Written evidence submitted by Virgin Trains (RPE0204)

1. Introduction

1.1   We welcome the opportunity to submit to the committee’s inquiry into ‘Improving the Passenger Experience.’

1.2   The passenger experience is at the heart of Virgin Trains. Our passengers expect us to be bold, daring and innovative, and we are proud of our achievements to date, going over and above our committed obligations (commitments specified in the franchise).

1.3   Customers consistently rate Virgin Trains as one of the top long-distance rail franchise operators in the National Rail Passenger Survey (NRPS) commissioned by the industry watchdog Transport Focus.

1.4   The most recent NRPS showed that Virgin Trains West Coast (VTWC) and Virgin Trains East Coast (VTEC) achieved the top two scores among long distance franchise operators for passenger satisfaction. 

1.5   In addition to providing recommendations to the committee on their areas of interests, we have also included some examples, highlighted in the red boxes, where we think that we are leading the industry on passenger experience initiatives. 

2. About Virgin Trains

2.1   Stagecoach and Virgin are working in partnership to operate the East Coast and West Coast inter-city routes under the Virgin Trains brand.

2.2   We are committed to delivering a high speed, high frequency service, offering shorter journey times, more comfortable travel and excellent customer service.

2.3   We have been running the West Coast franchise for nearly 20 years. In that time we have more than doubled passenger numbers, cut journey times, expanded our timetable and grown our passenger satisfaction scores. We want to repeat the success of the West Coast franchise in our new East Coast franchise.

2.4   We were awarded the East Coast franchise in March 2015. This franchise will see £140m invested into our services to create a more personalised travel experience. This includes a major fleet revamp, smarter stations and exciting new routes.

2.5   May 2016 saw the launch of 42 additional services (22,000 extra seats) per week between Edinburgh and London. 2018 will see the launch of 65 new Azuma trains providing 12,000 extra seats for a new and expanded timetable, increasing capacity into King’s Cross by 28% during peak time.

3. Executive summary

3.1   We want to see less prescriptive franchises. Many of our innovations were not committed obligations as outlined in our franchise agreements. There should be a greater focus on outputs, rather than inputs.

3.2   Making passenger information accurate and available quickly is important to us, and will be critical during HS2 construction in building passenger trust. A joined up approach is necessary between Network Rail, HS2 and train operating companies (TOCs).

3.3   Reduced capacity on the West Coast Main Line (WCML) in the run up to HS2 means that the customer experience will be key to sustaining passenger growth.

3.4   We don’t think that industry standardisation is in the interest of parts of the passenger experience. There is more urgency to provide reliable Wifi connectivity on long distance services than commuter services, for example. 

3.5   Technology Committed Obligations in franchises can become out of date quickly. These should be less technology specific and more outcome focussed.

3.6   Investment in track side infrastructure is essential for fast, free and reliable Wifi, on both our routes. We would like to see Network Rail and the Department for Transport (DfT) take leadership in this area.

3.7   Transport Focus should adopt more modern channels such as online surveys to measure passenger satisfaction and survey on a more frequent basis.

4. Information provided to passengers before, during and after rail journeys, including information provided at stations, in trains and via National Rail Enquiries, operators' websites and online apps (excluding in relation to the process for claiming compensation for a delay/cancellation)

4.1   Both VTWC and VTEC’s Passenger’s Charters set out our commitment to provide passengers with a safe, high quality service with advice provided before, during and after a journey.

4.2   We communicate to our passengers via multiple channels including passenger information display systems and customer information points at stations, station and on board tannoy announcements. We also provide control messages cascaded to our on board people so that passengers are provided with information in real time, and online via Twitter and Facebook.

4.3   The rollout of our new VTEC Customer Experience Management (CEM) system will deliver personalised service messages to passengers, before, during and after their journeys. It will also give passengers the option to receive information as emails, text messages or push notifications. We have a similar system pending on West Coast.

4.4   We are proud of our record of achievement on social media. Our West Coast brand is consistently voted among the top 3 (often coming first) ‘Socially Devoted’ brands in the UK. We are also one of the fastest responding brands in the UK, with a response time of around three minutes on social media, and are frequently recognised for this in awards.

4.5   Clear, accurate and empathetic passenger information will be hugely important in maintaining and building trust with passengers during the HS2 enabling works. We think it is important for Network Rail, HS2 and TOCs to start working together now on how the works will be communicated to passengers in advance of works and during them.

5. Ticketing, including overcoming obstacles to the more widespread delivery of ‘smart-ticketing’ and part-time season tickets.

5.1   We share the ambitions of the Rail Minister, Claire Perry MP, to see a simplified and passenger friendly ticketing system, and an end to the ‘mag stripe’ ticket.

5.2   Our recent introductions of industry first initiatives such as Automatic Delay Repay (ADR) and mobile ticketing (m-ticketing) demonstrate our commitment to improving the ticketing and refund experience for our passengers.

5.3   Adapting gate technology is critical to accommodating new ticket types, including part-time season tickets.

5.4   We have concerns that franchise agreements are too prescriptive, especially when it comes to technology solutions, which can quickly become outdated. Instead, we would like to see a greater focus on franchises specifying the output that should be achieved, such as higher customer satisfaction, rather than inputs where the DfT prescribes how the TOC should behave and invest. The adoption of ADR and m-ticketing across TOCs would, however, be beneficial for passengers, particularly for those who make journeys using more than one TOC. The DfT should lead on working with TOCs to roll out ADR and m-ticketing across the industry.

6. In-train facilities, including on-journey Wi-Fi and power.

6.1   The quality of on board Wifi is a high priority for our passengers.

6.2   Our ambition is to make on board Wifi free, fast and reliable for all. However, to do so requires substantial investment in trackside infrastructure. At present, we are investing in improving the speed and reliability of Wifi across both franchises, but this will only take us so far, as we are limited by the total bandwidth we can provide.

6.3   The current duration of franchises also makes it difficult to commercially justify the high level of investment required to improve trackside infrastructure, so it is important that the responsibility and leadership in this area rests with Network Rail, the Rail Delivery Group and the DfT.

7. Performance measures in relation to passenger experience, including passenger survey methodologies.

7.1   Surveying our passengers regularly is critical to understanding their priorities and improving our services. In October 2013 we introduced customer advocacy scores on the West Coast to build up a far more detailed view of what passengers enjoy or dislike, using these to benchmark against companies with a worldwide reputation for customer service.

7.2   We survey 20,000 of our customers over a period of 28 days. The immediacy of this feedback allows us to respond quickly to issues that can easily be resolved, from on board cleanliness to Wifi connectivity.

7.3   This feedback also helps us to shape wider business issues such as capacity relief. The decision to convert Coach G carriages from First Class to Standard Class on our 21 9-car Pendolinos in 2015 came from passenger feedback and analysis of NAS data.

7.4   By contrast the NRPS only surveys people twice a year, with paper surveys. We think that Transport Focus could benefit from more timely data and increased responses. , and we have discussed our approach with them.

7.5   NPRS testing periods may not give a wholly accurate picture of the industry, due to their infrequency.

8. Mechanisms to hold operators to account for poor performance and spread the best practice across the industry.

May 2016