ORR: rise in complaints reflects rise in rail use, drop in punctuality and reliability

The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) has released its latest figures regarding complaints on the railway.

The main finding from the data says that in the second financial quarter of financial year 2021-22, the number of rail service complaints closed was 76% higher than the same quarter last year.

And although this may initially seem like cause for alarm, ORR stresses the figures reflect the increase in passenger usage as restrictions in the UK were eased.

Compared to the second quarter of last year, trains planned increased by 4% and passenger journeys by 85.8%.

This, it said, led to a deterioration in punctuality and reliability and an increase in complaints. Overall volumes, it added, remain “significantly lower” than before the pandemic.

There were in total 72,470 complaints closed by train operators in 2021-22 Q2. This is a rate of 29.2 complaints per 100,000 trips.

The top complaint was punctuality (16.3%). Next was, perhaps understandably given social distancing, whether there was sufficient room (9.4%). These were then followed by facilities (8.2%), ticketing (6.6%) and personal security (5.8%).

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