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Office of Rail and Road – Train Operating Companies’ Assisted Travel Audit

Assisted Travel Audit

The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) wanted to understand how well Train Operating Companies (TOCs) were meeting the requirements set out in its Accessible Travel Policy (ATP) Guidance. To establish this understanding, BPG was engaged to undertake an audit of five train operators. Rather than passenger experience, the audits focused on how well the TOCs were meeting the ATP Guidance and what management systems they have in place to: monitor and seek assurance of their own performance, and to take appropriate action on the basis of this. Outputs from the audit needed to provide a robust evidence base, actionable conclusions and guidance for how to address any identified areas for improvement. To deliver the audit project we tailored our standard contract/service performance review approach that we have used on hundreds of client projects.

Stakeholder Relationship Management

Central to the successful delivery of the audit was our approach to stakeholder engagement. We took time to map and analyse the stakeholder landscape and engaged the TOCs from the start of the project, including involving them in the design of the questionnaire that would be central to our information gathering. Regular open and honest communications were required throughout the project to keep all stakeholders informed and to report on progress.

Adapting to Change

We needed to remain flexible in our approach to keep the audit project running, especially when the competing demands on TOCs from Government meant we needed to extend the time TOCs had to return their completed questionnaires. Ensuring we maintained focus on the client’s requirement we flexed our resourcing plans to assure our advisors’ availability when the ORR and TOCs were able to resume activity.

In March 2024, The Office of Rail and Road published its findings based on the audit work carried out by Best Practice Group. You can read these, here. 

“BPG worked collaboratively with ORR and the TOCs to deliver a thorough audit of passenger assistance management systems and provide ORR with the evidence we needed of TOC compliance with our Accessible Travel Policy (ATP) Guidance. BPG were organised and methodical in their approach and showed great skill in managing the many stakeholder relationships required to fulfil this project, exercising considerable flexibility when the competing priorities of the TOCs meant we were forced to revisit our initial project timescales.” Matt Westlake – Senior Manager, Consumer Policy, ORR