John Larkinson Director Railway Markets & Economics 14 June 2018 Managing Directors Train operating companies using Trainline ticket engine Dear Colleague, 

## Compliance With Condition 4 Of The Passenger Licence And Gb Statement Of National Regulatory Provisions: Passenger, And Consumer Law

I refer to my letters of 23 February 20181 and 8 May 2018 regarding compliance with Condition 4 of the Passenger Licence and GB Statement of National Regulatory Provisions: Passenger (Information to Passengers)2 and the Consumer Protection (from Unfair Trading) Regulations 2008 (the 'CPRs'). In your reply to our 8 May 2018 letter you were asked to identify any blockers that may be preventing you from giving passengers the information that they need to plan and make their journey with a reasonable degree of assurance. Some operators told us that this is due to a lack of functionality on the Trainline ticket engine that you use on your site. We are therefore writing to all nine operators that use this service3 and separately to the Trainline. We remain concerned that passengers who choose to plan a journey or purchase a ticket using your website will be less informed than those using National Rail Enquiries (NRE). This is because the messaging about changes to services or uncertainty in the timetable is not being shown on your website.  
This next step of our work narrows the focus to the three principle concerns where we have noted that there remain significant gaps in information provision: 

1. the majority of train operators do not put the warnings (icons and messages) that 
are shown on the NRE website on their website or apps; 
2. where NRE flags trains as not being confirmed to run, the message is not shown on 
train operator ticket engines which generally have no cautionary messages at all;  
3. where train times have changed since the ticket was booked, train operators are not 
contacting passengers to alert them to the new journey times or refund options 
 
We need to be assured that all reasonably practicable steps are being taken to provide passengers with appropriate, accurate and timely information to enable them to plan and make their journeys with a reasonable degree of assurance, as we consider that a lack of messaging on ticket engines is unacceptable. Where changes are planned we need to have evidence of a firm commitment and a delivery date that is within a reasonable timescale. 

## Next Steps

It is important that we meet with you urgently to discuss these three concerns with you. This can be in the form of a face-to-face meeting or a call. Information provided in reply to our letters and in the discussions will be considered with the results of our monitoring of websites4 to enable us to take a decision on whether to commence our formal enforcement process5. I would be grateful if you could confirm receipt of this letter by return e-mail indicating your availability to meet based on the options given in the covering e-mail. We will be placing a copy of this letter and any further correspondence regarding this issue, on our website6. 

Yours sincerely 

## John Larkinson

information provided to passengers