Official Northern Rail Complaints Process Criticised by Government
November 19, 2008
The difficulty Northern rail customers face when trying to make a complaint has been criticized by an official government body today.
In a new report titled: Reducing Passenger Rail Delays by Better management of Incidents, The Commons Public Account Committee (PAC) has criticized Northern Rail for only making compensation forms available on request rather than handing them out automatically.
Northern Rail is among 9 companies criticized.
The MPs have recognized that this practice makes it less likely that compensation is paid.
The Chairman of the PCA, Conservative MP Edward Leigh, said: “there is no incentive for train operating companies to help passengers claim the compensation for which they are eligible”.
Quite amazingly, Mr Leigh reveals that “The Department for Transport does not monitor how much train operating companies pay out in compensation for delays, nor does it monitor how effectively they advertise their compensation arrangements.”
This report helps highlight the difficulties Northern Rail customers face when trying to get improvements from Northern Rail. One of the main reasons Northern-Rail.co.uk was launched was to impove customer service at Northern Rail by making it easier for people to make complaints about the service provided by Northern rail.
Rather than having to find, complete and return a form, all a passenger needs to do is register a complaint online. We believe that by making this process easier, this will help ensure Northern Rail also addresses the ‘low level’ problems like overcrowding, poor attitude and late arrivals that passengers have grown to accept without question.
If you have experienced poor service from Northern Rail, have your say right now!
Visit our forums and post details of your experience – all you need to include is the service, time and details of the nature of your complaint. It’s completely free and confidential.
Northern-Rail.co.uk
Together - we can make a difference
Posted in News
