Our annual train service performance

Before you set off

You can buy tickets for travel in advance or on the day of travel here on our website, on our App or at one of our station travel centres. 

You can book assistance with your journey as you purchase your ticket too, don't worry if you don't do this at the same time, but let us know at least 2 hours before you travel so we can ensure there's someone at the station or on the train to help you.

At the station

All our trains have clear signage next to each door highlighting the coach letter and seat numbers.

For ticket purchases and refunds visit our station Travel Centres. You can check opening hours here (select the relevant station after opening the link).

Platforms and departure times can be found on large screens located next to or near to the travel centres at every station.

Onboard the train

Inside of our trains there is information about the toilets, exits and seat numbers as well as how to order food to be delivered to your seat and where the Cafe Bar is located. 

The auto announcer – and the train manager - will announce any relevant information about your journey including the next station, delays to your journey (including onward connection information) or changes to facilities onboard.

Safety information is located as you board each train in the ‘vestibule’ - the little area that you pass through before getting to your seat

You can also read how we're making rail accessible here, jump to page 10 for ticket specific information.

Making Rail Accessible (PDF)

Making Rail Accessible (Word document)

Information during your journey

During your journey you can stay up to date with where you and the train is via LNER Assistant, our onboard Wi-Fi, or you can check our journey planner tool for up to date times. Announcements will continue to be made throughout the journey – and information about calling points is also displayed on LED displays in each carriage.

Ticket changes and refunds

If you need to change or refund your ticket you can do this from the place you originally bought your ticket from. For ticket changes and refunds you can visit our dedicated page here. 

Our stations

We have a dedicated cleaning team working in our stations.

• When the station is open to you, there are always cleaners on hand to keep the station environment as clean, safe and clear of litter as possible.
• We are wiping down all our customer and colleague touch points and dedicated staff members are cleaning our station toilets to the highest standards.
• During 20/21 we increased the frequency of our cleaning across our route, and introduced a two-stage disinfectant process – all of which we continue to maintain.
• We also have three deep cleaning teams working across the route who deep clean our stations out of hours to ensure that detailed work can be carried out and our stations are ready for you, when they open again in the morning.
• During 22/23, 66.3% of customers told us via our customer survey that they were ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ satisfied with cleanliness on our stations.

On our trains

Our trains are cleaned after each journey and every 30-days they are deep cleaned. We conduct several independent train cleaning audits each month across our locations to ensure the standards we require are being met.

Train cleaning audits are carried out against an agreed criterion for:

• 'What clean looks like' and allocated a score of good, satisfactory, or unacceptable.
• Appropriate weighting is applied to the scoring and any overall audit score below 90% is considered unacceptable.
• During 22/23, 73.9% of customers told us via our customer survey that they were ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ satisfied with the cleanliness of carriages and seating areas on board the train.
• Customers were less satisfied with the cleanliness of toilets on board and we have plans in place to improve these which you can read about in the complaints section.

Air quality inside and out

• On our trains, the train ventilation system ensures a continuing supply of fresh air.
• We are undertaking air quality monitoring in our stations with RSSB to check for any areas of poorer air quality and develop improvement plans where required.
• To improve air quality at our stations, we promote sustainable travel to and from our stations with secure bike racks placed in our stations, bike reservations on our trains, and the introduction of our door-to-door app. 

How we deal with your complaints and what to expect can all be found in our detailed 'Customer complaints handling procedure' pdf.

Below shows the number of complaints, the topics and the outcomes for 22/23:

Volume of Complaints closed: 28,014

Received Complaints: 25,945 

Processed Complaints in 20 working days: 80.97%  

Average response time: 9 working days.

Categories for Complaints: 

1. Facilities on board – 7763
2. Ticketing and refunds policy – 4711 
3. Compensation Claims Process – 3237 
4. Punctuality / Reliability - 2805
5. Helpfulness and attitude of staff on train – 1708 

Praise received for our staff - 2249 

Improvement actions taken:

Facilities On Board

We have recently launched a ground-breaking ‘Relationship Charter’ which defines how LNER, Hitachi and Agility Rail will collaborate together over the coming decades in order to ensure that the things that matter most to customers on board our trains are managed in a timely way and through a jointly innovative approach.

An example of this includes a number of minor changes made in our on-board toilets that, together, will improve the perceived cleanliness for customers – for example slightly redirecting the water spray so that less water ends up on toilet floors.

We continue to collaborate with our partners to make improvements that really matter to customers – including the speed of repair to essential equipment that supports delivery of on-board food and beverage services. It is the interruption of these services that drive the majority of complaints in this category.

Listening to customer feedback, and under our ‘Seat Sure’ programme, we have continued to revise our approach to ensuring the right amount of reservable vs. unreserved seating is available. Ensuring that customers have the best travel experience as numbers have increased.

During the year we opened UK Rails first ‘Family Waiting Room’ at Kings Cross and this is enabling us to improve the boarding experience for families with small children. This is an example of how we are working towards improving the travel experience for customer groups with differing needs.

We have worked to improve how we communicate to our customers in advance about what they can expect on board the train – especially during times of industrial action and other forms of disruption that have impacted our ability to meet customers’ expectations during this year.

Ticketing and refunds policy

We have innovated to enable tickets for our services to go on sale ahead of traditional timescales - enabling our customers to plan travel much further ahead than has previously been possible.

In January 2023 we introduced the new “Deal Finder” feature on our App making it easier for customers to identify ideas for great value getaways – and we continue to work across industry to champion the removal of fares complexity.

This year saw industrial action as well as national events that have driven customers to change their travel plans. During the year we have maintained the information on our website and updated it immediately with the latest agreements regarding refunds, and been transparent throughout, while also looking at any individual cases where a different approach was appropriate based on extenuating circumstances. Colleagues have managed the processes well to ensure customers are advised quickly and accurately and are able to make the best decisions about their journey.

Compensation Claims Process

Ongoing industrial action, events of national significance and further disruptive events including heatwaves and winter storms has driven extremely high volumes of claims for delay compensation. Higher claim volumes result in processing delays which in turn can result in complaints. We have improved the ‘delay-repay’ online process to enable more such claims to be processed automatically.

We continue to innovate in order to drive greater volumes of transactions to automation in order to reduce the wait time for customers and are making significant investments in this area.

Punctuality / Reliability

LNER’s industry-leading operations are based on operational excellence and nailing the basics. We have worked in partnership with Network Rail as well as joint initiatives with Hitachi, who maintain the majority of our fleet, to deliver strong operational performance metrics given some of the challenges around Industrial Action and extreme weather conditions. We continue to work with Hitachi to improve availability of the Azuma fleet particularly given a high number of units damaged by animal strikes and other issues as well as the introduction of the programme to rectify the bogie bolster area cracks seen in the prior year.

We have also improved the way in which we communicate ‘real time’ travel information to customers – including trialling new Platform screens at stations, and screens that offer sign language instruction when audible announcements are made.

The helpfulness and attitude of staff on train

Our people are at the heart of LNER. We continue to be incredibly thankful for their dedication and passion and are committed to working in partnership with our people to deliver a truly exceptional experience for our customers and have a positive impact on our communities and the environment long into the future.

During this year we have made some changes to roles on board that have provided clearer leadership for the delivery of service.

We continue to provide dedicated time for training to every one of our people who work on the frontline – including this year a focus on how best to support customers with specific accessibility needs and vulnerable customer groups.

How to book assistance

It takes just a few clicks to book Passenger Assist when you book directly with LNER.co.uk or through our app. Plus you’ll receive confirmation instantly for wheelchair spaces, while our team handle your assistance booking request separately. Even better, we’ll remember your details for next time. So, once it’s set up, it’s sorted.

You can also benefit from services like Change of Journey and our extended booking Horizon, as well as One Click Delay Repay and our loyalty scheme, LNER Perks. With no need to contact the Customer Service team, it’s easier than ever.

You can book your Passenger Assist up to 2 hours before your journey. If you are not able to book in advance, let us know when you arrive at the station and the team will be happy to help.

• Select the Passenger Assist option when booking your ticket on the LNER website.
• Call 03457 225 225, 24 hours a day.
• Use the Text Relay Service 18001 03457 225 225. 
• Between the hours 22:00 and 08:00 please phone, textphone or use the Passenger Assist app. 
• Fill out the Passenger Assist form(this will be picked up the next day when our team starts at 8am).
• Live Chat daily between the hours of 08:00 - 17:00- from our 'Help and support' pages.

You can buy your ticket when you call us to book your Passenger Assist, which will include a reservation to travel on our trains. If you have already booked your ticket online, when you book your Passenger Assist, this will include a reservation, also.

No of Passenger Assist bookings 

Approximately 0.8% of journeys also have Passenger Assist bookings

Our rail accessibility policy