Joining up people and places… 1 A major contributor to communities 2 Joining up people and places 4 Making travel easy and simple 6 Working together 8 Taking the lead 10 An open and honest approach 12 Today, tomorrow and into the future A MAJOR CONTRIBUTOR TO COMMUNITIES “JOINING UP PEOPLE AND PLACES ACROSS THE UK AND FROM TEXAS TO TORONTO.” People commute, shop, visit friends and go on holiday with us.They travel distances from a hundred yards to hundreds of miles with us. And they rely on us to make their journeys reliable, accessible, affordable, enjoyable and above all safe. So who are National Express Group? You’ll be amazed how many different companies make up the Group.We operate many well-known transport brands such as National Express coaches, MML, Silverlink County, Central Trains, c2c, Stansted Express,‘one’,Travel London and Travel West Midlands in the UK. Overseas in North America our school bus operations are Stock Transportation and Durham School Services and in Europe, our private Spanish coach and bus operator Alsa… all these and many, many more local companies come together to make the National Express Group, one of the largest global public transport providers. We take a long term view of each of our businesses and believe in investing in them for their future growth and development. In the UK rail sector, we provide inter-city, commuter, rural and airport services. And we’re also the team behind the huge fleet of coaches which carry the National Express name up and down the UK’s motorways. In the West Midlands, we also operate one of the largest regional bus networks in the UK and have other bus operations in Coventry, Dundee and London. Overseas, we operate yellow school buses in the United States and Canada and are the leading private coach and bus operator in Spain. We operate as a devolved family of companies, with each local company – rail, coach or bus – responsible for its own operation. Each company has its own brand and works directly with local customers and partners to do what it does best – delivering services that customers want to use. And we succeed by making things easy and simple, by working in partnership, by taking the initiative and by being open and honest as best we can. The holding company operates behind the scenes, shaping overall strategy, providing investment and sharing best practice across the Group. 1 JOINING UP PEOPLE AND PLACES 2 “ALTHOUGH EACH COMPANY OPERATES INDEPENDENTLY, ACROSS THE GROUP WE ALL SHARE THE SAME GOAL AND THE SAME SET OF PRINCIPLES. WE ENSURE BEST PRACTICE IS ROLLED OUT ACROSS ALL OUR COMPANIES.” Our vision is Joining up People and Places. Key facts; Everywhere we operate, from the smallest rural • Every year, National Express coaches carry community to the largest capital city, our rail, bus around 16 million customers. and coach services aim to take the ‘distance’ out of travel – that is making travel easier and more • Travel West Midlands carries one million enjoyable. passengers every working day. • Approximately a third of London commuters Our brands are local businesses which meet local travel to work on one of our train services needs. They all benefit from being part of a larger everyday. organisation which can provide strategic regional direction and investment whilst ensuring best • We operate over 11,000 yellow school buses practice is shared and rolled out. in North America. We seek to understand the needs of our customers. We know that customers travelling on a rural line in Norfolk are different to commuters travelling from Essex into Liverpool Street. Leisure customers want an experience that reflects their needs. So our management teams are encouraged to DID YOU KNOW? work closely with local customers and partners • Since 1995 we have invested £140 million to retain a local focus and personality throughout in our Travel West Midlands operation their operations. with over 1,000 new buses introduced into the fleet. • We have invested over half a billion pounds in new trains since entering the UK rail industry. • National Express has invested £10 million over two years in new state-of-the-art coach facilities. 3 MAKING TRAVEL EASY AND SIMPLE “WE WORK HARD TO MAKE THE CUSTOMER’S JOURNEY AS EASY AND AS SIMPLE AS POSSIBLE.” That doesn’t just mean we provide clean seats and When a customer is on board one of our services a reliable service.We consider the total journey, or waiting at one of our train or coach stations, from the moment our customers book their travel we try to make the journey itself – and any waiting or leave their homes or offices.We aim to make time – as comfortable as possible by providing preparation for a journey easy and to create the quality facilities. Examples include Manchester and best possible connections.We form partnerships Newcastle coach stations and new first class to help us deliver ‘joined up and stress free travel’. waiting rooms in Leicester and Derby rail stations, as well as modal interchanges such as at We also make our fares simpler and easier to Wolverhampton bus and coach station. All these buy through promoting a wide range of booking add value to the customer’s travelling experience. channels giving customers greater choice. All our rail franchises encourage on-line ticket booking and We believe that all customers should have easy our coaches provide extra discounts for booking access to all our services.We work closely with on the internet.We have developed and piloted key stakeholders including local councils and new hand-held ticketing machines on our rail passenger transport bodies. For example, to operations.These have been adopted as an comply with the Disability Discrimination Act industry product by other rail operators enabling (DDA), all new or refurbished facilities are customers to buy tickets, more quickly and easily. designed to meet the Act’s requirements in full. We have made great progress in re-modelling the Accurate information, particularly when delays layout of railway stations by introducing facilities occur, plays a key part in winning the hearts such as lifts and low level ticket counters for and minds of our customers. Midland Mainline wheelchair customers. Following three years of customers are able to use the internet or our research and development, we launched our first SMS text service for real-time information on how fully integrated, accessible coach – the Levante. their trains are running.Through new technology In addition, the redevelopment of our coach we will shortly be able to provide our coach station at Manchester included new automatic customers via the website with real time arrival doors, disabled toilets as well as CCTV installed information. throughout. We also operate over 1,000 easy access low-floor buses. DID YOU KNOW? • Travel Dundee’s bus fleet is 100% low floor easy access – eight years ahead of the Government target. • All our train operating companies provide on-line booking and real time information services. • To cater for flexitime working, c2c offers discounted travelcards to regular commuters who avoid the morning rush hour. 4 1 THREE GOES INTO ‘ONE’ Following the launch of Londonlines, the umbrella brand for our London rail commuter services; c2c and Silverlink we successfully launched the ‘one’ franchise in April 2004.‘One’ is responsible for all passenger trains to and from London’s Liverpool Street station. It serves communities as diverse as Cambridge and Great Yarmouth, Southend and Stratford and includes commuter, intercity and rural as well as airport services. Improved performance and efficiencies have been achieved through the integration of these services. 2 SMART MOVE Senior citizens in Coventry can now travel on buses without having to find loose change.The high-tech Travel Coventry Smartcard bus pass is being piloted by the Group, offering cashless travel and making life easier and safer for our customers. 3 E-FFICIENT, EASY, E-TICKETS Customers who book a National Express coach journey online can now print tickets directly from their computer or have them texted to their mobile phones. E-tickets and M-tickets are easy, efficient and an example of how we go that extra mile to make travel as simple as possible. Not surprisingly, an increasing number of customers are now choosing these options when purchasing tickets. 5 WORKING TOGETHER “COMMUTERS ARRIVING INTO LIVERPOOL STREET STATION… HOLIDAYMAKERS ON THE FAST LINK TO THE AIRPORT… STUDENTS GOING TO SCHOOL IN TEXAS… SHOPPERS COMING INTO LONDON… WE PLAY A PART IN EVERYDAY ACTIVITIES.” 6 4 INVESTING IN OUR PEOPLE DID YOU KNOW? Our people are important in our business and they deserve our • Employee development full support. is an area of focus and incorporates elements such We invest energy, expertise and money to develop our people. as regular employee surveys, management development and succession planning as well as our established 5 GETTING IT RIGHT graduate training scheme. The £1.5 million Midland Mainline Customer Service Academy was the first of its kind in the rail industry.The Academy trains • Our bus operations in employees how to communicate with customers and is helping the West Midlands and Midland Mainline employees meet and exceed customers Dundee have formed joint expectations. partnership arrangements called Concordats with We have rolled out the Academy concept in our Central Trains Coventry and Dundee City operation and recently opened a third Academy at Stratford, Councils.These aim to East London. encourage increased travel by bus in these cities. 6 THE SMARTER WAY TO GET • Working alongside the Carbon Trust, a Government FROM A TO B funded not for profit company, we have been The PLUSBUS initiative is a great example of joined-up thinking working on energy saving between railways and buses.