Top 5 pain points for our passengers (latest period)

 

25/05/2025 - 21/06/2025	Volume	%
Quality on Train	137	38%
Train Service Performance	105	29%
Delay Compensation Scheme	67	19%
Fares, Retailing	13	4%
Safety & Security	11	3%

 

Top Complaint Categories 2024 - 2025

Facilities on board	908
Punctuality/reliability (i.e. the train arriving/departing on time)	614
Sufficient room for all passengers to sit/stand	140
Upkeep and repair of the train	118
The toilet facilities	87

 

Complaints from passengers reduced by 48% in 2024 / 2025 from the previous year in 2023 / 2024. Using the detailed feedback our passengers were able to give us, throughout the year we were able to put in place a robust maintenance programme for our units. This has allowed us to make significant progress throughout the year to improve the overall customer experience when using Grand Central.

Facilities saw a 26% reduction in complaints in this area in comparison to previous year. Issues such as cleanliness of the services, plug socket issues and WiFi problems were the main passenger concerns. Whilst we have seen significant improvement, there were area that required improvement and our passenger feedback allowed us to focus in on these pain points.

Following issues with the consistency of the WiFi provision on board, in 2024 we undertook a full upgrade of the WiFi on our Class 180 trains, which was an extensive programme completed by fleet to ensure that our passengers had an enhanced WiFi experience. We do have two lease trains which are short term lease, and due to the requirements of the upgrade for WiFi, we cannot complete an upgrade of their WiFi prior to the lease terminating, so we do acknowledge that this issue still has an impact on some services which is regrettably unavoidable.

We have also completed a full overhaul of coffee machines onboard, to have a more immediate working solution by purchasing existing machines and refurbishing them to get them on our trains as soon as possible. The existing machines replacement parts were becoming more and more complex to source due to the age of the machine. Causing delays to repair and customer impact by being unable to serve hot drinks on board.  

Our Fleet Team created a maintenance plan for improving the travel experience for passengers, utilising both passenger and crew feedback to create a working programme of issue and a plan for restorative action. This saw a swift turn around in completing fixes in our overnight maintenance programme such as issues with the plug sockets.

Communication between Fleet and the Operations Team has also been improved through weekly updates, which allows us to better inform passengers when issues occur and provide reassurance that we are aware of their issues and doing all we can to resolve the issue.

Punctuality/reliability reduced by 163% in complaint volumes from the previous year. This is a testament to the level of continued improvement and commitment we are striving to achieve for our passengers in ensuring that we deliver the level of service they are entitled to expect. dropped from being the top reason for dissatisfaction to the second highest reason for problems for our passengers.

Like 2023 / 2024, issues have also related to industrial action where we have had to implement a reduced timetable given that stations and infrastructure has not been available to us despite not being involved in the action. Several have also been because of planned engineering works, as well as significant network disruption with issues such as cable theft, extreme weather, trespassers, fatalities and dewirements. We have also had a small number of cancellations related to traincrew.

With regards to our Class 180’s, we have had several defects that has meant that they have had to be taken out of service. The time that has taken to affect repairs has been hampered by several issues with the parts supply chain, capacity at Depots and volume of repairs. Additionally, we have had trains that have suffered damage due to external events, further compounding our overall availability of serviceable trains.

We have a fleet of 10 Class 180 trains and of which we require 7 trains to be in service daily to cover our timetable. In normal circumstances, considering our planned maintenance requirements, the size of our fleet would be sufficient to cover needs.

We have continue to work closely with our train maintainer to resolve our position through our recovery plan which continues to be managed at a senior level across Grand Central, Arriva UK Trains and our maintenance supplier – which as noted, saw a tangible improvement in reliability in 2024. We also have two short-term leases of two Voyager 221’s. These additions have been both necessary and successful in improving our resilience for our passengers.

We have recently announced a mutli-million pounds investment in a new fleet as part of our longer term strategy and we will hopefully be in possession of the new Trains in 2028. In the meantime, we remain committed to providing a reliable service and our continued maintenance programme with regular review remains in place.

In 2024 / 2025 we improved our communications with passengers by reviewing our service disruption emails, ensuring social media was as up to date as possible, utilising our website to the best of its capabilities to be transparent in fore-warning passengers of disruptions and alternative. Later in 2025 will also see a new website launched to improve this communication further and ensure it is more accessible for passengers.

Sufficient room for all passengers to sit/stand We acknowledge that, were we experienced service disruption and cancellations again in 2024 / 2025, a large portion of our alternative services were for passengers to use an alternative GC service. This resulted in numerous trains being at full and standing capacity. Passengers on the whole were largely unaware that their fares do not include seat reservations and they cannot be guaranteed or that trains can run with a safe standing capacity. Both concerns have been the focus for customer dissatisfaction in this area.

Volumes also peaked around days with significant network disruption such as vandalism, extreme weather conditions as commuters attempt to continue their journeys. For time such as strikes, we were one of the few operators to run services.

Upkeep and repair of the train Linking into our top reasons for complains, in 2024 / 2025 we continued the work we started in 2023 / 2024 in improved communication with our Fleet Team. Through complaints we have been able to report any issues that our passengers highlight in a timely manner, which has directly impacted the maintenance programme. Whether this has been faults with coffee machines, toilet blockages, leaking windows as examples, all of this is routinely reported as part of our process in the same way our onboard team file reports. As also noted, we have trains on leases that have not been part of our previous refurbishment programme which has been highlight by passengers as the train in the least favourable condition for example, was used at the height of peak summer season as it was essential to our customers, us, and the network to keep our passengers moving. Our maintenance programme continued to remain as agile as possible throughout the year to prioritise the work as required.

 

Another significant review took place in 2024 / 2025 following feedback from a disabled passenger who required a ramp to access the train. They raised a concern with regards to passenger safety in how the ramp attaches to the train and the robustness of the process. The passenger felt that the ramp was not secure enough.

 

This was reviewed and investigated both by Fleet and with the support of our Safety and Environment Team to understand first hand the customer concern, and work on how to improve the service going forward.

 

Fleet ensure their maintenance plan was discussed with the maintenance team, new protocols were written and training delivered to the relevant teams to include cleaning of the error and equipment and a more regular check of the ramp and the fixings to prevent a reoccurrence of the issue for any other passengers.

 

The toilet facilities – Issues such as blockages, soap not being replenished, unpleasant odors have been cause for concern. With some of the units being leased, they have not necessarily been in a condition that matches our units. However, the lease aspect prevented us from being able to refurbish them to our standards. We have worked hard with our cleaning and maintenance teams to make the services as up to standard as possible and this continues to be a key focus in 2025, with an increase in manager checks on the services which are also reported into our maintenance team so that we can ensure the necessary restorative work is taking place as soon as possible.

 

For any issues with Accessible facilities, we have improved our communications of any known issues in advance by informing frontline staff and reporting on social media so that passengers can be made aware of possible issues in advance.

 

With 2024 / 2025 seeing a much improved fleet quality and reliability than 2023 / 2024 overall, we also saw an increase in our Customer Relations performance satisfaction survey of over 3% from the previous year – 74.2% for the year. Coming into 2025, we are on average improved again by over 4% again with continued focus on improving the customer experience

 

 

 

Performance of all complaints received for last 3 periods

	01/04/2025 - 26/04/2025	27/04/2025 - 24/05/2025	25/05/2025 - 21/06/2025
Number Of Complaints Closed	120	139	180
Received Complaints	141	191	262
% responded to within 10 days	85.94%	94.24%	85.00%
% responded to within 20 days	99.22%	100.00%	98.89%
% responded to within 30 days	99.22%	100.00%	99.44%