Train Operations: The Company Can Improve the Quality of Customer Service to Passengers with Disabilities

Our objective was to assess the company’s efforts to provide high-quality customer service to passengers with disabilities.

We found that although the company has ongoing efforts to improve the service it provides to these customers, it faces challenges in two key areas. First, it does not have an overarching strategy with goals, metrics, and priorities to guide its efforts to improve customer service to passengers with disabilities. Second, it does not have full visibility over the quality of service it provides to passengers with disabilities because it does not regularly analyze key data that could provide insights. 

Without a strategy informed by relevant data, the company may not be focusing its resources on improvement initiatives with the highest potential impact. Further, it could be exposed to unnecessary financial, reputational, and legal risks from service that does not consistently meet its standards. Given the company’s limited visibility over the service it provides to passengers with disabilities, we assessed the customer experience and identified three areas where it has opportunities to improve: (1) interactions with customer-facing employees, (2) communication of essential travel information, and (3) access to onboard amenities.

We recommended that the company develop an overarching strategy and analyze the data necessary to measure its service quality. It should also implement plans and processes to address challenges in the three improvement areas we identified.