Making a complaint

We know that sometimes, things don’t go right, and we want to know about them so we can investigate and resolve it.

Managed station complaints

For complaints about one of our managed stations, please use our station complaint form.

Our managed stations

General complaints

For complaints that aren’t to do with a managed station – including vegetation, questions about the impact of railway work, level crossings, graffiti or noise disturbance – you can submit a complaint form.

What happens when you make a complaint?

Complaint is received.
Our contact centre will take the details of the complaint and try to resolve it immediately.
If it can’t be resolved straight away, it will be passed onto your local community relations team to investigate.
If you’re unhappy with the response, you can ask for a senior manager to review your complaint.
If you are not satisfied with the review, you can ask for a further review by a director.

What happens if you’re not happy with our response?

If you feel we haven’t resolved things for you, you have the right for it to be reviewed by an external independent body, depending on the nature of your complaint.

Managed stations

If your complaint is about something that happened at a station, you can be referred to the railway ombudsman.

Other complaints

For all other complaints, you can ask us to refer you to the Independent Complaints Assessor (ICA). The ICA won’t comment on our policies, but they can say whether we have followed those policies appropriately and whether there’s been any maladministration in how we’ve managed your complaint.

For some complaints about safety, infrastructure, buildings and bridges, you can also contact our regulator, the Office of Rail & Road.

How we’ve handled your complaint

If the complaint relates to how we’ve handled your complaint, you can ask us to refer you to the Independent Complaints Assessor (ICA)The ICA conduct reviews that focus on the administrative aspects of complaints. They can’t comment on Network Rail’s policies, although they can say whether we have followed those policies appropriately.

Passenger complaints

For passenger complaints you can also visit Transport Focus or London Travel Watch for journeys that have taken place wholly in London.

Other complaints

Who to contact about other matters
If your complaint relates to	You should contact
Train services (passenger and freight) and rolling stock	The train or freight operator. If unsure of the name, look for the logo on the side of the train. Or find out at National Rail.
Stations (apart from those listed under ‘Our stations’)	The train operating company that manages the station. For the name and contact visit National Rail.
Timetabling, tickets, railcards and fares	The train operator or National Rail

If you contact us about something that falls outside our responsibility, we will assume that you are happy for us to refer your query and contact details to the most appropriate company for them to get in touch with you.

Unreasonable contact

We will always aim to resolve complaints fully, accurately, and openly. If we’ve made a mistake, we will say sorry and genuinely seek to understand how we can put things right.

In some circumstances, we may determine that your contact with us has become unreasonable. That may result in us taking steps to manage how we communicate with you, and, in extreme cases, terminating contact with you.

We will let you know if we feel that your contact is becoming unreasonable. Behaviours or situations that may be considered unreasonable may include (but are not necessarily limited to):

Using abusive, threatening or otherwise unacceptable language towards our staff;
Making excessive and disproportionate demands on staff resource;
Refusing to follow or misusing our complaints procedure;

If, after you receive a warning from us that we have determined your behaviour to be unreasonable, we will confirm in writing, from a senior manager, why we have reached that conclusion and how your future contact with us will be managed.