Sir, – The pressure group Railfuture is launching a campaign to reduce the impact on passengers when rail services are disrupted.

We all know rail disruption happens, but how it is handled remains the number one concern of rail passengers.

Most passengers will have their horror stories about journeys that went wrong, but they will also have examples of where it went well and the rail industry must learn from that experience.

We want to spread the message of good practice on the railways and demand improvements for our passengers.

We have examples of the rail industry getting it right with major projects both past and current, for example Thameslink, and major events such as the 2012 Olympics. However there are also examples of information breakdown and passengers, and often front line railway staff, not knowing what is going on or what to do.

Although there has been a rapid growth in use of technology (web, Twitter, Facebook, smartphone applications and customer information screens), passengers may not know about them.

This information can be incomplete and contradictory, although it is often ahead of what the front line staff know but there are still a significant number of passengers that rely on face-to-face contact with staff and use public, rather than personal, sources of information. We also know that passengers hate bus replacement services, so we want to ensure that these are kept to an absolute minimum. Our challenge to the rail industry is to tell us what you are doing about the problems and involve passengers in the solutions.

Railfuture is seeking input from across the rail industry and from rail passengers. Both are invited to log their experiences on www.railfuture.org.uk/disruption or contact the project by emailling disruption@railfuture.org.uk. A draft report will be produced in February 2015 and a final report in July 2015.

CHRIS FRIBBINS

Head of Railfuture’s Passenger Group.

Railfuture.