Marcus Clements Head of Consumer Policy & Compliance Telephone 020 7282 2000 E-mail
[email protected] 03 October 2018 Leo Goodwin Managing Director First TransPennine Express Limited [by email] Dear Leo Review of First TransPennine Express Limited (Trading as TransPennine Express) Disabled People’s Protection Policy (Condition 5 of the Station Licence and GB Statement of National Regulatory Provisions: Passenger) Thank you for submitting your draft Disabled People’s Protection Policy (DPPP) for review. A copy of your approved DPPP is attached to this letter, and will be published on our website along with a copy of this letter. I confirm that we have reviewed your DPPP against the 2009 Guidance “How to write your Disabled People’s Protection Policy: A guide for Train and Station Operators” (the Guidance) and can confirm that your revised DPPP meets the requirements of Condition 5 of your station licence and GB Statement of National Regulatory Provisions: Passenger (SNRP). We welcome the following, which we believe are likely to be positive for passengers: Your commitment to reduced timescales for assistance booking to two hours for passengers making direct journeys between two of your own managed stations1; The provision of free car parking for blue badge holders; and Your use of assistance cards, which allow passengers with communication difficulties and hidden disabilities to communicate their assistance needs to staff. Since your DPPP was originally submitted to ORR we have had several exchanges in the intervening period in order to bring about the changes required to make it fully compliant with the Guidance. 1 We recognise that you have not been able to secure the introduction of a 2-hour notice period for booked assistance travelling on your services to or from Northern and Network Rail managed stations, as envisaged in your franchise agreement, and that this is the subject of franchise variation discussions with Rail North; if this situation changes, we would expect a revised DPPP to be submitted to us for consideration.