Rail Customer Experience Survey data visualisation and communications support

Description

1. Overview Transport Focus is the voice of Britain's transport users. As the independent watchdog for transport users, we listen to the public and find out their experience of using, or trying to use, Britain's railways and England's buses, coaches, trams and motorways and major 'A' roads. We protect the interests and champion the needs of all transport users today and ensure they're at the centre of tomorrow's policy decisions and future investment. Transport Focus is looking for an agency to scope and deliver the online reporting of its new Rail Customer Experience Survey (RCXS) for the launch of its six-monthly official statistics reporting. 2. Background A. The survey The RCXS is a new, industry-wide survey of rail passenger experiences. Its aim is to provide regular, robust, and consistent customer insight data and the single source of truth for the industry. The RCXS is a collaboration between Transport Focus, Department for Transport, Rail Delivery Group, Network Rail and the Customer and Revenue Growth Team (formerly part of Great British Railways Transition Team). We work closely with industry stakeholders such as train operating companies, mayoral and devolved authorities. Approximately ten thousand passengers a month are asked their views on their rail journey experience with the aim of speaking to an estimated 130,000 passengers every year. The RCXS fieldwork launched in July 2025 and will be continuously in field from this date. The first weighted results were published in December 2025. The RCXS will provide crucial insight into rail customers' experience, supporting the industry in better understanding where it is performing well, where it needs to improve, and what elements of the journey matter most to customers. Passenger views will be used to help train operators improve the day-to-day service for passengers and inform industry decision-making for the improvement of rail services. This way, they can be at the forefront of driving systemic change to improve Britain's railways and make sure operators are delivering what customers want and need. As well as positioning us as the official authority on RCXS results it also provides us with a high-profile platform every six months and will likely become the main way to assess how well Great British Railways is delivering for passengers. Transport Focus already uses the data quarterly to highlight industry performance on the journey elements that matter most to passengers through its rail scorecard. This builds on a long history in this space for Transport Focus having previously delivered one of the world's biggest passenger satisfaction surveys, the National Rail Passenger Survey and more recently the Rail User Survey. The rail industry is responsible for regular RCXS internal industry reporting and dashboards available on the Rail Data Marketplace. In addition to Transport Focus's reporting the following will be available as data products in the Rail Data Marketplace: • CRG interactive dashboard (due in early 2026) • respondent-level data requested via an API • flat files containing respondent-level data • Network Rail Insight Hub dashboard. A dashboard is currently not the preferred means to share Transport Focus's official statistic data to avoid duplications of industry dashboards. B. Output - six-monthly publication Transport Focus will lead on the publication of the RCXS official statics every six months in May and November. Transport Focus is looking to an agency to help us scope out the key deliverables online and design the outputs in line with our style and brand. Our current practice of publishing individual PDF reports no longer keeps up with accessibility standards nor serves our audience's evolving digital expectations. A separate exercise is underway to tender for a new digital publication platform for all of Transport Focus's insight reporting (away from PDF downloads to HTML as default). Proposals for the RCXS reporting should be deliverable on/able to integrate to our existing infrastructure and WordPress CMS for the first six-month reporting in May 2026 and the ability to sit in or alongside the new digital publication platform in future iterations. Options such as microsite may be explored as an option but these would need to integrate with Transport Focus's website and significant reasons provided why options away from Transport Focus's existing URL should be pursued/explored within the discovery phase. C. Deliverables The format of the output will be determined as the project develops, and by the nature of the story eventually selected and developed. Bidders would be able to advise and help provide input how best to tell the story of the data whether that be website content, clear social media assets or other outputs. A key part of the project would be to develop a proposed look and feel (in line with brand guidelines) for the RCXS data viz and means of hosting this. Proposals should outline the approach to content/storytelling and development of static or animated assets which could be easily used on Transport Focus's website, on social media, within stakeholder briefings and for use with the press. Key pillars we need to report on: Data report (Official statistic) Includes methodology, definitions, and full data tables. Likely format: HTML summary + downloadable Excel files. Covers national, TOC, route, and journey purpose breakdowns. Summary report (Official Statistic) Highlights key findings in a clear, accessible format. May include key drivers of satisfaction and subgroup analysis (sector, station performance). Based on journey stages or aspects we chose to pull out Bespoke Commentary Transport Focus's independent take on what the data means. Focuses on accountability and areas needing improvement. Thought leadership pieces signposting to future deep dives (e.g. accessibility, passenger assistance) and links to consumer standards TOC reports Summary and at a glance level per TOC Highlights TOC specific key drivers Consistent focus on key metrics and trend analysis over time. Designed to help readers understand satisfaction performance for specific TOCs easily. Key target audiences include train operators, the wider rail industry, key decision makers in national and regional government, consumers/rail passengers, national and trade media and social influencers/commentators. Our current working assumption is that we will require a number of reports that delivers the necessary official statistics data and a number of other reports/outputs which tell the story and Transport Focus analysis. We foresee this as online content made up of interconnected chapters or reports that pulls this together to provide engaging content for industry and passengers. We are looking to a design and data vis agency with a strong experience of handling large data sets to design and deliver outputs for year one of the survey and templates for year-on-year trend reporting. This reporting would integrate into Transport Focus's existing website WordPress CMS to allow people to access data in html, data tables to cover our core official stats data, data visulisations and commentary for Transport Focus analysis/briefing and Excel csv downloads. We are keen to for this to be seen as one of our flagship launches and as such want to ensure the outputs deliver engaging content that provides world leading insight into what is happening at stations, on trains and platforms up and down the country. We envisage the online reporting would have clear data-visualisations, written commentary and features such as being able to share or download individual charts or editorial content across different social media platforms. D. Official statistics - Code of Practice for Statistics Some of the outputs will be published as 'official statistics in development', and their publication will need to comply with the Code of Practice for Statistics and the code's three pillars of trustworthiness, quality and value. E. Accessibility Accessibility compliance is paramount. The platform must meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA standards as a minimum, incorporating features such as screen reader compatibility, keyboard navigation support, alt text capabilities for all visual content, appropriate colour contrast ratios, and compatibility with assistive technologies. The platform should enable content to be presented in clear, structured formats with proper heading hierarchies and descriptive hyperlinks and responsive design All content should be fully responsive, automatically optimising viewing experience across desktop, tablet, and mobile devices without compromising functionality or accessibility. We are looking for supplier that is willing to work collaboratively and help us build our knowledge base. If successful we see the opportunity to build this approach into more of our work for other transport users going forward. 3. Scope of work The supplier will: • Deliver a discovery phase with the Transport Focus project team to scope out the reporting structure • Design and deliver outputs for year one of the survey and templates for year-on-year trend reporting. 4. Out of scope • PR on the findings of the survey (delivered in-house by Transport Focus comms and public affairs team) • data analysis (delivered in-house by Transport Focus insight team). 5. Approach Please map out what you think the main distinct phases of the project are likely to be, and approximately how much time and budget you would recommend attaching to each phase. We realise there are different skillsets required for different elements of a project like this - some more geared towards data visualisation and others storytelling. Please detail which of these skills you have inhouse, and those where you would seek external support. Where possible please illustrate your approach to the above via relevant case studies.