GET VIRGIN TRAINS ON TRACK...a year to travel on into France on Eurostar. I’ve got to the point of...

GET VIRGIN TRAINS ON TRACK

Passenger Dossier

The Which? train survey is conducted annually via an independent poll of 7,415 members of the general public.

The survey asks about overall satisfaction over the last 12 months and also asks the likelihood to recommend the brand to a friend. The combination of these scores gives our customer ratings.

Passenger satisfaction with trains is low across the board, but people rarely complain to the operators. in our latest trains survey Virgin scored 64% coming 4th out of 19.

WHICH? GET VIRGIN TRAINS ON TRACK.3

Listen and respond to feedback to improve service for passengers. specifically, to address: onboard experience, punctuality and tickets.

Provide passengers with the mechanism to feedback online and ensure this is easy to find from outside the Virgin Trains site.

Make sure that the escalation process for dealing with complaints is clearly referenced when asking for passengers’ feedback.

Virgin social media accounts should advertise the hours they are staffed and complaints raised via social media should be recorded the same as complaints raised by other means.

What Virgin Trains can do

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4.WHICH? GET VIRGIN TRAINS ON TRACK

Passengers’ stories

● “I travel infrequently to and from Stafford to London and I have always found Virgin Trains to be very dependable, on time and comfortable. They run an excellent service on the West Coast main line.” JOhN

● “Generally very positive. Virgin runs a reliable, frequent and punctual service to London. The on-board experience is usually very pleasant. Of course, if one happens to be traveling on a day when there is a demonstration in London, one has to cope with overcrowding, but that’s not Virgin’s fault. Silent coaches are a great innovation - especially on the few occasions that people keep to the rules!” IAN GARTh

● “I have travelled many times on Virgin Trains , my on board experience whilst travelling from Motherwell to Milton Keynes and back, twice a year in the last five years, is very good. May I add I only travel first class.” ANdREw

● “My experience of Virgin Trains is excellent. I have no complaints. Their ticket service, punctuality and on-board service have always been of an excellent standard.” PETER

● “The Virgin pendoleno from Euston to Preston first class ticket was in my experience excellent. I have had to use them on many occasions for business purposes. No complaints.” AlAN

● “Where possible I try to travel by Virgin Trains which just seem to be better organised and comfortable to travel on.” MARGARET

● “Considering the mileage that the company’s trains use, it is remarkable that Virgin Trains are not late that much!! (West Coast line). Good booking system and easy on-line booking; and if flexible one can find bargains! More so than for many other lines.” TERRy

This dossier provides a selection of the hundreds of consumer comments, positive and negative, that we have received since launching the campaign.

“Travel almost daily get a few odd mins delay here and there but overall very impressed with Virgin. Carriages are comfy and my daily commute of 22 miles takes 13 mins can’t complain and always get a seat. Prices are quite high but roughly the same as if travelling by car in terms of fuel used.” STEVEN

The satisfied passengers: Passengers didn’t just share their complaints with our campaign, 25% of comments were positive stories praising the services of Virgin Trains. We want to work with you to make sure more of your passengers have positive stories to share, for one TOC 46% of comments we received were positive.



The satisfied passengers:

“I travel to London from Stafford when visiting my son and have always found Virgin trains to be punctual, fast and efficient. I was delighted that they were allowed to keep the West Line service that they had so much improved since they took it over many years ago. Virgin have built up a great service on this line over the past nine years that I have been using it. Brilliant!” SANdRA

● “Overall very good, they keep you well informed, and the train is always/mostly very clean. A good service.” JOhN

● “0943 from London Euston to Preston - my first journey in first class. My ticket was £15.50 cheaper than a standard one later in the day. Must say the level of service, the choice of food and the frequency at which it arrived were all excellent. Seat and seat space were again excellent. Cut price first class travel definitely the way to go.” AlAN

● “I find my Train experience with Virgin very rewarding in all aspects of their various departments. I cannot believe that other people only rate then at 64%. I will thought that they would have been ahead of all other operators!” AlbERT

● “I have no complaints whatsoever ever with Virgin. I travel from Crewe to London one per month on a senior railcard off peak. The service is great and the tickets are excellent value. 1 hour 45 minutes.” ChRIS



The onboard experience:

● “The trains are generally ok, but the toilets smell bad.” ElAINE

● “I cannot stand the smell of their toilets, they are so overpowering that I physically wretch. I try to avoid using them. Goodness know what they use in them, the smell is so strong you can smell it when the carriage door opens!” NORMA

● “My carriage was dirtier than usual on my last journey. It was so dirty I felt uncomfortable sitting in such a neglected rancid environment and I’m not faint-hearted after travelling in India for months on several occasions. But we’re in Britain here! The carpets are usually black with dirt anyway but on this occasion there was so much spilt sugary drink causing my feet to stick to the floor everywhere I stepped including the area in front of the seat I was sitting in. That bad impression continued to the seating seats which was also stain ridden with smudges of food on all over the plastics.The toilet always stinks from a distance, it must be the detergent they use. You can smell this on the platform and in the carriages. I have a lot of respect for Richard Branson and his well deserved best of British success. Pendolino trains have excellent comfortable interiors, the service is reasonably good, it’s such a shame that the obvious lack of cleaning is making Virgin look like a third country business. If Richard Branson knew about the state of his trains, surely wouldn’t he have be embarrassed about this?” GwyNN


● “I generally travel in the quiet coach, unfortunately I can smell the toilets. When the train changes speed, the smell seems to get worse. I have complained, they say they clean the loos, and indeed they are visibly cleaned. Presumably there’s a design fault, with the ventilation system in some way picking up smells from the loos.” ANNE

● “I am fed up to the back teeth of walking past endless empty first class carriages to get shoehorned into a second class carriage which has more seats than it was designed for and sloping walls that mean as a tall person I have to sit with my back at an unhealthy angle. Over half the length of the Virgin Trains are 1st class carrying less than (guess) 10% of the passengers its elitist and outdated - swap two of these to second class - instantly more capacity for normal travellers. NB the ratio of first to second class should emulate Virgin Airlines.”

JOhN

24% of comments related to passengers onboard experience.

It was also disappointing to hear customers reporting that some train companies are falling down on the basics of customer service, for example dirty carriages and toilets that don’t work. 8% of comments about Virgin Trains related to cleanliness.


The onboard experience:

“I travel fairly frequently by train, I go to different places so have used different companies. I find Virgin trains uncomfortable because they are rather cramped, and usually overheated so I end up feeling ill if it’s a long journey.” NICKy

● “Never had any problems other than the fact that their refreshment bar is often out of stock or not working.”

PETER

● “East Coast by far outstrips Virgin - I travel on both to Scotland regularly and find I opt for East Coast more - because the trains are more comfortable - less cramped and you can see out of the windows. Virgin trains are a bit smelly and cramped and you often can’t see out of windows. Both have trouble with punctuality and buying tickets isn’t easy unless you, like me, are doing it all the time so it gets easier. At least they always refund your tickets when its late with no problem at all.”

FRANCES

● “Paid first class and they allowed anyone in as no tickets were inspected.”

MAC

● “It was so bad that I decided never to travel by train again.”

dAVId



Punctuality:

● “I had excellent service from Virgin. Train was delayed through a fatality on line and they sent me compensation. I never expected it as delay wasn’t their fault.” dAVId

● “I traveled from Ulverston to Newmarket 13/0214-14/0214, just after the storms, The train was late at the starting point, we were kept fully informed about the trains progress and advised re options. The whole journey was late, diverted, connections missed. On each train and station I was frequently updated and informed about progress and options and the staff were VERY helpful throughout. I have not one complaint for the 4 train operators involved over those two days, only praise.” GwENdOlyN

● “I use Virgin on the West Coast Main line at least once a week between Stoke-on-Trent and London Euston. In all the years they have been operating I can only think on one time that I have been late as a result of a problem

● “The trains are never on time are frequently cancelled and the last time I travelled on this train we went flying through my station, Lancaster, where the train was supposed to stop. The train eventually stopped in Penrith. Although food and seats are supposed to be provided, since we prebook first class seats, quite often they are not because of intense overcrowding.” dAVId

● “I travel from the North West to London a few times a year to travel on into France on Eurostar. I’ve got to the point of leaving 3 hours connection time in London to allow for Virgin’s woeful punctuality. Worse than that though. Virgin trains now take one month to respond to emails...unless of course they’re busy when it’ll take even longer! Obviously, if you are prepared to pay them yet more money you could ring them.” bRIAN

● “Delayed, overcrowded.” RIChARd


with Virgin. There have been many instances of track and signalling problems that are not down to Virgin.” ChRIS

17% of comments were about punctuality.

While there are some factors, for example overrunning engineering works and the weather, that are beyond the control of train operating companies, Network Rail estimate that train operating companies are responsible for around a third of delays.


Communication:

● “I was due to travel from Dumfries to Birmingham on 13 January 2014, but there was a derailment and the West Coast line was closed.

I sent my first class tickets (value £100.90) and a claim form to Virgin Customer Services and heard nothing until this morning. They have offered me two £25 vouchers in compensation. Clearly, they do not have enough capacity to deal with the claims and offer everyone who appears to be eligible a standard letter and £50 to go away. Fine if it was a short journey, no good in my case. They have done this to me before and the only way to get a proper response is a sharp letter and to resubmit the claim. Last time I ended up with a full refund and I think I was able to retain the vouchers. However, I do not want the hassle and think that Virgin should get organised to deal with claims quickly and fairly.”

SIMON

COMPlAINTS hANdlING

● “The train was late arriving at Preston Station. When it arrived I had trouble walking because I have a spine and neck injury. So instead of waiting in a line to enter the train which would cause me pain. I entered the train by the next door carriage I was only in the entrance area not in the carriage when a member of staff started rabbiting on about the carriage I was not in was first class. People where looking at me if I was a thief or done something wrong. I would have not sat in the first class carriage. I told this to the official I also wondered how he knew what class of ticket I had without seeing it. If I was not in so much pain and just wanting to get home and bed I would have got off the train and demanded to see a manager and put in a complaint. The next day I phoned up Virgin to complain they were not interested and nothing came of this. Since the incident I won’t use Virgin trains or use any of the products of the Virgin company.”

STEPhEN


8% of comments related to communication.

Numerous passengers told us that simply not knowing what was going on was more frustrating than the delay itself. And although our research found few people do complain, those who do are often left dissatisfied with the process.

“Virgin’s complaints system is attrocious - they’ll happily send an automated thank you for your complaint” letter and a refund but never have I had a human being reply to me and never in 10 years have I seen the service improve. I wish privitisation had brought about actual choice and competition...”JAMES


Ticketing:

● “Over priced. They claim by booking in advance you will save money but it doesnt matter how far in advance I book it is always the same price. It is cheaper to fly from the north of England to the south.... which is mad!”ddE

● “I recently bought four tickets online for a day out to Glasgow, the total price at time of purchase was £78 including seat reservations. When the tickets arrived I had been charged £137.50 without seat reservations. However I must congratulate Virgin trains as after a very lengthy call it was sorted out but I still had to pay the £5 re-booking fee even though it was not my fault.”PETE

● “I have many gripes with Virgin Trains, the main one being the lack of a functioning reservation system, which in my experience fails to work the majority of the time. The worst personal experience I had as a result of this meant sitting on the floor of the (over-)crowded carriage, by the door, with a baby on my lap all the way from London to Manchester.”JAMES

● “I have recently changed jobs and my new job requires me to commute to London on a regular basis. I looked into an option of buying a season ticket that is valid only on Virgin Trains and was surprised to find out this option was not available. The only option I was left with is to buy quite an expensive season ticket which was valid on all available trains which covered Coventry-London route. I don’t think it’s very fair as London Midland trains offer the option of buying a season ticket valid only on their trains. So, I am not sure why the same option is not available for Virgin Trains.

I tried to contact Virgin Trains and find out why this option is not available and the answer was not very informative. Virgin Trains simply confirmed that this option was not available. I would have thought that these days when the fair trade is promoted and enforced by the regulators, all fair options would be available to the customers.”KATyA

● “Day tickets from Manchester to London are ridiculously expensive. I had to pay £183 for a day return even though I booked three weeks in advance for a 2nd class return on specified trains where i could not change tickets/times or get a refund. By comparison I travelled to Cardiff which is one hour longer for £53 in peak times. Virgin is a rip off.”lyNNE

Many passengers are confused by over-complicated ticketing systems and frustrated by ticket machines. 12% commented about tickets.

“My experience of this network and London Midland is that it was extremely diff icult to get the tickets that we required from Birmingham New Street to London Midland at the cheapest price.” NATAShA


WHICH? GET CROSSCOUNTRY TRAINS ON TRACK.7

ConclusionThe responses we’ve received - and support for our get Trains on Track campaign - only provide a snapshot of passengers’ concerns about their daily rail journeys. However, the sample of comments provided underlines how strongly passengers feel about these issues and why we’d encourage you to respond.

What Virgin Trains can do nowoutline to us how you will address our findings by sharing the actions you intend to take over the coming year to improve passenger satisfaction; in particular how you will pro-actively encourage, listen to and respond to feedback, improving services for customers.

How we can helpWe can share your plans directly with our members and supporters, as well as working with you on the details of changes, helping to announce those changes and supporting your communication with current and future passengers.

For further details about the Get Trains On Track campaign visit:

www.which.co.uk/trains

GET VIRGIN TRAINS ON TRACK...a year to travel on into France on Eurostar. I’ve got to the point of...

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