It's like Thunder, Lightning, your SLAs are Frightening

A guest Blog from @BigDoodyBoy

On the 4th of April I wrote to Southwest Trains Customer Service department complaining about the shocking level of service on my specific line where the level of on-time trains had fallen below 50% over a 2 month period. The upshot of the ensuing conversation was that as a season ticket holder I would be compensated like everyone else for overall service when I renewed my ticket.

Now, as you can imagine, I felt that this was an inadequate response as it did not deal with the specific problems on my line and was also a bit presumptious with regard to my renewal. So incensed was I that I read Southwest Trains Passenger's Charter. This was such an enthralling piece of prose that I sought out other similar reading material, finally settling on the National Rail Conditions of Carriage and both Southern Trains and Southeastern Trains charters as my reading material for train delays.

What has now become clear is that Southwest Trains offer compensation in line with the basic minimum set out in the National Rail Conditions of Carriage while other organisations such as Southern, Southeastern and even Island Line (a sister Stagecoach group company) offer enhanced packages.

So, let's look at what compensation is available to you under the charters. Most importantly, the compensation packages are split into two types: individual event and service level. There is also a distinction between people who hold short term tickets (daily or weekly) and those who hold long term tickets (monthly or annual). As you would expect, those with short term tickets are offered compensation based on events whilst those with long term tickets are offered compensation for both events and overall service levels. So far, this seems pretty sensible. But, as they always say, the devil is in the detail.

Some of the Southwest Trains compensation package seems reasonable for the event type of compensation. For example if you purchase a daily ticket and don't use it because of delay or cancellation, you get an immediate cash refund. Also, if you are delayed for more than an hour and hold a daily or weekly ticket you are able to claim a full refund for that journey. However, monthly and annual season ticket holders are not entitled to claim for these specific events which seems a little unfair. It is interesting to note that both Southern and Southeastern understand that this is unfair and do offer monthly and annual season ticket holders this specific event compensation. They also provide an enhanced package offering 50% discount on delays over 30 minutes. I should point out, however, that Southwest Trains do offer a kind of event type compensation to long term ticket holders under their compensation package for monthly and annual season ticket holders.

In their emails to me Southwest Trains Customer Service department describe their compensation package for monthly and annual season ticket holders as a "special compensation package" which would give the impression that it provides enhanced compensation in comparison with short term ticket types. And indeed on first inspection this would appear to be the case in so far as the package offers compensation for events and overall service.

In terms of the service level compensation package, long term ticket holders will be granted a level of compensation should the number of slightly delayed trains reach around 10% of all peak hour services across all lines. This sounds great until you delve a little deeper to work out how compensation payments are triggered.

Firstly, the metric is an average across all peak services over approximately 6hrs each day or around 50% of all services. But this does little to compensate travellers for specific ongoing problems on a particular line and I'm sure that this is a bone of contention for many who feel unfarily treated by this overall averaging method. However, this is the least of your concerns.

Second, the definition of a late train is based on the arrival time at it's destination and not at points in between. This means that trains running late at all intermediate stations are not counted as late if they arrive at their destination on time. And guess what? The timetables are constructed with approximately an extra 5 minutes towards the end of the journey. How many times have you been running late all through the journey only to end up on time at Waterloo or Reading or Southampton? So, the majority of travellers who experience delays are cheated out of compensation by carefully crafted timetables.

Thirdly, trains only count in the statistics if they call at all the intervening stations. This is why late trains are often made to "run fast" from a certain station. To those already on the train, this is a good thing as they catch up some of the time they have lost. However, it affects a greater number of people at intermediate stops for whom their service becomes cancelled. And it affects an even greater number of people who will not receive compensation for late running trains because the number of late running trains has been manipulated.

Fourth, within the service level compensation, there is a distinction between reliability and availability or late trains and non-running trains. This is another way for Southwest Trains to manipulate the service statistics. With compensation payable only when one or other category breaches the service level, they can ensure that if they approach the late running service threshhold, they can cancel what would otherwise be a late train. Ever noticed how late running outbound trains become cancelled services inbound and vice versa?

Fifth, the number of items outside Southwest Trains control is vast and allows many late services to be discounted. I think we can all understand that Southwest Trains cannot be held accountable if someone jumps in front of a train or is taken ill or if an animal strays on to the tracks. However, Southwest Trains are allowed to discount delays caused by signal, track and power problems which are the responsibility of Network Rail. Note also the careful wording of announcements when it is a little hot or a little cold or a little wet and trains are running a little late. By defining a slightly damp day as "unusual weather conditions" they are potentially allowing the service to be discounted due to the "exceptional weather" clause. To a paying passenger, however, these are perfectly "valid" delays but no compensation is payable.

So, the service level compensation is not customer focussed. There are numerous times when you will be delayed but the delay won't count and the compensation package will not deal with ongoing service problems in one part of the service.

But what about the compensation for events which seems so fair for short term ticket holders and those travelling with other train operators? These are called void days and these are days where it has all gone horribly wrong for a particular "service group" over an entire peak period. When a void day is declared compensation is payable on slightly different terms. I won't bore you with all the details but basically, as a season ticket holder, you will get compensation even if you don't renew. So this is a good thing. Er, maybe not entirely. By declaring a void day, Southwest Trains can remove from the statistics all services in the group over an entire peak period. So, a single compensation payment of approximately 0.2% of your ticket price rather than risk triggering a 10% refund due for overall reliability performance.

Of course, these are only options that are available to Southwest Trains should they wish to hide their real performance and I make no accusation that this is in fact how they behave to cheat customers out of compensation or to present service statistics that are far removed from the real world. I will, however, present my own statistics and leave you to draw your own conclusion. For the year to end Feb 2012 Southwest Trains published statistics remained well within the service threshholds at over 90% and yet my real world experience was that only 68% of my trains were on time.

So, the "special compensation package" is nothing of the sort unless Southwest Trains mean that it is special for the board and shareholders who benefit from increased profitability from non-payment of compensation. With the partnership between Southwest Trains and Network Rail there is now an opportunity to accept joint responsibility, to accept more causes of delay and think about a revised compensation package based on "real world" passenger service experience. For too long we've endured "operating" centric SLAs, now we need passenger service centric SLAs with fair compensation for all.