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Last updated: 02:16

Rail Passenger Rights and Obligations

Rail Passenger Rights & Obligations

Information and tickets

Punctuality and cancellations

Cleanliness

Customer satisfaction

Complaints and compensation

Assistance

Information and tickets

Online:

At the station:

  • All of our stations have information screens showing upcoming departures any delays
  • Station staff or help points are available to provide information or assistance at all stations
  • You can buy tickets at ticket offices or by using ticket machines at most stations
  • Step free access and/or ramp access is available at many stations

Please check our station information pages for more information.

We provide assistance for customers making any journey, more information on the assistance.  

Punctuality and cancellations

Service delays and cancellation

  2021
Overall average delay to services1
2.15 minutes
Services with on-time departure from origin station (less than one minute late) 1 80% (Target: 74.84%)
Services with on-time arrival at destination station (less than one minute late) 1 65.5% (Target: 74.84%)
Services with a delay on arrival at destination between 1 and 59 minutes 1 27.6%
Services with a delay on arrival at destination between 60 and 119 minutes 1 0.02%
Services with a delay on arrival at destination of 120 minutes or more 1 0.002%
Services scheduled to run that were cancelled in full or partially due to on-the-day disruption 2 5.7% (Target: 5.69%)

1 -Represents the figure for all services operated by Gatwick Express, Great Northern, Southern and Thameslink for the calendar year

2 - Represents the figure for all services operated by Gatwick Express, Great Northern, Southern and Thameslink for year April 2021 to March 2022. Part cancelled services are counted as 0.5 and fully cancelled services as 1 in these figures.

Disruption

Where disruption affects services, we have a detailed plan of how we will communicate the problem, impact and advice to customers.

Real information on how to travel for any incident will be shown on our website and on information screens at affected stations.

Cleanliness

Our trains are cleaned at regular intervals during the day by mobile cleaning teams and overnight at all major depots. 300,000 vehicle cleans are undertaken each four-week period.

We also apply long-term anti-viral cleaning products to all trains every 28 days and undertake periodic deep cleaning operations.

We conduct independent train cleaning audits each month across our locations and trains.Scores and benchmarks for this can be found here.

All Gatwick Express, Great Northern and Thameslink trains and many Southern trains are equipped with air-conditioning.

Toilets are available onboard all Thameslink and Gatwick Express Trains. Toilets are not available on Great Northern services to/from Moorgate or on some Southern Metro and Southern Coastway services.

Many stations also have toilet facilities. Details can be found on our station information pages.

Customer satisfaction

Our historic National Passenger Survey results and targets are available here.

Complaints and compensation

Information on our complaints handling, refunds and compensation for non-compliance with service quality standard procedure can be downloaded. link to: Southern, Thameslink, Great Northern, Gatwick Express.

  2021
Number of complaints processed* 23,404
Main categories for complaints Fares, retailing and refunds, Delay Compensation schemes, train service performance, timetable and connection issues, and  staff conduct and availability
Total number of complaints received* 23,659
Percentage of complaints processed 99.99%
Average response time 5.2 working days

Represents the annual figures for the year 2021 for Gatwick Express, Great Northern, Southern and Thameslink. *Please note that complaints processed may include those received at the end of the previous year and complaints received at the end of the year may not be processed until the beginning of the next

As a result of customer feedback, the following key improvements have been undertaken during 2021:

  • We supported customers during the pandemic by providing clear guidance on the change in policies
  • We enhanced our back-office processes to improve speedy decision making for Delay Repay claims
  • We changed our telephony messaging so it became easier and quicker for customers get through to the right team

Assistance

Information on our assistance policy and instructions on how to book assistance are available on our assisted travel page.

We received a total number of 16,387 assistance bookings for Gatwick Express, Great Northern, Southern and Thameslink between February 2021 and February 2022.