The latest National Rail Passenger Survey findings have been announced today. My commitment to you is that the ScotRail Alliance is creating a railway that Scotland can be proud of.

I am confident that new trains, shorter journey times, a renewed focus on punctuality, the launch of ticket offers between our cities, and significant investment in more services will mean even more satisfied rail customers in the future.

The independent survey by Transport Focus showed a slight drop in overall customer satisfaction but ScotRail continues to perform better than the average of UK train operators – with an 87% rating compared to 80% nationally.

The survey was conducted between January and March this year in advance of Abellio taking over the ScotRail franchise on 1 April.

Since then the ScotRail Alliance has been launched, bringing together the train operator and infrastructure manager Network Rail Scotland to work as one organisation.

I can assure you that the ScotRail Alliance has a relentless focus on customers and on transforming our railway. It will take time to implement, but when everything is in place I have no doubt that our railway will be one that the whole country can be proud of

The latest survey reveals ScotRail outperformed other ‘regional’ train operators in 29 of the 37 categories, with the value for money rating rising to 60%, up four percentage points year on year and some 15 points above the average for UK train operators.

ScotRail remains a top performing UK train operating company, and I can assure you that the ScotRail Alliance is absolutely committed to further improvements. We will also work with stakeholders across Scotland to make sure that the changing railway helps deliver on the goals and aims or the Scottish Government as well as customer expectations.

Full details of the National Rail Passenger Survey are available at – www.transportfocus.org.uk/

Phil Verster,
Managing Director, ScotRail Alliance