Rail Travel: Complaint to Virgin Trains

Welcome,

I have decided to include a letter (see below) I wrote recently to Virgin Trains, detailing the levels of difficulty I often have in receiving assistance when travelling and the level of customer service offered. This letter was sent to both the Managing Director and the Chief Executive. Their response follows my own letter. I would encourage those of you who have experienced problems with assistance on Virgin Trains to address your concerns to Chris Hagyward, whose details may be found at the end of the response.


Chris Gibb
Managing Director
Virgin Trains
85 Smallbrook Queensway
Birmingham B5 4HA
21/02/08


Dear Chris Gibb

I am writing to you to complain about the general level of customer service currently offered to disabled customers on your West Coast Line between Manchester Piccadilly and London Euston. I am a regular user of Virgin Trains, as I commute frequently between Manchester and the capital, often on a multiple trip basis every week, and am also a wheelchair user. As the Chief Executive of a national disability organisation, responsible for overseeing the delivery of practical solutions for independent living, it troubles me to see the unexpectedly poor level of assistive service extended towards disabled people, in a time when it should be growing. As you will no doubt understand, it is of veritable importance that disabled people feel able to utilise all public services in the same manner as the able bodied. Following an ongoing catalogue of letdowns at both Manchester and London Euston, I have decided to write to you in the hope we can create a dialogue to improve platform and general assistance for disabled people.

Whenever I travel to London, I must telephone and book assistance a few days before the date of travel. This telephone call can often take between 15 and 20 minutes to complete. On the day of travel, I must arrive at least 30 minutes before the train is due to depart. May I remind you that a minimum of 24 hours is required to book assistance, automatically placing limitations on what should be an automatic, instilled sense of customer service and good will to all customers.

On Tuesday 19th February, I travelled on the 6.35 am train, arriving at Piccadilly at 6am. Despite presenting myself at the Customer Service desk alongside my PA, it wasn’t until 6.25am that we were able to board the train, which had been sitting on the platform for some time, other travellers boarding as they wished. I had to return to the desk a second time to ask for assistance, despite the generally better standard of assistance in Manchester as compared to London. Not only is it an inconvenience, but it is also cold waiting on a platform for me, when I have limited use of my body.

On arrival in London, my PA went to the carriage door to wait for assistance to arrive. Over ten minutes later, the train empty, we were still waiting. A member of the Virgin crew came through our carriage, and my PA spoke to him, explaining our need for ramp assistance to disembark the train. I regret to inform you the staff member was rude and disinterested, failing to even acknowledge the presence of my colleague. He did, quite rightfully, radio through for the assistance requested, but then walked away with not a single word exchanged. Shortly after the ramp arrived, we could depart the station to a taxi that had now been waiting over fifteen minutes, and to which I had to pay an additional waiting fee. Including booking tickets and assistance, the total amount of additional time at this juncture I have wasted due to my disability comes in to over an hour and a half. And I have yet to make the return journey.

On return to Euston in the afternoon, we arrived at the Customer Care desk to inform them that as we were early, we were going to depart on an earlier train, so to cancel the booked assistance and arrange assistance for the 15.05. It is unfortunate that, in my experience, the staff in Euston have never been particularly forthcoming or pleasant to deal with when asking for assistance and appear to view my request as an irritating interruption.
On the platform boarding both my PA and I realised, as I was travelling up the ramp, that it has not been securely attached to the carriage but rather propped against it. I am sure you will be cognoscente with the Health and Safety issues surrounding this breach.

On arrival back in Piccadilly, we once again went through the same wait for ramp assistance to leave the train. My PA went to the platform and spoke with a Virgin Trains staff member, who appeared to have just departed the same train. After asking for assistance, he was told rather abruptly “there was nothing to worry about as the train didn’t depart again until 17.15”. Why he would be under the impression we would have thirty minutes to spend sitting on an empty train is incomprehensible, notwithstanding the inherent disabilist attitude underlying such a statement.

When my PA informed him we were unwilling to wait, he retorted “someone will come along; they’re probably dealing with another train”. I fail to understand why there might only be one member of staff per station trained to operate ramps. I can only presume that these two members of staff were deviations from the usual standard of service you would expect from those who work for Virgin Trains.

Under your Disabled People’s Protection Policy, it states that your Assisted Person’s Reporting System provides the train manager of each Virgin train with details of all pre-reserved assistance and reserved accommodation. Bearing this in mind, I find it difficult to explain why, when assistance has been booked, we continually seem to encounter problems. I don’t believe disabled people should have to wait any longer to depart a train than anyone else, yet this seems to recurrently be the case when travelling via train.

I am happy to report that the staff in Manchester are, more often than not, considerate and content to offer assistance. Having always been able to rely on the high quality of service there, I am disappointed it has yet managed to spread further afield.

Under Section 2.1 of your policy, it states Virgin Trains ‘will continually strive to deliver a high standard of care to all our customers’ yet I am not the only disabled person to have come into contact with the aforementioned customer assistance issues. As the Chief Executive of many Disability Living Centres across the UK, as a member of the Department of Transport’s Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee, and as a regular consort to Ivan Lewis, Minister of Care Services, I would like you to provide me with an explanation for decreasing level of service with which I can present to my colleagues in the sector.

I would be happy to meet with you and discuss the issues raised in this letter; were you to require advice I would also be happy to provide you with details of Trusted Assessor courses we are about to unveil, to train staff to deal effectively with disabled people and understand their needs more fully, and to help you raise your own policy standards to bring you up to full compliance with the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act. I am also sending a copy of this complaint letter to Tony Collins, Chief Executive, to garner his thoughts; I look forward to hearing from you in due course.

Yours sincerely,


Alan Norton


Virgin Trains response: 11th March 2008


Dear Mr Norton

Thank you for your letter dated 21 February to which Chris Gibb has asked me to reply.

Your comments concerning our performance in respect of providing assistance to customers with special needs are noted.

It perhaps goes without saying that the two examples you outlined in your letter highlight the need for a concerted effort by all rail companies to ensure we do our very best to deliver the service efficiently.

I believe that generally we do achieve the targets that are outlined in out Disabled Person’s Protection Policy in respect of meeting disabled passengers at terminal stations within 10 minutes of arrival. I recognise that in an ideal world there would be no wait at all, however factors can sometimes prevent us from achieving this. Of course, doesn’t excuse the apparent disinterest shown by some members of our team and I will take this up with the relevant managers.

I should point out that the station assistance at London Euston and Manchester Piccadilly is contracted out to Network Rail to provide on our behalf and we regularly review their performance at meetings with them. Of course, our on board crews are asked to provide appropriate assistance to complement this.

I am disappointed that you believe that there has been a fall in the level of service that we provide and I have been discussing your concerns with our Franchise Manager. I recognise that there are always lessons that can be learned and we are always happy to take on board suggestions from our customers but I remain satisfied that as a general rule the JourneyCare arrangements work smoothly.

Finally, if you believe it would be helpful to meet our Franchise Manager, who is tasked with ensuring suitable arrangements are in place for disabled travellers, his name is Chris Hagyard, and he may be contacted by email on Chris.Hagyard@virgintrains.co.uk, or by telephone on 0121 654 7065.

Yours sincerely


Alan Robey
Chief Executive’s Office