Opinion: a decade of misery for train commuters - yet prices set to rise once again

We are paying through the nose for a terrible service.

It’s not exactly a secret that train commuters have not had a great time of it of late.

Recent months have seen news headlines dominated with tales of just how terrible the service from Northern is, with services frequently cancelled with precious little notice.

However, new analysis from consumer group Which? has highlighted the fact that far from being a recent phenomenon, rail passengers have been whacked with an increasingly worse service over the past decade.

And there’s yet more bad news on the horizon for commuters, just to make things even worse.

Need to borrow to buy your season ticket? Compare top 0% cards

We regret to inform you this service has been delayed

Which? looked into data from passenger watchdog Transport Focus, drilling down into how satisfied passengers are with the punctuality and reliability of their train service.

That satisfaction level for overall passengers has fallen from 79% in spring 2008 to 73% today.

It’s a more grim story for the commuters who use these train services on a daily basis though, with satisfaction falling by 10 percentage points over the same period, from 72% to 62%.

All passengers accept that there will occasionally be issues with train lines. But the way those inevitable delays are handled clearly drives us up the wall, with satisfaction over delay handling mired at 38%.

A question of trust

With all of the recent stories about shoddy rail services, it’s perhaps little wonder that trust in the train industry is nearing its lowest level in six years according to Which’s consumer insight tracker.

A paltry 23% of respondents said they trust train travel firms, which is down by six percentage points from a year ago.

That makes train providers the second least trusted industry, behind only car dealers. That’s about as damning an indictment as you’ll find.

Price rises on the way

Just to really rub the naff service in, train passengers also have the prospect of price rises on the way.

Rail fare increases are tied to the inflation figures for July, which were published this week, so we now know that fares will jump by 3.2% in January.

Even here there is some shadiness – rail fares are tied to the Retail Prices Index (RPI) measurement of inflation, rather the Consumer Prices Index (CPI).

The RPI figure, of course, is habitually higher than CPI, and in the words of the Office for National Statistics is “a very poor measure of general inflation”.

It’s worth noting that while our satisfaction with trains has dropped over the last decade, prices have very much moved in the opposite direction, jumping by a massive 40% over the same period.

Given CPI – a far superior measurement of inflation – has risen just 26% over that time, we really are paying through the nose for our trains.

Little wonder that Which’s analysis found satisfaction levels at the value for money offered by our trains among commuters is at just 31%.

Need to borrow to buy your season ticket? Compare top 0% cards

Getting your money back

For the best part of a decade, my commute to and from work centred on trains provided by Greater Anglia. The mirthless joke among my fellow commuters was that while the name may be great, the service was anything but.

Over the years there were plenty of occasions I could - and honestly should - have complained and tried to get at least some of my money back. But I didn’t, precisely because the complaints system isn’t exactly the most straightforward to understand nor to use.

And really, after a long day at work and the stress of dealing with the iffy service, the last thing I then want to do is head back to the ticket office to pick up a refund form and spend part of my evening filling it out.

The system for claiming refunds and compensation is complicated, with different operators employing different refund schemes, as we have broken down in our guide UK train delays and cancellations: how to claim refunds and compensation.

There has to be a better way. Which? has called on the government to force train firms to offer automatic refunds to delayed passengers - it’s a system that is already in place in London with the Oyster scheme, and I can say from my own experience that it works really well.

Of course, with Oyster it’s a little simpler as passengers touch in and out with their passes, and manage an online balance. An automatic refund scheme may not be possible until commuters across the country are able to travel in a similar way, rather than relying on old, printed tickets.