Office of Rail and Road finds 11 per cent of passengers did not receive the assistance they booked
The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) has published its first annual benchmarking report on train and station operators’ delivery of passenger assistance.
The findings highlight that while passengers are generally satisfied with the standard of assistance when it is delivered, delivery itself can be unreliable with 11 per cent of passengers reporting that they received none of the assistance they booked in 2024/25.
ORR assessed 14 train operators plus Network Rail for their reliability of assistance delivery and for passenger satisfaction from 2022 to 2025. Southeastern, LNER and Network Rail delivered the highest reliability, closely followed by Avanti West Coast. Two operators who underperformed on key criteria, South Western Railway and West Midlands Trains, were also assessed separately on their capability to improve and asked to provide action plans.
The table below ranks each operator’s performance in delivering assistance over the past three years.
Both SWR and WMT showed a pattern of sustained poor performance in delivering reliable passenger assistance, leading ORR to conduct full ‘capability to improve’ assessments.
As a result of ORR’s in-depth assessments, both SWR and WMT have been asked to submit detailed action plans based on the review and ORR’s recommendations.
Additionally, WMT has been asked to commission an independent review of its passenger assistance delivery. SWR is required to comply by 31 January 2026 and WMT by 31 March 2026
Northern Trains recorded the lowest reliability score in the benchmarking assessment, and during 2025 it implemented an improvement plan in response to concerns raised by ORR in 2024.
In August 2025, in response to ORR’s new approach to monitoring training delivery, Northern reported that around 800 passenger-facing staff had not completed disability awareness training.
ORR has now opened a formal licence investigation to establish how long Northern passenger-facing staff who had not received required training were interacting with disabled passengers; the circumstances that led to this; how Northern can provide assurance that its recent training has been effective, and to ensure a similar situation will not arise in future.
Stephanie Tobyn, ORR’s director of policy, strategy and reform, said: “Passenger assistance is essential for many older and disabled people. When it works well, it gives freedom and confidence. But as our reporting shows, there are too many instances where the service has not been delivered as promised, which can have serious consequences for the passenger.
“We are seeing demand for assistance grow. It’s essential that operators meet passenger needs and we’ve taken action on the poorest performing operators to ensure that the reliability and consistency of service for their passengers improves.”
