Transport secretary Chris Grayling tells train firms to improve communication after last week’s Beast from the East travel chaos
The transport secretary has written to Britain’s train companies telling them the industry needs to improve customer communications after last week’s weather troubles.
There was heavy disruption after the Beast from the East brought snow chaos and weather warnings for UK travel last week, with tales of passengers letting themselves off trains and others being stranded on them for hours.
Chris Grayling yesterday wrote to the chief executive of the Rail Delivery Group to thank staff for working “tirelessly to recover services across the network, despite the difficult circumstances”.
Read more: TfL says last week’s snow is still causing transport delays
He wrote: “I know many front line staff were out in freezing conditions trying to either keep, or get services running. Their efforts on behalf of passengers are to be commended.”
However, Grayling told Paul Plummer:
One area where industry needs to take further action is around customer communications during disruption.
When things go wrong, effective communication is the one mitigation that can be employed and one that is extremely important to the travelling public. There have been a number of instances which have come to my attention which do not reflect the high standard of communication passengers deserve.
Going forward I expect to see a focus on providing passengers with better information, not least in the event of cancellations, where alternatives exist for customers to complete their journey.
He plans to discuss the matter in more detail during a roundtable next week.
A spokesperson for the Rail Delivery Group, said:
We’re sorry for the disruption that customers experienced during the recent bad weather, despite the efforts of the thousands of people who worked around the clock to clear the snow and keep people moving.
We’re committed to improving the information we give to customers before and during their journeys, including during bad weather. We will work together with passenger groups and government to see how we can improve.
Read more: Snow update: Temperatures are finally rising… but watch out for ice