1 Great Western Railway Annual Stakeholder Report 2016-17 Bristol and Clifton Suspension Bridge © Kristoffer Trolle 2 3 Contents 1.0 Managing Director Foreword 5 7.0 Keeping Our Communities Prospering 30 7.1 Customer and Community Improvement Fund 31 2.0 Mark Langman, Network Rail, Route Managing Director, Western 6 7.2 New Train fleet 34 7.3 Princes Trust 38 3.0 Our strategic priorities and GWR Business Wheel 8 7.4 Community Rail Partnerships 40 - TransWilts Community Rail Partnership 41 4.0 Delighting Our Customers 10 - Heart of Wessex Community Rail Partnership 42 4.1 Customer Satisfaction 11 - Devon & Cornwall Community Rail Partnership 44 4.2 Change in Customer Relations 12 - Severnside Community Rail Partnership 46 4.3 Work starts on Bristol smartcard 13 - Three Rivers Community Rail Partnership 48 4.4 New bike hire scheme launches at Moreton-in-Marsh station 14 7.5 Sustainability 50 4.5 Y Cymro - The Welshman 15 7.6 Sustainable Procurement 52 4.6 Assisted Travel 15 7.7 European Quality Foundation 53 5.0 Disciplined Operations 16 8.0 Driving Business Growth 54 5.1 Performance Overview 17 8.1 Crossrail Update 55 5.2 Brand new electric trains for London and the Thames Valley 19 8.2 Regional Development - Central 56 5.3 Preventing accidents and ill health at work 22 8.3 Regional Development - East 58 5.4 GWR Christmas Success at Ealing Broadway 23 8.4 Regional Development - West 60 8.5 Regional Development - Wales 63 6.0 Great People 24 8.6 Upgraded carriages for the Night Riviera Sleeper 66 6.1 Apprentices take over railway station 25 8.7 GWR proves Brunel’s sunshine theory 67 6.2 GWR Managing Director named as Industry Leader 26 6.3 GWR Excellence Awards 27 6.4 GWR success at FirstGroup’s 2017 Be First Awards 28 6.5 GWR maintains Gold Investors In People accreditation 28 4 5 1.0 Managing Director Foreword Welcome to this, our third annual report to stakeholders. Each year has been packed with improvements, many of them delivered in partnership with you, our stakeholders. This report gives us a chance to look back and reflect on It has been a good year, albeit that we have not always what we have done, but also to look forward to what is delivered the levels of performance that I want to see. We to come. In this last year we introduced our first electric have worked on that. It is improving and we will make trains on the Great Western Railway between Hayes & sure it continues to do so. Harlington and London Paddington, with services now running from Maidenhead to London using the newly We know how important good rail services are to electrified infrastructure. economic regeneration and social cohesion. You can count on us to deliver the new trains we promised, and Later this year we will introduce our brand new Intercity to keep working with you to build for the future and to Express train. This is the first new high speed train to keep our customers moving in what are increasingly be introduced to the UK for some time. The combination congested times. of the two new train fleets means our customers will go from using one of the oldest train fleets in the country, to The physical changes to our trains and network will using one of the newest. bring tangible benefits such as more seats, faster journey times and improved frequency, along with better We could not bring in the new trains if it was not for the connections in London through the new Elizabeth upgrade to the infrastructure being built by our partners line. However, the transformation of GWR isn’t just in Network Rail. There is still more to do, but with train about that- it’s about people and ensuring our business and track working hard to bring GWR and Network transformation changes both, internally and externally Rail together in our Alliance we will deliver faster, more and this is truly exciting. reliable trains with the step change in capacity that is needed on so many of our routes. Thank you for coming on that journey with us. There were a number of other “firsts” for us this year; the Best wishes first year of delivery for our Customer and Communities Mark Hopwood Investment Fund, the first award of five stars in our Managing Director EFQM Recognised for Excellence assessment, the first ISO international standards 14001:2015 and 50001:2011 for environmental and energy management across our stations, crew depots and offices. We also retained Investors in People Gold status and reached our highest ever National Rail Passenger Score for customer satisfaction. 6 7 2.0 Mark Langman, Network Rail, Route Managing Director, Western Our alliance with Great Western Railway continues to drive success and progress. We continue to work to align our planning and working processes as closely as possible, which means better services for all rail users. This has been a year of remarkable progress; one in which The Railway Upgrade Plan brings benefits across the Heathrow Express and Network Rail staff working seamlessly the work we have been doing in recent years has started route. Major resignalling and redevelopment of the Bristol together to make the ‘gateway to the west’ function as well to bear fruit. The huge work of the Railway Upgrade area will transform the network in the city; improvements as it does. The fact that Paddington Station has continued to Programme has required the effort of thousands of people to the weather resilience of the network are keeping the work smoothly through the extensive improvements of the past for years at a time, and we are now at the point where trains running for more of the time and shortening delays twelve months is further testament to the way our Alliance direct benefits can be seen by the travelling public. when they do happen, and we are working closely with the works at all levels. Peninsula Rail Task Force to improve the service to and from New Class 387 Electrostar trains have been running Devon and Cornwall. That said, the railway is not performing well enough as a between Hayes and Harlington and Paddington Stations system, so our primary focus is improving the daily passenger since September of last year – the first of the new electric Meanwhile, our drive for improved safety has not let up. We experience. This commitment was underlined by the recent trains to travel on the Route, and enabled by the Crossrail have the safest railway in Europe but we are not resting on creation of the Western Route Supervisory Board to formally works to extend platforms, improve signalling and install our laurels. December 2016 saw a significant moment when bring track, train and passenger into one oversight body. An the new power systems. The increased capacity has made we finally closed Ufton Nervet Level Crossing, replacing industry first, the board combines members of GWR, Network a visible impact on some of the nation’s most crowded it with a bridge and closing a painful door in our history. Rail and Heathrow Express with Transport Focus and an railway services, and the use of electric power has been However, we still have more to do in order to get everyone independent chairman in the form of Dick Fearn, former CEO of welcomed by West London communities for its zero- home safe, every day, so our focus is relentless. Irish Rail. emissions working. These services are now extended to run between Paddington and Maidenhead, providing 6,550 All this work needs to be done around a running railway, I look forward to working with Mark Hopwood and his team to much-needed extra seats per day in each direction. and this is where the Alliance shows its value most clearly. further improve the passenger experience in the year to come. We achieved a high point at Christmas 2016 when we These services will be joined by high-speed Intercity worked with GWR, Heathrow Express, TfL and others Best wishes Express Trains, already to be seen testing on the western to keep passengers on trains whilst closing Paddington network, and Crossrail’s new direct service through Station, using Ealing Broadway as a ’turn back’ station. That Mark Langman London. Electrification work continues, with our focus on kind of partnership is characteristic of our daily relationship, Route Managing Director, Western connecting the London-Cardiff services by late 2018. and Paddington itself shows this every day, with GWR, Network Rail 8 9 3.0 Our Strategic Priorities ds D Delighting our customers dar ed an ica Bringing improvements to our business for st g te t perin d the long term benefit of our customers and s os Di to he pr sci managing the factors that impact customer g es pli sa i ti ne f satisfaction and analysing customer research. h i PartnershipsMeaningful e n d t e u op y th m e m ra g o t n c Reputation i i r o t u n Disciplined operations Safety t o s e g Finding ways to improve our service delivery S in and manage the factors that impact customer p e Train Service satisfaction, while maintaining and developing e Environmental Performance our commitment to safety. K Impact Capacity S Re-value rail in u Great people p A Recognising that our goals will only be delivered p c Compliance the hearts and Colleague o c with our colleagues’ commitment and seeking r G o Development t D r out new ways to deliver the best customer minds of the i u e r v experience possible.