UK: The Office of Rail & Road is asking for views on its plans for annual assessments rating how train operators and Network Rail provide assistance to disabled passengers.
The regulator said this would strengthen its ability to hold operators to account for poor performance, highlight good practice to share and drive improvements in service provision.
‘We know that when assistance is delivered it is usually done well, but when it fails, it has a significant impact on passengers’, said Stephanie Tobyn, Director of Strategy, Policy & Reform at ORR, on December 11. ‘Some passengers requiring assistance have been placed in unnecessary and humiliating situations because of failures by train companies to adequately manage the assistance delivery processes. Our new assessment will be crucial in helping operators understand where and why they are falling short and what they need to do to improve.’
The proposals were developed through informal engagement with disabled people’s organisations, industry bodies and other regulators.
Operators would be assessed on two core areas: their actual delivery of assistance and their capability to improve. They would be measured across several factors, against three levels of performance, with a potential further assessment of whether performance is improving or worsening.
The Rail Passenger Assistance: Benchmarking Train Operators’ Performance consultation closes on February 14 2025. ORR will then publish a finalised framework in the spring, with the first annual assessment to be published later in the year.
