Research into the provision of information to passengers

Tender description

The initial findings from our Inquiry into the May 2018 timetable change have highlighted significant concerns regarding the quality of information provided to passengers to enable them to plan and make journeys with a reasonable degree of assurance. Despite the focus on this area over recent years, passengers often remain dissatisfied with how the rail industry performs, particularly as their expectations are often set or exceeded by experiences in other sectors. This can often be an issue when train services are disrupted due to planned and unplanned engineering work, weather conditions and other incidents Getting good quality - appropriate, accurately and timely - information for rail passengers ‎relies on successful collaboration and integration between many parties. Each must be clear on the importance of their role in this process. They must be committed to putting passengers' interest front and centre of their decision making in a variety of real-time, complex and challenging operational scenarios. Previous work has shown that operators often focus on getting information into industry systems but rarely consider the quality and usefulness of the information actually received by passengers online (including apps), on trains or at stations. Our aim is to help train and station operators to think like the passengers that they serve – e.g. commuters, leisure travellers, passengers with disabilities, those on trains, at stations or still planning their journey - so that appropriate information is easily available when and where it is needed.