Last week, the Office of Rail and Road – the independent safety and economic regulator for the railways – published data on passenger complaints and delay compensation claims for 2019/20. These data show that the service on South Western Railway (SWR) was still not good enough last year and continues to inconvenience Elmbridge residents.
First, on compensation claims for delayed journeys, the data shows that SWR dealt with 755,515 claims in 2019/20, amounting to 371 claims per 100,000 journeys. It is good news that almost 99% of these claims were responded to within 20 working days – an improvement on 2018/19 – but SWR’s claims rate is still above the national average, and is a 5% increase on 2018/19.
Second, while SWR’s passenger complaints rate – 24 complaints per 100,000 journeys across 2019/20 – is below the national average, it has also risen since 2018/19.
At the moment, Coronavirus means that the railways are not operating as they normally would – train travel is still below 15% of normal levels. However, I know that a properly functioning railway system is crucial for commuters in Elmbridge, and indeed will be essential in getting the economy firing on all cylinders again.
These data show that there are still significant improvements to be made on SWR, so I will be closely monitoring its performance over the coming months.
(Photo taken in 2019)
