South Eastern Railway has welcomed new figures showing encouraging improvements in customer trust over the past year.
The data, compiled by international research and data analytics firm YouGov, found more people now feel Southeastern acts fairly, communicates clearly, provides reliable journeys and keeps its promises to its customers.
This rising trust comes during the first six months of South Eastern Railway – created in June 2025 - bringing train operations and Network Rail infrastructure together under one leadership team all working towards providing a better and more reliable railway for customers and communities.
Since launch, South Eastern Railway, which reflects the approach Great British Railways will take nationally, has delivered tangible improvements for passengers, including additional services to meet growing demand and more to follow this year.
Steve White, Managing Director of South Eastern Railway, said:
"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.”
Rail Minister, Lord Peter Hendy, said:
"Track and train are two sides of the same coin and uniting them under the leadership of Steve White and his team has clearly improved passenger experiences across the south east.
“This success is a blueprint for how train operators will be organised under Great British Railways - driving efficiencies, innovation and high standards to restore trust across the whole of Britain's rail network."
YouGov surveyed a range of current and prospective customers as well as members of the public who don’t currently travel with Southeastern.
The survey scores results are on a 1-7 scale. The four key trust measurements which have reached record highs are:
- - Act fairly to customers: 4.3
- - Communicate effectively with their customers: 4.23
- - Run a reliable service: 4.21
- - Keep their promises: 4.13
The trust scores for customers with different purposes are:
- - Commuter: 4.4
- - Leisure: 3
- - Business: 4.2
The increase in trust comes as the newly integrated railway works to deliver a better and more reliable railway for customers while saving more than £60million in taxpayer subsidy this year.
Examples of actions taken to support customers and build trust include:
- Keeping cancellations down: cancellations in the most recent Rail Period 10 sat at 2.1%, nearly half the national average. The Moving Annual Average (MAA) of 2.2% is amongst the industry lowest.
- Reducing crowding: in December, a new timetable added a range of extra services, including 29 Highspeed St Pancras- Faversham services each week and more Saturday trains at busy times.
- The most recent survey of 1,227 passengers showed customer satisfaction with onboard train crowding achieved 84%, the highest result this year.
- Improving customer satisfaction: Southeastern achieved its highest ever customer satisfaction score and has trained so far over 1,000 colleagues in a pioneering ‘Dare to Care’ Programme.
- o The most recent survey to 17th Jan 2026 showed customer satisfaction improving across a range of measures, from punctuality, cleanliness and onboard information received to personal safety.
- Improving assistance: in December Southeastern was assessed by the Office of Rail and Road as the most reliable railway company for providing passenger assistance alongside LNER and Network Rail.
- Improving compensation: the latest Office of Rail and Road report (dated 8th January) shows Southeastern was best in class at processing delay repay (simply with just a quick one step process) and dealing with complaints in a timely and fair manner.
Trust scores are measured by asking respondents on a scale of 1-7, how much they trust Southeastern across selected measures. The Trust score is then derived from the mean of this: A score closer to 1 indicates low trust, and 7 indicates high trust.
The Trust Index averages all trust measures into a singular value that helps understand trust performance at a brand level across different interest groups.
