Virgin Trains has been named the most popular train operating company in the UK for the second year in a row.
The Which? train-passenger satisfaction survey revealed Virgin Trains is continuing to prove the UK’s favourite train company.
Virgin Trains, who operate Stockport’s local rail facilities and the West Coast line, received top marks with a customer score of 67%, with particularly high scores in areas such as value, reliability and punctuality.
Richard Branson said: “Many congratulations to all the magnificent Virgin Trains staff for all of their hard work and thank you to all of the passengers for their support.”
Which? executive director Richard Lloyd commented: ‘With 1.5 billion train journeys made every year and eight of the 17 UK rail franchises up for grabs in the next two years, customer service should be top of the agenda for every train operating company.
“It is good to see some are performing well on service, but passengers clearly feel others need to do better.”
The Which? train satisfaction survey is made up of responses from 7,519 train users who have made an average of 37 train journeys each year.
Virgin Trains CEO Tony Collins said: “Once again excellent customer service has been recognised by customers and this comes after we had a record 92% satisfaction figure in the Passenger Focus survey last month. This is even more remarkable, coming after the traumatic period around the franchise decision last year.”
This news follows widespread public support for an independent e-petition urging the Government to reconsider the original West Coast Mainline franchise decision in 2012. More than 174,000 people showed support for Virgin Trains by signing the e-petition.
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