of long-distance franchised operators in latest NRPS results

• Passenger satisfaction scores show marked improvement in stations and on-board facilities

• Services score highly for journey time, frequency and punctuality

Virgin Trains has achieved some of the highest overall scores for long-distance franchised operators in today’s NRPS results, scoring 90% on its west coast route and 91% on its east coast route. Virgin Trains which has delivered consistently high scores on the west coast for a number of years is now seeing the best autumn result on its east coast route in three years.

Stations and On-board

The £50m investment in the refurbishment of the entire east coast fleet and enhancements in customer experience were reflected in a 10% rise in scores for the upkeep and repair of trains and an 8% increase in the comfort of train seats.

Car parking facilities on the east coast also saw an 11% boost in customer satisfaction, reflecting the additional 1,000 car parking spaces that have been made available at managed stations along the route.

On west coast, the survey highlights major improvements station upkeep and facilities (+8%) and general facilities and services (+10%) and the responsiveness of station staff stayed strong (91%).

Speed, Frequency and Punctuality

Recent timetable enhancements on the east coast route, particularly at Leeds, York and Edinburgh, contributed to high scores for frequency (92%), speed (90%) and punctuality (89%). On the west coast, journey time remains a consistent strength (93%).

These outstanding results follow on from news last week that Virgin Trains achieved a five star rating for reliability in the latest Annual Passenger Survey from Which? Customers of Virgin Trains on the west coast are also experiencing record punctuality as a result of a combined effort between the rail operator and Network Rail to identify and resolve the cause of delays on the route. 88.3% of trains arrived on time over the last twelve months, an improvement of eight percentage points since comparable records began just after privatisation, two decades ago.

David Horne, Managing Director of Virgin Trains on the east coast said: “We are delighted to see Virgin Trains leading the results for long-distance operators. The £50M investment in our services is bearing fruit and we are happy to see that customers are seeing the benefits of our new interiors, more frequent services and our on-board entertainment app, BEAM. The work doesn’t stop here though as we continue to improve on the high quality service our customers have come to expect of us ahead of the launch of our cutting edge new Azuma fleet in 2018.”

Phil Whittingham, Managing Director of Virgin Trains on the west coast said: “We are proud to be building on the success of a franchise that is nearly 20 years old. We are continuing to make improvements to areas that we know are important to our customers such as station facilities, and introducing more convenient mobile tickets, whilst working with Network Rail to take our punctuality and reliability to a record high.”

Notes to Editors

East Coast Highlights:

91% overall satisfaction score – highest since Autumn 2013