Office of Rail and Road
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ORR calls for action after concerns about reliability of Northern Trains’ help for disabled passengers

The rail regulator wants to see an improvement plan from the train operator, who again rated poorly in ORR’s latest survey about the experience of passengers who pre-booked additional assistance with their journey.

The recent survey showed that 18% of passengers who booked assistance at a Northern-managed station and responded to our survey reported they did not receive any.

ORR wrote to Northern in July, but Northern’s response did not reassure the rail regulator that it understands the causes of its poor performance, nor has robust plans in place to secure improvements, nor has made appropriate progress against previously planned actions.

As a result, ORR has requested Northern to submit an improvement plan for how it delivers assistance to disabled passengers, setting out planned actions and explaining how it will make a difference to how Northern improves its reliability in providing assistance.

The rail regulator will also now meet senior industry figures and constructively challenge Northern as it develops its plan, to help ensure this delivers real change for passengers.

Stephanie Tobyn, ORR’s director of strategy, policy and reform, said:

“Northern Trains is not reliably helping disabled passengers on its trains. It is important that Northern understands why this is, and reduces the risk of failing these passengers. While passengers regularly give positive feedback for Northern when it does get things right, doing this reliably remains a significant problem.

“Our call is for the train company to focus its attention on the right areas and to get to grips with why it is not delivering for passengers who need assistance.

“We will be keeping our focus on this issue and continue to have constructive discussions with the operator.”

Channel website: https://www.orr.gov.uk/

Original article link: https://www.orr.gov.uk/search-news/orr-calls-action-after-concerns-about-reliability-northern-trains-help-disabled

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