Office of Rail and Road Rail regulator fines GTR £5m (8057S)
14 March 2019 - 6:00PM
UK Regulatory
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RNS Number : 8057S
Office of Rail and Road
14 March 2019
The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) fines GTR GBP5m for breaking
rules on passenger information
14 March 2019
Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) faces a GBP5m fine after the
Office of Rail and Road (ORR) found that it failed to provide
appropriate, accurate and timely information to passengers
following the introduction of a new timetable last May.
Following the severe disruption caused by the introduction of
the May 2018 timetable and findings from a subsequent independent
ORR Inquiry, ORR initiated a further investigation into whether GTR
(on its Thameslink and Great Northern routes) and Northern did
everything reasonably practicable to provide appropriate, accurate
and timely information to enable passengers to plan and make their
journeys in both the run-up to the timetable introduction and
during the disruption that followed.
Having considered substantial evidence, ORR found that GTR took
reasonable steps in making passengers aware of the planned changes
prior to the new timetable. However, following the timetable change
on 20 May, and in the 8 weeks that followed, it is evident that GTR
failed to appropriately balance the steps it was taking to improve
services with the need for passenger information to an unacceptable
extent and duration. In particular:
-- Trains were permanently removed from the timetable but
passengers were not clearly informed until several weeks later
-- Further trains were removed or cancelled on a daily basis
leading to very short notice changes to the timetable and a severe
lack of certainty for passengers up until the point of travel
-- Some trains were reintroduced but with insufficient time to
input journey information into systems. These 'ghost trains'
arrived at stations with staff and passengers unaware of their
arrival or where they were expected to stop
-- Replacement buses were used on some routes but prolonged
delays in providing information in journey planners meant many
passengers weren't aware that they were available
-- Inadequate internal communication often left frontline staff
with little or no information to assist passengers in making their
journey
The effect of these failures left passengers with very little
notice or certainty about whether trains that were running on one
day would run or be the same the following day.
A separate ORR investigation into Northern found that although
in many cases passengers did experience inadequate information in
the two weeks that immediately followed the timetable introduction,
it had considered and subsequently took reasonable steps in these
circumstances to give passengers appropriate, accurate and timely
information both prior to and during the disruption.
An interim timetable was introduced on 4 June that stabilised
service levels, improved performance, and enabled the provision of
better information to passengers. In consideration of these
findings no further action will be taken against Northern.
ORR has also today written to all train companies and Network
Rail to require them to review crisis management plans in light of
these findings and to ensure that appropriate arrangements exist
for assisting passengers with disabilities in times of disruption,
planned and unplanned.
Stephanie Tobyn, Deputy Director, Consumers, ORR, "The
disruption experienced by many passengers as a result of the May
timetable introduction was awful. When disruption happens, poor
quality information makes an already difficult and frustrating
situation worse.
"The exceptional circumstances that followed the introduction of
the timetable meant that providing perfect advance information for
passengers was from the outset an impossible task and GTR's
overriding focus was on providing as much capacity as it could to
meet customer demand. However persistent and prolonged failures in
information provision meant that passengers couldn't benefit from
the operational improvement it was trying to make."
Press release:
https://orr.gov.uk/news-and-media/press-releases/2019/orr-fines-gtr-for-breaking-rules-on-passenger-information
ORR investigation:
https://orr.gov.uk/rail/investigations-and-current-issues/investigation-into-gtr-and-northern-trains-provision-of-information-to-passengers-during-and-after-the-may-2018-timetable-disruption
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END
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