{"id":4760,"date":"2018-11-26T04:27:00","date_gmt":"2018-11-26T04:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/independent-rail-complaints-service-is-launched\/"},"modified":"2018-11-26T04:27:00","modified_gmt":"2018-11-26T04:27:00","slug":"independent-rail-complaints-service-is-launched","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/independent-rail-complaints-service-is-launched\/","title":{"rendered":"Independent rail complaints service is launched"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div property=\"articleBody\">\n<figure class=\"media-landscape no-caption full-width lead\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><\/p>\n<p>                <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"js-image-replace\" alt=\"Harpenden commuter train\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/320\/cpsprodpb\/1743F\/production\/_101659259_traincognito15.jpg\" width=\"976\" height=\"549\"\/><span class=\"off-screen\">Image copyright<\/span><br \/>\n                 <span class=\"story-image-copyright\">@cognito15<\/span><\/p>\n<p>            <\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"story-body__introduction\">Rail passengers who are unhappy about how their complaints have been handled will be able to appeal via a service launched on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>The Dispute Resolution Ombudsman is an independent body designed to hold train companies to account.<\/p>\n<p>Figures show 28% of people who made a complaint to a rail company in 2017\/18 were satisfied with the outcome.<\/p>\n<p>It follows widespread disruption on the railways this year which has angered many passengers. <\/p>\n<p>This included the botched rollout of a new timetable in May and repeated strikes which caused chaos on some lines. <\/p>\n<ul class=\"story-body__unordered-list\">\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/business-45572736\" class=\"story-body__link\">&#8216;Nobody took charge&#8217; in rail timetable chaos<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-wales-politics-44744328\" class=\"story-body__link\">Arriva blames weather for complaints spike<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The most common gripes last year were about punctuality and reliability, difficulties buying a ticket and not being able to find a seat.<\/p>\n<p>The vast majority of complaints are dealt with by train companies without the need for people to turn to an appeals process, the Office of Rail and Road says.<\/p>\n<p>However, passengers can use the ombudsman if they are unhappy with the final response from an operator or if their complaint has not been resolved within 40 working days.<\/p>\n<p>It is thought around 6,000 complaints a year will be referred to the new service. <\/p>\n<p>Its decisions will be binding and rail firms will have to take action if failings are identified.<\/p>\n<p>Rail Minister Andrew Jones said the launch of the ombudsman would &#8220;make sure passengers are heard and that they get a fair deal when train companies fall short&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Jacqueline Starr, a managing director at industry body the Rail Delivery Group, said the scheme would give passengers &#8220;even greater confidence that we&#8217;re doing as much as we can to get to a fair outcome&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Anthony Smith, chief executive of independent passenger watchdog Transport Focus, said he expected the service to &#8220;drive improvements to the way most train operators handle passenger complaints&#8221;.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/business-46338581\">Source<\/a> by <a href=\"\">[author_name]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image copyright @cognito15 Rail passengers who are unhappy about how their complaints have been handled will be able to appeal via a service launched on Monday. The Dispute Resolution Ombudsman is an independent body designed to hold train companies to account. Figures show 28% of people who made a complaint to a rail company in &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4761,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}