Improvement in passenger services

3.7  The Department has sought to build on existing service levels. It has negotiated commitments from train operators to deliver improvements in train service performance, service quality, passenger security, accessibility and ticketing and compensation arrangements. The franchise agreements set measurable standards and targets to achieve, for example, half of one per cent year-by-year improvements in service quality on a baseline measured in the handover period. There are also commitments by the train operators to make specific investments in station and added rolling stock - mainly through refurbishment (see Appendix 5). Delivery of some investment obligations depends on other bodies. For example, the installation on time of ticket gates at Waterloo Station depends on Network Rail, and the interface with "smart cards" depends, in part, on Transport for London. If these parties perform, Stagecoach South West Trains will also be able to meet its commitments. The Department sets out to help manage these risks through liaison with the third party responsible.

3.8  The Department has set various contractual benchmarks for step-by-step improvements in train service performance, in terms of delay minutes caused by the train operator (see Glossary), cancelled trains and 'short-formed' services. These are services which operate with fewer than the scheduled number of carriages or seats. Not all franchises include such a benchmark - for example, it does not apply to the First Great Western franchise. The agreed targets vary from franchise to franchise, as shown in the table opposite (Figure 12) summarising delay minute targets.

3.9  The Department is taking other steps to improve standards building on the approach introduced in 2004 by the SRA for the Greater Anglia and Northern franchises:

■  Station security: The NAO report Maintaining and improving Britain's railway stationsxii recommended that the Department encourage more train operators to participate in the secure stations scheme, which specifies high standards for crime management. For South Western, the Department has required the train operator to achieve secure station accreditation for stations handling 80 per cent of passenger volume by 2010 and purchased a priced option to extend this to 95 per cent by March 2013. There are similar commitments for the other new franchises as well as commitments for increased investment in CCTV on trains and in stations and for travel safe officers.

■  Disabled access: Each of the new franchises includes a £250,000 per annum budget for the franchisee to carry out minor improvements  such as additional seating and signs at stations. In April 2006, the Department for Transport announced a 'Railways for All' strategy to improve the accessibility of rail travel in Great Britain. In addition it includes a £370 million 'Access for All' fund to be spent, over a 10 year period, on Network Rail delivering targeted access improvements  to hundreds of stations, including making some stations step-free.

■  Ticketing: Recent franchise agreements include obligations to introduce "smart card" ticketing by specified dates (see Appendix 5) over the next seven years.

■  Recompense:For the franchises awarded in 2007, the Department introduced new, and more generous, 'Delay/Repay' arrangements to compensate passengers for delays in their rail services. Under these, passengers will receive a 50 per cent single refund for delays of 30 to 59 minutes, a 100 per cent single refund for delays of 60 to 119 minutes, and a 100 per cent return refund for delays of 120 minutes or more. Additionally, season ticket holders will be compensated for delays to journeys they have actually taken, not on the basis of overall performance. Passenger Focus generally supports these new arrangements.