Virgin Trains’ stations top poll for ticket buying facilities

Crewe and Preston have come top of an independent national poll of ticket buying facilities at rail stations. They were the only two stations managed by Virgin Trains surveyed in the research conducted by Passenger Focus.

The research looked at queues at ticket office and at ticket machines, and recorded the percentage of queues longer than 3 minutes off peak or 5 minutes during the peak. The scores for Crewe were 2 percent for ticket office and zero percent for ticket machines. Preston scored 1.2 percent and zero percent respectively.

Sam Dixon, Virgin Trains’ Station Manager for Crewe said: “My retail team work hard to deal with customer purchases quickly and efficiently and it is pleasing to note this is reflected in the Passenger Focus research. We also provide a member of staff in the booking hall between 06:15 and 14:30 Monday to Saturday to assist customers in using our ticket machines and build up their familiarity with this method of purchasing or collecting tickets.“

Linsey Robinson, Virgin Trains’ Station Manager for Preston said: ‘The results of the survey highlight how the team work hard to serve all our customers that flow through the station. They are committed to helping customers and their colleagues.”

Crewe and Preston are important stations and amongst the busiest in the country. The latest available annual figures (to the end of March 2009) show that 2.85million passengers used Crewe, while 4.73million passed through Preston.

In the recently published Spring 2010 National Passenger Survey, Virgin Trains also scored well for ticket buying facilities at stations. The company achieved 81 percent customer satisfaction, the equal top score among long-distance train operating companies, and nine percentage points above the national score of 72 percent.