The commuters of the southern Rail has voted the railway company to be the worst in an annual survey after facing huge travel disruption for months due to numerous strikes called by the trade unions.
The survey has been conducted by ‘Which?’. According to the sixth edition of the survey report, the Southern Rail has scored mere 21% in consumer satisfaction, which is the lowest score. The consumers gave the rail operator only one star for their overall service including frequency, punctuality, seat availability, travel cost etc. During the survey, around 46% commuters of the Southern Rail have informed that they had to suffer delays during their journey.
The row between the rail operator and the trade unions, regarding the role of driver-only trains and railway guards, created massive chaos over few months, where the commuters had to face numerous travel delays and cancellations.
Spokesperson for Govia Thameslink Railway, the parent company of Southern Rail admitted that the performance of the railway was ‘unacceptable’ and they are sincerely sorry.
After Southern Rail, Southeastern has been termed as one of the worst performer, where the railway received 31% rating and bagged the second worst position. Apart from these two, Thameslink and Great Northern have received poor ratings too.
The consumers have chosen the Merseyrail to be the best railway with a 72% rating, where the Virgin Trains West Coast has received a 69% rating and the East Midlands Trains has received a 67% rating.
After the result has been revealed, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has stated that this was yet more damning evidence that London’s rail passengers are being let down by the private train companies.
According to general secretary of RMT rail union, Mick Cash, Southern are the absolute worst of a bad bunch when it comes to Britain’s rotten, privatised railways.
The entire study was conducted in October and November 2016, after surveying 2,218 rail commuters.
