Translink has performed well against Passenger’s Charter standards and customer satisfaction remains high at 90%, according to independent research.
The figures were revealed in the most recent independent customer survey and performance review of bus and train services published as part of our Passenger’s Charter.
Translink’s Head of Customer Experience, David Graham, said:
“We are pleased with these results, which give us an important insight to monitor and review how we are doing and see where we can further drive standards up, in line with rising customer expectations.
“Overall customer satisfaction rated at 90% reflects the hard work of our employees delivering high levels of customer service across all our operations.
“We recognise that there is always room to improve and note that although more than three quarters of passengers surveyed on Metro are satisfied, there have been roadworks and other congestion, especially during the autumn/winter months which can impact on Metro punctuality and reliability, as is the case in many city environments.
“We continue to work hard to achieve our targets, maintain and improve high quality services and attract more people onto public transport, as a good value for money, cleaner, healthier, option.
“Last year we carried almost 80 million passengers, a rise of over 17% on the previous year and this is a trend we see continuing.
“This is an exciting time for public transport, with the new Belfast Grand Central Station opening later this year. The new station will be around ten times larger than current facilities and will be able to cater for 20 million passenger journeys a year, with enhanced connectivity across Northern Ireland, cross border and local airports.
“Alongside this we have lots of exciting service developments underway, including new Zero Emission buses in Belfast and rolling out in regional locations later this year including Derry~Londonderry, Coleraine and Craigavon; new contactless ticketing and Ticket Vending Machines, coupled with our good value ticket options, mLink, yLink and a range of promotional offers available.
“We have introduced enhanced bus timetables with more seats on our Metro services and popular Goldliner routes across Northern Ireland. We have also enhanced park and ride services operating from Sprucefield and Cairnshill. In total, there are around 10,000 park and ride spaces across Northern Ireland, offering people the choice to park for free and use good value fares on public transport to travel into Belfast”.
David concluded:
“All these measures will allow us to continue to focus on providing high quality, great value public transport to be your first choice for travel and ensure a better connected Northern Ireland for all”.
Responding to today’s results Michelle Kelly, Head of Transport Policy at the Consumer Council said:
“The latest customer satisfaction results give us a current picture of Translink’s performance and where improvements can be made.
“Overall satisfaction with Translink services is 90%. This is positive given Translink has set a target to work towards greater than 90% customer satisfaction across all services.
“The service aspects passengers prioritise are punctuality and reliability, frequency of services and value for money, so it is encouraging that passengers rated these aspects on average, 85% positively.
“Translink must seek to build on these results by progressing opportunities for targeted intervention to improve services where they fall short of customer expectation. For example, there is room for improvement in Belfast Metro services with 60% of passengers rating this service positively for punctuality compared to the Translink average of 86%.
“Monitoring satisfaction with value for money, which is currently rated 85%, should be a priority for Translink in the coming months. Fares have increased over the last year and most recently in June with an average increase of 6% on bus and 10% on rail.
“Developments in the coming months include continued ticketing improvements, the opening of Grand Central Station and additional cross border Enterprise train services for peak hourly service. These developments should provide an improved experience for passengers using Translink's services. The challenge for Translink will be to manage disruption to passengers as Grand Central Station nears completion and communicate the benefits of these developments clearly to consumers to grow passenger numbers and improve customer satisfaction.
“As this new programme of passenger monitoring progresses and trends emerge, the Consumer Council will continue to work with Translink to identify where and why its services are falling short of expectations and help them take action.”
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