With the number of rail passengers in Scotland at the highest level since 1960, Transport Scotland and First ScotRail recognise the importance of continuously striving to deliver service quality for rail passengers in Scotland.
Transport Scotland, the Agency which came into effect on 1 January 2006, is responsible for road, rail and concessionary travel. The Agency is determined to help make travel by public transport as an attractive option as possible to encourage more people to travel by rail.
As well as focusing on the punctuality and reliability of trains, the Agency also focus on the customer service that passengers receive through the Service Quality Incentive Regime. Its purpose is to drive improvements in the quality of service provided by First ScotRail.
The regime involves a team of Service Quality Inspectors who will make regular, but unannounced visits to each of the 340 stations and on approximately 200 trains every four weeks to audit the customer services that First ScotRail provide to customers. The landmark expansion of the regime from all 184 stations in the Strathclyde area, at the start of the franchise, to all 340 First ScotRail services was achieved during August 2006. Initially there were two separate regimes operating in “Strathclyde” and the “Rest of Scotland”, following completion of the expansion of the regime these were combined into one all encompassing regime covering all of Scotland from December 2006.
The regime is made up of 20 service schedules which apply to areas of the station and 16 service schedules which apply to areas of the train. The areas of inspection range from graffiti, toilets and timetables to train cleanliness, staff and the public address system. For each of these areas the inspector will audit against a clearly defined set of targets.
During summer 2006, Faber Maunsell undertook a piece of customer research on behalf of Transport Scotland. This involved a series of face to face interviews with passengers on a cross section of First ScotRail Services. The purpose of the research was to establish what customers wanted to see reported on in connection with the Service Quality Incentive Regime. The research results provided a set of five priority areas for stations and trains for each of the First ScotRail fare routes. Collectively, across all the routes, this amounted to 10 of the station areas and eight of the train areas being identified as priorities. For examples of the types of checks made under these service quality areas see the description of the station and train service quality areas identified as passenger priorities.
Results of Service Quality Inspections are provided to First ScotRail daily. This means that Transport Scotland and First ScotRail work together to improve the quality of service to the customer as the information provided details any faults identified and First ScotRail is then equipped with the relevant information to rectify the fault found. The Service Quality regime provides an incentive for a quick resolution as First ScotRail incurs additional penalties for faults not rectified within specified timescales.
For each of the service quality areas a benchmark level is set. The service quality regime is one of the toughest performance monitoring regimes in the UK with many of the benchmarks set at 90% or higher. Results for each of the service quality areas are aggregated at the end of each rail period (four weeks), with First ScotRail receiving bonuses for above benchmark performance and penalties for below benchmark results. The benchmark and penalty levels are designed to encourage improvements.
Performance against the benchmark, for the areas identified as passenger priorities through the customer research, are given in the results for all stations, all trains, and your line of route.
