Passenger's Charter - Our promise to you - October 2014
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Passenger’s Charter October 2014 Our promise to you
2 Contents
Contents
Introduction 3
Our Promise 4
Planning your journey 5
If you need assistance 8
Buying your ticket 12
Your journey 15
Help and advice during your journey
Getting a seat
Network map
Security
Cycles
Catering on trains
Smoking
Lost property
Train service disruption
Punctuality and reliability of our trains
Compensation for delays or cancellations on
Monthly or longer Season Tickets 22
Compensation for delays and cancellations
on other tickets and 7 Day Season Tickets 27
Listening to your views 28
Meet the Managers at our Passenger Forums
Tweet the Manager #TTMSWT
Web Chats
Customer Newsletter
Making a comment or complaint
Further information 30
Contacting our Customer Service Centre
Our response times
If you are unhappy with our reply
Useful contact details Back cover
Introduction 3 Introduction This Passenger’s Charter explains our commitment to you. Our aim is to provide our passengers with: • A safe, clean, reliable and punctual train service • Clean and safe stations • Reliable, timely and easy-to-use information • Friendly, helpful and polite staff. We are pleased to introduce our ‘Promise’ that shows in simple terms what you can expect from us. Please see page 4 for more information about this. We are also working to improve the integration of our services with other train companies and other transport providers, especially bus services. This Passenger’s Charter does not affect your legal rights which are set out in the National Rail Conditions of Carriage. Copies of this Passenger’s Charter and the National Rail Conditions of Carriage are available from staffed stations, our Customer Service Centre or can be viewed on our website southwesttrains.co.uk/our-commitments.aspx
4 Our Promise Our Promise We are pleased to introduce our Promise to you. This includes the following six statements that show what you can expect from your experience with us: • We strive to operate to our published timetable, with every train leaving and arriving on time • We always sell you the most suitable ticket for your journey • We have a guard on every train • We clean the inside of each train at least every three hours (except Island Line trains which are cleaned regularly at the depot) • We will be honest and straightforward in our communications with you • In times of disruption, when we know what’s happening, you’ll know. If we don’t know, we’ll tell you that too. We will make every effort to meet this Promise at all times. If you feel that we have failed to meet our Promise in any way, we would like to know. To do this, please contact our Customer Service Centre. Contact details are on page 30.
Planning your journey 5 Planning your journey We provide all the information you need to plan your train journey whether it is with South West Trains or elsewhere on the National Rail network. You can find the information you need from the following sources: National Rail Enquiries 08457 48 49 50 National Rail Enquiries is the information service which gives train times and advice on how to plan your journey throughout the UK. Using state-of-the-art monitoring equipment, National Rail Enquiries can tell you where trains are during their journey. Information is available by phone (lines open 24 hours) or from their website nationalrail.co.uk Our website southwesttrains.co.uk Our website offers a range of timetable, journey planning and train running information. You can: • Purchase tickets and collect from the ticket machines at our stations (after 2 hours) • Download and print timetables • Make online timetable enquiries • Access live departure boards and check journey information for same day travel.
6 Planning your journey Timetables You can download or customise and print your timetable from our website or get printed timetables from staffed stations, and our Customer Service Centre. New timetables are available four weeks before their start date at stations, on our website and at the Customer Service Centre. Ask any member of staff We are always happy to make sure you have the best information for your journey, help you read timetables and advise on any service disruption. We have a guard on every train who will be happy to answer your questions. At our stations any member of staff will be able to help you or find someone that can. Our Customer Service Centre 0345 6000 650 Our Customer Service Advisors are happy to help you with general enquiries about our train service, buying tickets, making arrangements if you need help when travelling and receiving any comments about our services. Lines are open from 6am to 10pm. For specific train time information, please contact National Rail Enquiries at nationalrail.co.uk, telephone on 08457 48 49 50 or our website southwesttrains.co.uk
Planning your journey 7 Planned engineering work Our network requires a regular programme of maintenance and improvement to the track and signalling. This may mean the rail lines need to be closed temporarily causing changes to the normal timetable. Engineering work can often affect train services at weekends and public holidays and sometimes train services in the early morning or late evening on weekdays. Our aim is to provide information on planned changes at least four weeks in advance on our website. We will include this information within our published timetables when we can. Planned engineering work is also displayed on our ‘Changes to train times’ posters at every station nearer the time. Subscribers who opt in to our email alerts southwesttrains.co.uk/jca.aspx can also receive a weekly summary of engineering works. Short notice engineering work Sometimes engineering work has to be carried out at very short notice. When this happens, we aim to provide you with the information you need to make your journey. Information on all engineering work is available from National Rail Enquiries, our website and our Customer Service Centre. Contact details are on page 30. Our staff at stations and on trains will also be able to help you. Bus replacement services When it is not possible to provide a train service due to closure of the track, we will provide a replacement bus service. We regret that you will not be able to take the following items on the replacement bus services: • Large items of luggage • Prams and pushchairs that do not fold • Cycles that do not fold (refer to page 19) • Animals (with the exception of assistance dogs).
8 If you need assistance If you need assistance We are committed to meeting the needs of all our passengers and we will help you if you need special assistance in planning and making your journey. We work to make sure that nothing we do makes a person’s disability a barrier to using our services. For more comprehensive information please refer to our ‘Making Rail Accessible’ leaflet. Copies are available from our website southwesttrains.co.uk/uploads/makingrailaccessible15.1.13 web.pdf or from our Customer Service Centre. Passenger assistance Our Customer Service Centre can advise passengers with disabilities about travelling with us. If you need assistance, please contact our freephone Assisted Travel service on 0800 528 2100 or use the online form on our website southwesttrains.co.uk/assisted-travel.aspx We prefer to have at least 24 hours notice if you need assistance. Some stations are not staffed for all or part of the day, and not all of our stations have a step-free route, so we may need to make further arrangements such as relocating staff or booking alternative transport. If you cannot give us 24 hours notice we will do all we can to provide help tailored to your needs, but we might not be able to manage this at every station.
If you need assistance 9 Reduced price tickets There are reduced fares for disabled passengers. Information on the full range of discounts available is shown in the leaflet ‘Rail Travel Made Easy’. This includes alternative discounts available through the purchase of a Disabled Persons Railcard. The leaflet is available at staffed stations or from our Customer Service Centre. Details may also be found on our website southwesttrains.co.uk/discounted-fares.aspx Car parking At most stations we provide marked bays for blue badge holders. Where these are within the station’s chargeable parking area, the normal daily car parking rate will apply.
10 If you need assistance Station access Most of our stations were built in a time when the needs of disabled people were not considered. This means that there are some stations where it is not possible to get to the platform without using steps. If steps are a problem for you, we will arrange alternative transport (usually a taxi) at no extra cost. This transport will take you to and from the nearest or the most convenient accessible station from which you can continue your journey. Some stations are not staffed for all or part of the day and may be unsuitable for some disabled passengers. If the station is accessible but unstaffed, our on-train staff are able to help you get on and off the train. Ramps We have ramps on most of our trains as well as at stations to help wheelchair users and other mobility-impaired passengers to get on and off our trains. We have a guard on every train to help with ramps. Toilets A number of our stations and trains have toilets which are accessible to wheelchair users. Reserving a wheelchair space There are wheelchair spaces and priority seating on both short and long distance services. Wheelchair space can be reserved on long distance services. Please contact our Assisted Travel team to make a free reservation. These can be made up to 24 hours in advance, subject to the individual train operator and available space. Luggage At some stations our staff will help you with your luggage if they are physically fit enough and their other duties do not stop them from being able to help. Space to carry luggage on our trains is limited so please give thought to its size and weight. At stations with long walking distances between platforms we provide luggage trolleys. For further information on the carriage of luggage, please refer to the National Rail Conditions of Carriage available from staffed stations or our website.
If you need assistance 11 Information At all stations and on trains (except those on the Island Line), we provide train service updates and emergency information by using information screens and making announcements. This is designed to help people with visual and hearing impairments. We know that good announcements are essential to visually impaired passengers, so our employees are trained to speak clearly. There are induction loops at every station ticket office and on all Help Points to assist hearing aid users. Printed information If you need information in an alternative format such as Braille, Audio, Large Print or Tactile please contact our Customer Service Centre who will be able to provide you with free copies of any of our printed passenger information. Disability awareness training All of our Customer Service staff receive disability awareness training when they join the company, and receive regular briefings on disability issues. Expectant mothers We offer expectant mothers, who are holders of a Season Ticket, a complimentary upgrade to First Class travel when no Standard Class seat is available. Conditions apply, so please contact our Customer Service Centre or visit our website for more details. If you are an expectant mother who is not a Season Ticket holder all our services do have priority seating available in Standard Class accommodation. Where seating is not readily available to you please contact our on board staff who will always do their best to provide assistance in finding you a seat. Travelling with young children Many of our trains have been designed with areas of flexible space, making it easier to travel with pushchairs. All of our trains with toilets have at least one facility that offers a baby-change table and space for a pushchair. If you need help lifting your pushchair onto the platform or onto a train, our staff will help you, providing that they are physically fit to be able to do so and that you remove your child from the pushchair. Our staff are trained to assist in line with the principle: ‘parents take the baby, we’ll take the pram’.
12 Buying your ticket Buying your ticket We promise to sell you the most suitable ticket for your journey. There are a number of ways to buy your train tickets: Online You can buy train tickets online using our website southwestrains.co.uk. Tickets may be collected at any of our ticket machines using the valid payment card used to purchase the ticket, or sent by post. Please allow five working days for delivery of any tickets requested by post. By telephone You can buy train tickets and Railcards by telephoning our Customer Service Centre. We accept most major credit and debit cards. Tickets may be collected at any of our ticket machines using the valid payment card used to purchase the ticket, or sent by post. Please allow five working days for delivery of any tickets requested by post. At the station Our ticket office staff will sell you the most suitable ticket for your journey, including railcards and reservations. You can pay by cash, rail travel vouchers, rail warrant or most major credit and debit cards. A list of accepted cards is clearly displayed. You can use a Season Ticket rail warrant to pay for Season Tickets or a company cheque to purchase an annual Season Ticket. Tickets purchased online or by telephone may be collected after 2 hours at any of our ticket machines using the valid payment card used to purchase the ticket. Nearly all stations have self-service ticket machines for buying tickets (you can pay by cash or card) for a wide choice of destinations and fares including 7 Day and monthly Season Tickets. Ticket office opening hours are displayed at every staffed station and are also available on our website or by contacting our Customer Service Centre.
Buying your ticket 13 We will use reasonable endeavours to make sure that you should not need to queue at a point of sale (excluding the internet or telephone bookings) for more than five minutes during times of peak demand or for more than three minutes at any other time. We monitor queues so that we can take action to reduce them where possible. We will display the times of peak demand applicable to each point of sale at a location nearby that is accessible to the public at all times. Rail appointed travel agents You can also buy tickets from rail appointed travel agents. Refunds if you decide not to travel If the train you planned to catch is delayed or cancelled and as a result you decide not to travel, a full refund will be given, provided you return the unused ticket as soon as you reasonably can to a National Rail ticket office, but no more than 28 days after the expiry date of the ticket. This includes Advance tickets. If the train service is running normally and you decide not to use a ticket for your own reasons, it should be returned within 28 days of the expiry date to any National Rail ticket office if you bought it from a station, or to where you bought it from if you purchased the ticket online or by any other means. A reasonable administration fee may be applied. Refunds are not normally given on Advance tickets, details on this are advised on purchase. Refunds are available for the unused portion of season tickets, in most cases. The ticket must be returned to the station, or agent, from which it was purchased with the refund applying from the date of surrender. Season ticket refunds are not calculated pro-rata; the amount refunded is based on the difference between the cost of the season ticket originally purchased and the cost of a season ticket for the period up to the date the ticket is surrendered. Season tickets offer significant savings for the daily traveller and you may find that, if there is only a small proportion of the validity remaining your refund will be little or nothing. In this situation an annual season ticket has no refund value after 40 weeks.
14 Buying your ticket Buy a ticket before you board You need to buy a valid ticket before you board one of our trains. We offer a range of ways to buy tickets before or on your day of travel. At a small number of stations we provide a Permit to Travel machine for use when there are no other ticket buying facilities available. You should insert the maximum number of coins you have, up to the value of your ticket. You must exchange your Permit to Travel for a ticket at the earliest opportunity, and within two hours. If the ticket office is closed, the self-service ticket machine is not working and there is no Permit to Travel machine, you should board the train and buy a ticket as soon as is reasonably practical. This should be from the guard, at an interchange station (if you change trains) or at the destination station. Penalty fares We know that the vast majority of our passengers buy a valid ticket before travelling and we have a duty to these passengers to make sure no one travels without paying. For this reason, we run a penalty fares scheme across our network. (Island Line Stations are currently excluded.) If you travel to or from a station within the penalty fares area without a valid ticket (or validated Oyster card) you may be liable for a penalty fare. We have a policy to prosecute all deliberate fare evaders whenever possible. For more details about penalty fares please ask for a copy of our penalty fares leaflet which is available from all staffed stations, our Customer Service Centre or visit our website southwesttrains.co.uk/penalty-fares aspx
Your journey 15 Your journey Help and advice during your journey Our Promise is to have a guard on every train. All our staff on trains and at stations are available to help if you need advice. There are also 24 hour Help Points at all our stations (normally on the platform). Alternatively, you can call our Customer Service Centre. Getting a seat We operate a ‘walk on’ service, which means that you can join any South West Trains service if you have a valid ticket. This is one of the many benefits of train travel and as a result we cannot guarantee you a seat, especially during peak periods or during disruption. However, we always aim to provide as many seats as we can to minimise the number of passengers who have to stand. We no longer offer seat reservations on our trains and you are free to choose where you sit. Standard class tickets are not valid in first class except for Weekend First upgrades or where you have paid the appropriate excess fare.
16 Network map Network map 17
18 Your journey Security We work in partnership with the British Transport Police, Network Rail, and local authorities to improve security at our stations, on our trains, and in our car parks. To help reduce crime and perceptions of insecurity we have invested in the following initiatives: • Closed Circuit Television at all South West Trains stations, monitored 24 hours a day, 7 days a week • CCTV on board all South West Trains services • Deployment of Rail Community Officers, accredited under the Railway Safety Accreditation Scheme. These officers provide a highly visible deterrent to crime and antisocial behaviour, and are employed to enforce the railway byelaws • Funding for additional British Transport Police officers, dedicated to the South West Trains network • Provision of security guards at key locations to deal with antisocial behaviour • Provision of Help Points on every station platform. We continue to work towards gaining Secure Stations accreditation for our stations wherever possible. This is a government-led scheme that recognises stations that have met strict criteria for security.
Your journey 19 Cycles We welcome the integration of train and cycle travel. We are increasing the provision of cycle storage areas, often in partnership with local authorities, and provide cycle racks or storage at most of our stations. Where we have CCTV installed at stations, we try to make sure the cycle racks or storage areas are included in the coverage. Many of our trains get very busy and there is not always room to carry cycles safely and comfortably. For this reason, space for cycles is limited and is not available on most peak time commuter services in and out of London. On the Waterloo to Exeter/Bristol route you will need to reserve a space for your cycle. Cycle reservations are free and can be made at most staffed stations. We recommend you make your reservation at least 24 hours before you travel. On the rest of our services where cycles are allowed, you do not need to reserve a space. This is allocated on a first come, first served basis. We will carry compact fully folding bicycles with wheels of less than 20’’ in diameter on any train or replacement rail service provided they are folded and stowed as luggage. Our cycle policy is published in a separate leaflet and our timetables show where cycles may not be carried. Information is also available from staffed stations, our Customer Service Centre and our website.
20 Your journey Catering on trains Most longer distance services have an ‘at seat’ catering trolley service. Our timetable shows which trains offer a catering service. Please note that the catering service may not be available at weekends if the train service is changed because of engineering work, particularly on early morning or late evening services. If the advertised catering service is unavailable we will do our best to let you know before you join the train. Smoking For the comfort and safety of all our customers, smoking and the use of e-cigarettes is not permitted on any part of our trains or stations. Smoking is allowed in car parks and open forecourts. Lost property The South West Trains Lost Property office is at London Waterloo station and is open from 7.30am to 7pm Monday to Friday. You can register your lost item using our online form, southwesttrains.co.uk/lost-property-form.aspx or by phoning the Lost Property office on 020 7401 7861. All lost property found on our trains or at our stations is sent to our Lost Property office. Please allow a minimum of 24 hours for the items to be received at this office. You may be charged for the return of your item. You will be advised of this cost if your item is found.
Your journey 21 Train service disruption Sometimes things happen that cause disruption to our train service. When incidents happen, for safety reasons we may have to change our timetables without giving any warning. We always try our best to minimise disruption, to keep you informed and to recommend, or provide, other means of travel. If disruption happens after you have started your journey we will do our best to get you to your destination station or provide other means of transport. If your journey is not possible we will do our best to get you back to an appropriate station. When there are serious delays, staff will give you access to a telephone and help to contact those expecting you. If you are delayed for over an hour while travelling with us, we will offer you a complimentary non-alcoholic drink where train catering facilities exist and where stocks are available. All our trains have a public address system and our staff have smartphones which enable them to receive information on the train service from our Control Centre. We aim to let you know what is happening. Our Promise is: ‘when we know what’s happening, you’ll know. If we don’t know, we’ll tell you that too’. Punctuality and reliability of our trains Our Promise is to strive to operate to our published timetable, with every train leaving and arriving on time. However, we do appreciate that there are occasions when you may be delayed on your journey. Under certain circumstances we will provide compensation, please read on for how and when you can claim.
22 Compensation for delays or cancellations Compensation for delays or cancellations on Monthly or longer Season Tickets Useful definitions of words and terms used in this section A Void Period is where there has been serious, extended disruption during a morning or evening peak period and when no alternative (such as replacement bus service) has been provided. Passenger’s Charter performance posters display details of Void Periods and our monthly train performance record for punctuality and reliability. This information is displayed on our website and also on posters at the following stations: Aldershot, Ascot, Basingstoke, Bournemouth, Bracknell, Clapham Junction, Guildford, Haslemere, Havant, London Waterloo, Portsmouth Harbour, Portsmouth & Southsea, Reading, Richmond, Ryde Esplanade, Ryde Pier Head, Salisbury, Shanklin, Southampton Airport (Parkway), Southampton Central, Surbiton, Weymouth, Wimbledon, Winchester, Woking and Yeovil Junction. Punctuality - Percentage of peak hour trains arriving at destination within 5 minutes of scheduled time (Monday to Friday). Reliability - Percentage of the advertised train service actually operated (Monday to Friday all day). Each Monthly or longer Season Ticket falls into one of eight Service Groups, depending on your journey. These are as follows: Mainline services 1. Weymouth/Portsmouth via Eastleigh to London Waterloo 2. Portsmouth Harbour via Havant to London Waterloo 3. Exeter St. Davids/Yeovil Junction to London Waterloo 4. Alton to London Waterloo.
Compensation for delays or cancellations 23
Suburban services
5. Windsor & Eton Riverside/Hounslow/Weybridge via
Staines to London Waterloo
6. Reading/Aldershot via Ascot to London Waterloo
7. Main suburban routes to London Waterloo.
Island Line Trains services
8. Shanklin to Ryde Pier Head.
Where your journey can be made using trains from more
than one Service Group, your Season Ticket will be
allocated to the Service Group that has the highest
frequency of trains stopping at your origin station during
peak periods. Ticket office staff can tell you which Service
Group your Season Ticket is in.
Peak periods are the times of day when our trains tend
to be busiest. This applies to trains arriving at London
Waterloo between 07:00 and 09:59 and leaving London
Waterloo between 16.00 and 18.59. Peak periods do not
apply on weekends and public holidays.
Monthly or longer Season Tickets
There are two different types of compensation available for
Monthly or longer Season Ticket holders. These are:
Passenger’s Charter: applies if over a period of 12 months
we have failed to meet our Passenger’s Charter standard.
Void Period: applies to a specific Service Group if a peak
period has been severely disrupted.
Passenger’s Charter compensation
These are our Passenger’s Charter standards for train
service performance:
Mainline Suburban Island Line
Punctuality 89% 92% 95%
Reliability 99% 99% 99%
We aim to greatly exceed these standards at all times but
on some occasions, our train service may be disrupted and
we may fail to meet these.24 Compensation for delays or cancellations We will give you a 5% discount on the price of your Season Ticket if, on average, over the previous 12 months either: • Punctuality has been more than 2.5% below the Passenger’s Charter standard, or; • Reliability has been more than 1% below the Passenger’s Charter standard, (0.75% on Island Line). We will give you a 10% discount on the price of your Season Ticket if, on average, over the previous 12 months both punctuality and reliability fall below these Passenger’s Charter standards. If the monthly average performance figure falls below these Passenger’s Charter standards, we will provide Passenger’s Charter compensation, which will be given to you as a discount off the price of your renewed Season Ticket. A record of our train service performance is given on Performance posters and on our website. Delays and cancellations that are caused by incidents beyond the control of the rail industry are not included in our performance results. This includes: • Security alert • Extreme weather • Fatality or suicide • Vandalism • If we have published in advance an alternative timetable. If trains are cancelled or delayed because of these reasons, we will display the number of trains affected on Performance posters. To claim your Passenger’s Charter compensation, you must renew your Season Ticket within four weeks of your previous ticket’s expiry. Your new ticket must be for the same journey and for the same or a shorter period of time.
Compensation for delays or cancellations 25 However, if you are changing your Season Ticket to cover an alternative route, a longer distance or longer period on a South West Trains journey, or upgrading your journey from Standard to First Class, the discount applied will relate to your previous ticket held. Please contact our Customer Service Centre for further advice. Please note that where your journey involves travelling on the trains of more than one train company, you will only be able to claim from one of those companies. Please ask at the ticket office or call our Customer Service Centre to find out which Passenger’s Charter scheme is relevant to your journey. Void Period compensation If the performance of our train service falls below an acceptable level during a peak period (see definition on page 23), it will be declared ‘Void’ for the Service Groups that are affected. We will provide proportionate compensation for any Void Period. When you renew or surrender your Season Ticket, our ticket office staff will apply any Void Period compensation to which you are entitled. You will be required to submit your expired Season Ticket to qualify for the compensation payment. This will be given to you as a discount off the price of your renewed Season Ticket or as a cash payment if you prefer. If you renew your Season Ticket at a ticket vending machine at one of our stations you should apply to the ticket office with your expired Season Ticket to obtain your compensation payment. If you purchase or renew your Season Ticket though our telesales, website or thetrainline.com you should apply in writing with the expired ticket to our Customer Service Centre. See page 30 for details.
26 Compensation for delays or cancellations Travelcard Season Tickets If you bought a Travelcard* valid for one month or longer from one of our ticket offices or our Customer Service Centre and you normally travel on South West Trains services, you will also be able to claim one of the discounts detailed on page 24. If you bought your Travelcard** from anywhere other than a South West Trains outlet, we will consider your claim if you have proof that you use South West Trains for all or part of your journey (for example, a home or work address close to a South West Trains station and details of the journey you make). Please write to our Customer Service Centre if making a claim, enclosing your old ticket together with a photocopy of your new ticket. * This applies to either traditional paper tickets with a magnetic strip or Oyster cards where you are able to produce your Annual Season Ticket record card or your receipt for Monthly or longer Season Tickets. ** We cannot offer compensation for Travelcards issued on an Oyster card if it was not bought at a South West Trains outlet.
Compensation for delays or cancellations 27 Compensation for delays and cancellations on other tickets and 7 Day Season Tickets All other compensation claims will be considered on an individual basis. As a guide, please expect the following: A delay to your journey If you are delayed for one hour or more (half an hour for Island Line) due to a failure of the rail industry (see list of incidents beyond the control of the rail industry on page 24 for exclusions), you will be given the full amount of the cost of that part of the journey. We will compensate the full cost of a single ticket or half the cost of a return ticket. If you are a 7 Day Season Ticket holder, you will be given the proportionate cost of the price of the ticket. We will not compensate tickets for journeys if we told you about the delay or cancellation before you bought your ticket and compensation applies to all journeys on South West Trains only. If we have had to introduce an emergency timetable, these compensation arrangements will be based upon the emergency timetable. Compensation will be paid in the form of National Rail vouchers, which can be used in payment (or in part payment) for any National Rail ticket, including Season Tickets. If you don’t make a journey For refunds, if you decide not to travel, please see page 13. How to make a claim Please complete a Comments Form available at all ticket offices or from our Customer Service Centre and send it to our Customer Service Centre. To help speed up your claim, please enclose your travel tickets. Claims for compensation must be made within 28 days of the expiry of the ticket.
28 Listening to your views Listening to your views We carry out research to see what you think about all aspects of our service. Your feedback is important to us and we offer customers a variety of opportunities throughout the year to discuss issues, ask questions and comment on our service. Feedback from our customers is vital to us. It enables us to understand how you think we are doing, spot where improvements can be made and to identify how we can make our service better. Meet the Managers at our Passenger Forums Twice a year we will hold an all-day event at London Waterloo Station giving you the opportunity to meet and talk with South West Trains and Network Rail Alliance teams. The events gives us the opportunity to tell you about the projects we are working on to improve your railway and give us valuable feedback on how we are doing. You can expect to receive responses to concerns raised at these sessions and gain an insight into the running of our business. We take your views seriously and the feedback you give us often results in changes. Tweet the Manager #TTMSWT Tweet the Manager sessions are held monthly and give you the opportunity to get fast and direct feedback from managers on questions you have about the train service and facilities. Follow us on twitter @SW_Trains to join us on these sessions. If you are not able to join us a Q&A will be available on our website within 48 hours. Web Chats Twice a year we hold a live web chat event with the directors of the South West Trains and Network Rail Alliance, giving you an opportunity to put forward your suggestions, ask questions and put forward your ideas in an open forum. Dates will be posted on the website well in advance of the event. Customer Newsletter Our regular customer newsletter brings you the latest news and information about your trains, stations and network. Further details and event dates can be found on our website southwesttrains.co.uk/tell-us.aspx
Listening to your views 29 The Passengers’ Panel is a forum consisting of volunteer passengers of South West Trains. They welcome passengers’ comments and suggestions either through their website: swtpp.co.uk or by writing to: Passengers’ Panel, Friars Bridge Court, 41– 45 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 8NZ Making a comment or complaint All comments, complaints, praise or suggestions about our services are welcome. We have a specialist Customer Service Centre team who are there to receive your comments or resolve your complaint. Complaints are analysed by senior managers, who are responsible for delivering an ever-improving passenger experience and recommendations for change are often made as a result of your feedback. Your feedback can and does help us improve our service. If your issue is with another train company we will forward the correspondence to the correct company or advise you of correct contact details. When we have passed your correspondence to another company we will tell you we have done so and will give you that company’s contact details. If you are contacting us about a problem on a journey, please include: • Date and time of travel • Start/destination stations • Your tickets or photocopies if you are a Season Ticket holder • Your address and/or phone number • Your preferred times and method for us to contact you.
30 Further information
Further information
We have a Customer Comments and Complaints Handling
Procedure, a copy of which is available from our Customer
Service Centre or can be viewed on our website.
Contacting our Customer Service Centre
There are a number of ways you can contact us. If you are
writing to or emailing us, please also include a daytime
contact telephone number as this can help us to reply to
your correspondence more quickly or discuss points with
you in greater detail.
Comments forms are also available at all staffed stations.
You can contact our Customer Service Centre in any of the
following ways:
By post: Customer Service Centre
South West Trains/Island Line Trains
Overline House
Southampton
SO15 1GW
Tel: 0345 6000 650
Fax: 023 8072 8187
Email: Using the online form on our website
southwesttrains.co.uk or
customerrelations@swtrains.co.uk
Our response times
We aim to respond to 90% of comments and complaints
within 10 working days. If a full reply cannot be made
within 20 working days, we will contact you to update you.
It may take longer to provide a full reply and if this is
required, we will send you an acknowledgement after 10
working days and a full reply within 20 working days.Further information 31
If you are unhappy with our reply
We will work hard to address your concerns to your
satisfaction. If you are unhappy with our reply, please
let us know.
Alternatively, you can contact Passenger Focus or London
TravelWatch (in the London and surrounding area). These
are independent bodies set up by the Government to
protect rail users’ interests.
Their contact details are:
Outside London
Passenger Focus
web: passengerfocus.org.uk
email: advice@passengerfocus.org.uk
tel: 0300 123 2350
post: RTEH-XAGE-BYKZ
Passenger Focus
PO Box 5594
Southend on Sea
SS1 9PZ
London area
London TravelWatch
Dexter House
2 Royal Mint Court
London EC3N 4QN
Tel: 020 3176 2999 (Monday to Friday, 09.00 to 17.00)
Fax: 020 7505 9003
Email: enquiries@londontravelwatch.org.uk
Website: londontravelwatch.org.uk
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Assisted Travel We recommend
booking
0800 5282 100 assistance at
least 24 hrs
Textphone 0800 6920 792 in advance.
A freephone service open 6am - 10pm
for older and disabled passengers.
Call National Rail Enquiries on 08457 48 49 50
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Call Train Tracker on 0871 200 49 50
Up to the minute times for today’s trains
Text station name to Train Tracker 8 49 50
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Valid until further notice.You can also read
