Great Western Coffee Shop

Last week DfT published the results of a study (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/passenger-experience-of-rail-disruption-handling-in-great-britain) of public attitudes to disrupution and its management in the railways:
Rail Passenger Experience of Disruption Handling (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/987452/passenger-experience-of-disruption-handling-report.pdf)
It was done by Accent (https://www.accent-mr.com/what-we-do/), who have their logo on it, through the attribution is rather low key. Were DfT trying to hide it by putting it out last week? Probably not: both this and the white paper seem to have been written in parallel in separate black boxes, and while they would both be relevant to the other neither is cited.

While the research seems to have asked quite sensible questions, somehow the answers don't seem to me to say anything really clear. Perhaps, on first reading, it just mostly confirms what I expected.

No earth-shattering shocks on a first skip through, but some useful guidance.  No great surprise that the feeling about information in a negative situation (disruption) is also negative. 

One thing that did strike me is the quest for full, timeous and/or honest data. People want to be told the complete truth about what has gone wrong (even, it would seem, when it makes little difference to how and if they'll travel onward) and if / as that data develops, they do also want to hear "we don't know" along the way. 

Even today (when was the survey done? - sure it tells me) - the vast majority of of people first hear about disruption when they're actually at the station from displays / boards / announcements there.  Online and apps getting first data to people still less than one in 10.    And people wait on the platform during disruption rather than on concourse / in cafe / elsewhere, but are less comfortable on the platform than they would be in those other places. 

A useful read at the least, directly or indirectly, for those involved in keeping passengers informed.

I am not AT Melksham Station as I write ... but here's an example ...


... where the survey tells us that the passenger would perhaps like to know ... where the failure was, what the alternative arrangements for  his / her journey are, or if not know when there will be an update.  A very very small percentage of people abandon their trip upon learning of disruption and (I suspect, not confirmed as far as I could see in the report?) want to get on with their journey rather than being concerned at compensation as the situation develops.

From other feeds:

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/c1_20210524.jpg)
On the previous format there was an allowance for an extra message at the top ... not sure if that's still the case - would be nice to have something as simple as "Sorry - points failure. Please call from the help point" or "Sorry - points failure - bus coming 10 minutes after trains are due" on there.

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/c2_20210524.jpg)
And on this format, a complete whitewash away of the cancellations - even where the next train is over two and a half hours later and there's no (direct) service at all now ... actually, I love the format but wish it were tuned!

The DfT really should carry out the same exercise for motorway and trunk route for the experience of the users ................. judging by the chaos in Maidenhead over the last 3 or 4 months with M4 closures and road works on the A4, don't thing UK highways would come out too well