Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) began operating the full Thameslink, Southern, Great Northern (TSGN) rail franchise in July 2015.
As part of their franchise obligations, GTR are required to demonstrate to the Department for Transport that they are acting to mitigate any revenue lost through fare evasion.
To understand if these obligations were being met, the Department for Transport commissioned Steer to complete quarterly independent surveys of ticket usage on the TSGN network, over a three-year period.
Between September 2015 and July 2018, our team managed 12 fare evasion surveys on the full TSGN network. We were involved in all stages of the process – designing the survey questionnaire; preparing, briefing and managing those conducting the fieldwork; and completing all post-survey data cleaning, analysis and reporting.
A key differentiator of our ticketless travel surveys is our bespoke survey application, developed in-house and able to be uploaded onto smartphones. The app provides flexibility to tailor survey questionnaires to our clients’ specifications; increases data accuracy; and enables us to track survey progress in real time.
Successes and outcomes
Each quarter, we reported to the Department for Transport the estimated ticketless travel rate and associated revenue-at-risk on the TSGN network. This information enabled the Department to monitor GTR’s performance against its franchise targets.
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