Tuesday 21 January 2014 9:22 am

40pc of rail passengers are upset by this commuter nightmare

By: Peter Spence

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The state of the toilets on Britain’s railways is the biggest bugbear for passengers, according to the latest national rail passenger survey.

The biannual poll, which quizzes thousands of passengers, found that four in ten are dissatisfied with the toilet facilities and just 36 per cent were happy with the loos, down three percentage points from last year.

The toilet figures were skewed slightly by the London Overground, which has no onboard loos and so 72 per cent of passengers said they were dissatisfied.

City A.M. is intrigued by, but never wants to commute with, the 48 respondents who said they were happy with the Overground’s lavatorial facilities.

Value for money was also a big cause for complaint, with 35 per cent dissatisfied and 45 per cent happy, down two percentage points.
And the British railway café leaves more than three in ten rail users unhappy – though 47 per cent of passengers said they were happy with the choice of eating and drinking facilities.

For all these specific grumbles, overall 83 per cent of passengers said they were satisfied with their journey overall, down from 85 per cent a year ago.

These numbers are closely watched by railway operators, as passenger satisfaction numbers can be used to inform franchise agreements. Serco’s fees for running the DLR depend, among other things, on hitting a certain level of customer satisfaction.