ewsrail EXPRESS 352 WEEK ENDING 3 November 2007 ITEM FOR TRAIN COMPANY ON NN RETAIL TRAIN TRAVEL ITEM SUBJECT OUTLETS STAFF AGENTS 1 National Rail New TOCs and franchise map changes ✓ ✓ ✓ 2 National Rail PLUSBUS wins international award ✓ ✓ ✓ 3 National Rail and Eurostar Through fares to the Continent via Eurostar ✓ ✓ ✓ 4 CrossCountry CrossCountry Franchise ✓ ✓ ✓ 5 East Midlands Trains ✓ ✓ ✓ 6 First Capital Connect Oyster – Pay As You Go on First Capital Connect services ✓ ✓ 7 London Midland New franchise information ✓ ✓ ✓ 8 London Overground ✓ ✓ ✓ National Rail information is listed first, followed by Train Company information in alphabetical Train Company order. Further items follow in alphabetical contributor order. *To be read by Retail Staff, On-Train Staff and Travel Agents where appropriate. Additional items included with this issue of Newsrail Express Retail Manual Part 2 Issue 207. If you have not received these additional items or if you need extra copies, please contact: TSO Customer Services, St. Crispins, Duke Street, Norwich, NR3 1PD Tel: 0870 850 2149 Fax: 0870 600 5533 e-mail: [email protected] TOCs should inform their Pricing or Retail Manager about any changes to the distribution of publications. New prices for Newsrail Express items and Retail Manual updates from 1 May 2007 There will be new prices for putting news items into Newsrail Express and for updating the Retail Manual from 1 May 2007. These prices have been agreed by Ticketing & Settlement Scheme Council and Retail Group. The aim is to partly shift the cost from TOCs submitting items and making changes to TOCs that still require printed paper copies of Newsrail Express and the Retail Manual. This aims to encourage greater use of electronic communications. New charges for making changes are shown in the following tables. New pages/pages amended Amendment Black & white page cost Colour page cost Retail Manual (fixed basic cost) (per page) (per page) £100 £50 £100 News item standard fixed cost (however long the news item is) Newsrail Express £100 Any remaining production and distribution costs will be charged to TOCs receiving paper copies of Newsrail Express and Retail Manual updates in proportion to the number of copies each TOC requires. Charges will be calculated by RSP. Altering your TOC’s requirement for paper copies of Newsrail Express and Retail Manual updates TOCs can reduce production and distribution costs by altering the number of paper copies of Newsrail Express and Retail Manual updates by contacting their Pricing Manager or nominated TOC representative to amend their TOC publications distribution list through the FRPS website. For example, a TOC may decide that it no longer requires paper copies of Newsrail Express and Retail Manual updates, if appropriate staff can access the information electronically. FRPP website – an excellent alternative to paper Retail publications information can be accessed electronically via: http://frpp.tso.co.uk and includes: ● Newsrail Express ● Retail Manual Part One & Part Two ● National Fares Manuals ● RailLinks Manual ● Ticket Examiners Handbook Travel agents have their own ATOC travel agents website at: www.atoctravelagents.org Retail Communications Manager [email protected] Tel: 020 7841 8058 2 TO BE READ BY: TRAIN COMPANY RETAIL STAFF ✓ ON-TRAIN STAFF ✓ 1 TRAVEL AGENTS ✓ New TOCs and franchise map changes From 11 November 2007 Arriva, trading as CrossCountry will operate the Cross Country franchise, with services extending across Great Britain from Penzance to Aberdeen, from Cardiff to Stansted Airport and from Manchester to Bournemouth. This new franchise combines most of the services previously operated by Virgin CrossCountry Trains and some services previously operated by Central Trains. Virgin Trains Cross Country services that previously operated between Birmingham and Glasgow via Preston will be transferred and operated by Virgin Trains West Coast. Stagecoach, trading as East Midlands Trains will operate the East Midlands franchise, with services between London, the East Midlands and South Yorkshire, as well as services in central England and between Liverpool and Norwich. This new franchise combines services previously operated by Midland Mainline and some of the services previously operated by Central Trains. GoVia, trading as London Midland will operate the West Midlands franchise, with services between London and Northampton and local and regional services in the West Midlands. This new franchise combines services previously operated by Silverlink County and some of the services previously operated by Central Trains. MTR Laing, trading as London Overground will operate services on the North London Railway under the management of Transport for London. These services were previously operated by Silverlink Metro. All of the above TOCs have submitted an article containing more information inside this edition of Newsrail Express. From 09 December 2007 National Express East Coast will operate the InterCity East Coast franchise, with services between London, Northern England and Scotland via Peterborough, Leeds, Doncaster, York, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Inverness. These services were previously operated by GNER. TransPennine Express will be operating services between Manchester Airport and Glasgow Central/Edinburgh. These services were previously operated by Virgin CrossCountry Trains. From late 2007 From a date as yet unconfirmed, Grand Central will commence regular services between Sunderland and London Kings Cross. They expect to be running an interim service later this month and a full service in December. 3 From spring 2008 From a date yet to be specified during spring 2008, Wrexham & Shropshire will commence regular services from Wrexham and Shropshire to London Marylebone. Retail Communications Manager ATOC TO BE READ BY: TRAIN COMPANY RETAIL STAFF ✓ ON-TRAIN STAFF ✓ 2 TRAVEL AGENTS ✓ PLUSBUS wins international award PLUSBUS has won the IRU Eurochallenge Award 2007, awarded by European senior transport experts, who said that PLUSBUS was “innovative”, “forward-looking” and recently achieved a “breathtaking” sales increase. PLUSBUS is designed to encourage train travellers to use buses for their journeys to/from the station, and is the only national integrated transport scheme of this nature in Europe. It offers an excellent alternative to private car use for door to door journeys, enabling travellers to make a green choice and help the environment. PLUSBUS tickets offer customers discount bus travel prices and unlimited local bus travel around town. PLUSBUS areas have increased by 25% in the last year, and it now covers 227 rail-served towns and cities in Britain, including all with a population of 90,000 people and above (plus many smaller towns). In total, more than 32 million people in Britain now live within a PLUSBUS zone. Numbers of PLUSBUS users are growing rapidly, with almost 65,000 journeys now made with PLUSBUS each month. Recently PLUSBUS ticket sales have increased by 100% compared with sales in 2006. Many thanks to all retail staff for your part in making PLUSBUS such a great award-winning success. For any retail staff who are unsure of how to issue a PLUSBUS ticket, see the RailLinks manual, and recent issues of Newsrail Express. ATOC Retail Support 0207 841 8058 4 TO BE READ BY: TRAIN COMPANY RETAIL STAFF ✓ ON-TRAIN STAFF ✓ 3 TRAVEL AGENTS ✓ Through fares to the Continent via Eurostar On sale from 14 November 2007 On 14 November, Britain’s first all-new mainline railway for over 100 years goes into service between London and Paris/Brussels. High Speed 1, as the route is known, runs from the fully restored London St Pancras Station to join up with the Channel Tunnel and the European high speed rail network. The new service brings into reach a whole range of new journey possibilities from Great Britain to Europe that compete well with existing airline schedules, especially given the reduced check-in times and the fact that rail services run from city centre to city centre. As a result, ATOC and a number of train companies have worked with Eurostar to offer through fares from 68 stations in Great Britain (see list overleaf) to Paris, Brussels and 100 other connecting stations in France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Through fares will go on sale from Wednesday 14 November 2007. City to city journey times by train will in many cases match or even beat those of taking the plane. Rail travellers will enjoy the time-saving advantages of bypassing journeys to and from out-of-town airports, half- hour check-in (10 minutes for business travellers) for Eurostar services, and avoiding baggage reclaim delays because they will have their luggage with them. Examples of fares and fastest journey times include: Birmingham – Brussels / Paris: from £79 return ● rail journey times between 4h25 and 4h50 Leeds – Brussels / Paris: from £79 return ● rail journey times between 5h05 and 5h35 Manchester – Brussels / Paris: from £84 return ● rail journey times between 5h20 and 5h35 Sheffield – Brussels / Paris: from £77 return ● rail journey times between 5h00 and 5h25 York – Brussels / Paris: from £79 return ● rail journey times between 4h50 and 5h10 BUYING TICKETS Initially, through fares will be available to purchase from Eurostar’s Contact Centre on 08705 186 186 From mid-December 2007, it will be possible to purchase through tickets via www.eurostar.com. Through fares will also be available from GNER Telesales on 08457 225 225. Train companies offering the initial through fares will be specifically briefing staff on details of their own offers and customer service issues. The opening of the new line is a big opportunity to promote rail travel and is likely to lead to more enquiries about how the service can be used – ALL staff can play a part by assisting customers in where to look for information about the new service. 5 If your station is not amongst the initial 68 stations with through fares, customers can still travel by train to the continent - the Eurostar part of the journey may be booked directly from the Eurostar Contact Centre or website as above, and a suitable connecting ticket purchased from your station to London St Pancras.