Issue 2 Autumn 2019 ARRIVA UK TRAINS - NEWS Grand Central announces new Blackpool to Inside this issue: London service New Blackpool Service 1 Grand Central has confirmed plans to run trains Pacer Train Retires 1 between Blackpool and London from Spring 2020. New MD 2 The new service is expected to bring significant economic benefits to the North West through Rail Reputation Index 2 business and leisure travel. Grand Central will Station Investment 2 operate up to five new direct train services to run New Trains for Liverpool 3 every day of the week between Blackpool North and London Euston. Blackpool will gain direct Passenger Survey Results 3 services to London on Sundays as well as later Free Wi-Fi 3 trains to and from the capital Monday to Saturday. Digital e-Tickets 4 Poulton-le-Fylde and Kirkham & Wesham will each have new direct London services throughout the Welcome to the second edition day, seven days a week. All trains will also call at of Arriva UK Trains’ Business Preston, Nuneaton and Milton Keynes connecting Travel newsletter to the capital offering choice of operator along with low cost fares. designed to keep business travellers, rail buying specialists Grand Central currently operates open access direct trains between towns and cities in and travel management compa- Yorkshire and the North East of England and London. The company has an industry- nies up to date with key news events and announcements leading reputation for customer service and value for money and a track record of from across Arriva’s rail division. supporting local communities on and around its networks. We’d love to hear your views so Northern retires first Pacer train feel free to contact the Business Development Team directly The first of Northern’s Pacer trains to retire made its final journey on 12 August after (details on page 4). travelling more than 3 million miles in 32 years of service. The train - unit 142005 - entered service on 20 February 1987 and bowed out after completing its final day of opera- A R R I V A U K TRAINS: tion by carrying Northern customers between Manchester Victoria and Stalybridge. • 5 rail businesses, As the new trains come into service, Pacers representing 21% of will start to be retired from the Northern net- all journeys across work on a phased basis over the coming the UK rail market months. New trains are being introduced on • With 19 years longer-distance routes, allowing existing experience in trains on those routes to be redeployed and providing passenger replace the retiring Pacers. rail services In addition to Northern introducing 101 • Over 4,700 services brand new trains across the network, a each weekday £500m investment - a further £80m is also being dedicated to refurbish and improve the • 620 train sets in operation quality of Northern’s remaining fleet. Page 2 Introducing Tom Joyner CrossCountry’s new Managing Director Following the retirement of Andy Cooper at the end of May, after 39 years service to Britain’s railways, the last 11 years running CrossCountry, Tom Joyner was appointed Managing Director of CrossCountry. Tom has enjoyed a diverse career in the rail industry working in various operational and customer strategy leadership roles. Before joining Arriva as Managing Director of Arriva Train Wales in October 2017, he was Passenger Services Director for London Midland. While there, he was instrumental in London Midland being named the most improved organisation for customer service in Britain by the Institute of Customer Service. Tom has also held board and leadership roles at First Group and National Express train operating companies – as well as two years spent developing future projects at Network Rail. On his appointment Tom said: “I am excited to join CrossCountry as I know first- hand how you can transform the travel experience for customers by putting them at the very centre of your business strategy. My focus, working with the excellent team at CrossCountry, will be to find new ways of anticipating and meeting the needs of Tom Joyner, MD CrossCountry our customers and build relationships based on trust.” Chiltern named best operator in London & the South East The Rail Reputation Index social media table in the recent users of UK train in every day and our com- has revealed for the third index for the past two years, companies and combined the mitment to delivering across year in a row that Chiltern with regular positive likelihood of a participation to the route to make it better Railways is the UK rail comments around Wi-Fi recommend a provider (Net for customers. We’re contin- brand with the strongest entertainment, customer Promoter Score) with social uing to develop based on reputation in London and care and staff. media sentiment. what passengers tell us and the South East. The train are dedicated to doing more The index, produced by Customer Services Director, company were also ranked to give our passengers the research and consultancy Alan Riley, said “The result is number 1 for a positive experience they deserve.” agency BDRC, is based on a testimony to the hard work social media sentiment. over 5,000 interviews with that the team at Chiltern put Chiltern has topped the Grand Central £2.6m station investment plan Grand Central has committed to invest in station facilities on both the North East and West Riding routes in the next 6 months to a total investment of £2.6m. This is a significant and complex project with 80% of schemes currently underway and will be delivered by year end, with the remaining schemes due for completion by February 2020. The following stations will be benefitting from Grand Centrals investment: Sunderland - concourse refurbishment Hartlepool - new customer waiting room Eaglescliffe - new first-class waiting lounge and standard class waiting room Thirsk - expansion of the existing car park Brighouse - new waiting shelters to replace current installations Mirfield - improved underpass lighting scheme Wakefield Kirkgate - new standard class waiting room Brighouse - new shelter Northern introduces more new trains for Page 3 Liverpool City Region ….. and beyond From mid-August, 15 new Northern trains network, the rest will be came into operation running from Liver- introduced at monthly inter- pool throughout the day. Each of the trains vals through 2019 and into feature free Wi-Fi, air-conditioning, at-seat 2020, with more routes power and customer information/media benefiting from the new screens with real-time information. They trains over time. are also more spacious for customers and Northern’s network is busi- are fully accessible with spaces for wheel- er than it has been for a chairs and cycles. generation – more than 100 All weekday services between Liverpool million customer journeys and Manchester Airport (via will be made during this year – and the introduction of new trains is at the heart of the transfor- Warrington Central) are, as of August, mation for customers and are part of the largest modernisation pro- now operated by brand new diesel trains. gramme in a generation transforming travel in the north of England. Northern has ordered 101 new trains, a Northern is also currently fully refurbishing its existing fleet of 243 £500m investment, and, following the in- trains, improving its stations and has introduced more than 2,000 extra troduction of the first new trains across the services every week since 2016. Chiltern Railways rated best operator for journeys from Birmingham and Oxford to London Chiltern Railways has been route 90% of people felt Managing Director, Dave and we feel this reflects our rated the top operator to the same, higher than the Penney, said: “We’re proud commitment to customer Birmingham and London national average of 83%. that Chiltern has once service and the hard work and Oxford and London in again been rated the top from the team at Chiltern Chiltern were ranked third the National Rail Passen- operator for customers in over the last year.” across all UK train compa- ger Survey (NRPS). The the West Midlands and nies, with passengers rat- survey revealed that 94% Oxford travelling to Lon- ing highly for bike parking, of customers on the com- don. Earlier this month we ticket buying facilities, and pany's West Midlands were also named one of availability, helpfulness routes and 91% in Oxford the most trusted rail opera- and attitude of staff on said overall the service tors in the country following board trains as well as was good or satisfactory. a new report from Inde- stations. Chiltern Railways Whilst across the whole pendent Transport Focus, CrossCountry deliver free Wi - Fi onboard for all passengers By the beginning of the year all whilst on the move, enhancing at CrossCountry trains, said: CrossCountry’s 92 trains were the CrossCountry experience “We’re really excited to invest fitted with the best available Wi for both business and leisure in free Wi-Fi technology, as we -Fi systems, following a year- travellers across it’s extensive know how important it is for long project to ensure seam- UK network. The investment our customers and their jour- less connectivity for all of their demonstrates CrossCountry neys. From Aberdeen to Pen- customers. trains’ commitment to continu- zance and Cardiff to Stansted, ally improve its services for we cross more of the country The new on-board technology, customers. than any other rail company. which has been installed in Each and every one of our every train carriage for opti- Commenting on the launch of customers can now stay con- mum coverage, enables pas- free Wi-Fi Clare Shufflebo- nected on every journey”. sengers to stay connected tham, Head of Marketing Page 4 Arriva UK Trains e - T i c k e t s All train companies are working closely with the proposition for customers in e-ticket adoption.