According to data from YouGov, during the past year, there has been an improvement in customer trust from people travelling on Southeastern, with trust now at its its highest ever level.

The data shows that there are now more who feel the operator acts fairly, communicates clearly, is reliable journeys, and keeps its promises. Southeastern Railway became part of Great British Railways in June 2025. Since then, there have been tangible improvements for passengers, with extra services, and more to be added later this year.

Both current and potential customers were surveyed, as well as people who don’t currently travel with Southeastern, with results scaled from 0 to 7. Four key trust measurements reached record highs:

• Acted fairly to customers – 4.3
• Effective communication with customers – 4.23
• Reliability of services – 4.21
• Keeping promises – 4.13

The trust scores were also broken down into the different purposes for customers’ travel:

• Commuting – 4.4
• Business – 4.2
• Leisure: – 3

Among the actions taken in building trust are keeping cancellations down, with the latest period showing cancellations at nearly half the national average, and the annual average of 2.2% is one of the lowest of all operators. Overcrowding has been reduced by adding extra services, such as an extra 29 high-speed services each week between St Pancras and Faversham and more Saturday trains.

In the period to 17th January the latest survey showed improvements in customer satisfaction across several areas, including punctuality, cleanliness, onboard information, and personal safety.

In December, Southeastern ranked alongside London North Eastern Railway (LNER) and Network Rail as the most reliable operator for providing passenger assistance. Southeastern was rated as the best operator for processing delay repay compensation requests and for timely and fairly dealing with complaints.

As well as an improvement in customer trust, Southeastern has seen an increase in passengers, and is upgrading its fleet to improve journeys for passengers.

Rail Minister, Lord Peter Hendy highlighted that track and train are two sides of the same coin and this success is a blueprint for how train operators will be organised under Great British Railways, by driving efficiencies, innovation and high standards to restore trust across the whole of Britain’s rail network

“These record high trust scores are very encouraging and are both a testament to the hard work of our team and the benefit of bringing train operations and infrastructure together under one roof. Our newly integrated leadership team is wholly accountable to our customers and stakeholders. However, we are far from complacent, and we know there is much more we must do to continue to improve our services for customers and reduce our cost to taxpayers.

We take seriously the role transport plays in the lives of our customers connecting them with jobs, housing, education and leisure. Their trust is not easily won. It is earned day after day by delivering the best service that we can and looking after customers when things do go wrong.”

Steve White, Managing Director of South Eastern Railway