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Swedes slam service at rail company SJ

Passengers on Sweden’s national railway SJ have derided the company for poor service and punctuality, slapping SJ with one of the worst scores in the transit industry in a recent survey.

Published: 7 December 2009 07:58 CET

Swedes slam service at rail company SJ

This year, SJ received a score of only 55.6 out of 100 in an annual customer satisfaction survey of the transportation industry from Svenskt Kvalitetsindex (SKI).

The survey included questions about air, rail, and road transit, including taxis and buses.

SJ’s score dropped eight points from the 63.1 it received last year.

“It’ obviously a very disappointing result for us, and this is a study we take very sersiously,” SJ spokesperson Dag Rosander said of the company’s low score to the TT news agency.

He added that he was “somewhat surprised” by the result since SJ’s punctuality has actually improved and the company’s own customer surveys indicate an upward trend.

The score for the railway industry as a whole also dropped below 60, which is “a strong signal that customers are really dissatisfied”, according to SKI.

Of the roughly fifty industries reviewed by SKI every year, a score below 60 is highly unusual, added SKI.

Scandinavian airline SAS, which showed a marked improvement last year by rising four points to 64.5 percent, dropped back down to 61.2 in the 2009 survey, close to previous levels.

Skyways also received a weak mark of 60.9.

Among airlines, Malmö Aviation and Sverigeflyg, which includes the Gotlandsflyg, Sundsvallsflyg and Kalmarflyg carriers, received the highest customer ratings of 70.2 and 69.4, respectively.

Swedish bus companies have also had a hard time keeping riders happy, according to the survey.

Swebus Express fell from a score of 70.2 last year to 63.7 this year. Among “other bus companies”, which includes commuter bus lines, customer satisfaction dropped from 73.9 to 65.

The only transport industry sector to show an increase in customer satisfaction is travel by taxi, which crept up from 68.8 last year to 71.3 in 2009.

SKI has been carrying out regular customer satisfaction and quality development surveys since 1989 in around 50 different industries.

The most recent review of the transit industry is based on responses to 3,100 interviews carried out between October 27th and November 4th.

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German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

“The German Train Drivers’ Union (GDL) and Deutsche Bahn have reached a wage agreement,” GDL said in a statement.

Further details will be announced in a press conference on Tuesday, the union said. A spokesman for Deutsche Bahn also confirmed that an agreement had been reached.

Train drivers have walked out six times since November, causing disruption for huge numbers of passengers.

The strikes have often lasted for several days and have also caused disruption to freight traffic, with the most recent walkout in mid-March.

In late January, rail traffic was paralysed for five days on the national network in one of the longest strikes in Deutsche Bahn’s history.

READ ALSO: Why are German train drivers launching more strike action?

Europe’s largest economy has faced industrial action for months as workers and management across multiple sectors wrestle over terms amid high inflation and weak business activity.

The strikes have exacerbated an already gloomy economic picture, with the German economy shrinking 0.3 percent across the whole of last year.

What we know about the new offer so far

Through the new agreement, there will be optional reduction of a work week to 36 hours at the start of 2027, 35.5 hours from 2028 and then 35 hours from 2029. For the last three stages, employees must notify their employer themselves if they wish to take advantage of the reduction steps.

However, they can also opt to work the same or more hours – up to 40 hours per week are possible in under the new “optional model”.

“One thing is clear: if you work more, you get more money,” said Deutsche Bahn spokesperson Martin Seiler. Accordingly, employees will receive 2.7 percent more pay for each additional or unchanged working hour.

According to Deutsche Bahn, other parts of the agreement included a pay increase of €420 per month in two stages, a tax and duty-free inflation adjustment bonus of €2,850 and a term of 26 months.

Growing pressure

Last year’s walkouts cost Deutsche Bahn some €200 million, according to estimates by the operator, which overall recorded a net loss for 2023 of €2.35 billion.

Germany has historically been among the countries in Europe where workers went on strike the least.

But since the end of 2022, the country has seen growing labour unrest, while real wages have fallen by four percent since the start of the war in Ukraine.

German airline Lufthansa is also locked in wage disputes with ground staff and cabin crew.

Several strikes have severely disrupted the group’s business in recent weeks and will weigh on first-quarter results, according to the group’s management.

Airport security staff have also staged several walkouts since January.

Some politicians have called for Germany to put in place rules to restrict critical infrastructure like rail transport from industrial action.

But Chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected the calls, arguing that “the right to strike is written in the constitution… and that is a democratic right for which unions and workers have fought”.

The strikes have piled growing pressure on the coalition government between Scholz’s Social Democrats, the Greens and the pro-business FDP, which has scored dismally in recent opinion polls.

The far-right AfD has been enjoying a boost in popularity amid the unrest with elections in three key former East German states due to take place later this year.

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