11/02/2008
- Continued focus on performance to achieve “right time railway”
- Passengers promised further improvements to fleet and service
Passengers travelling on Stagecoach Group’s East Midlands Trains services have benefited from improved punctuality just three months after the company took over responsibility for the franchise.
East Midlands Trains’ punctuality has been significantly better than the combined figure for the same period under the previous operators, Midland Mainline and Central Trains.
Average punctuality under East Midlands Trains was 87.15%, 86.09% and 88.13% for the first three periods, compared with 81.31%, 84.95% and 86.15% for the same periods last year.
Tim Shoveller, Managing Director for East Midlands Trains, said: “We have a great team in place to move the company forward successfully and this is a great achievement. However, we are still not satisfied and we have made a commitment to improve punctuality even further. I want us to be the operator that runs a ‘right time railway’.
“In the first 12 weeks, we have operated over 30,000 train services, carrying hundreds of thousands of passengers and focusing on offering a safe and punctual service.
“We’ve faced some challenges over these first three months, the most testing of which was the derailment at Barrow on Soar on 1 February. The derailment was caused by a bridge, which had fallen onto the track, having been struck by a road vehicle.
“I believe that our staff provided the best service possible service in very difficult circumstances and I want to assure passengers we will be reviewing the incident. We want to ensure we learn lessons, focusing particularly on the way we worked with our partners Network Rail to recover the service and the flow of information to passengers.”
Stagecoach Group took over responsibility for the East Midlands rail franchise on 11 November 2007 and is investing £90m in stations and services over the next seven years. Improvements over the next year include:
- opening of East Midlands Parkway station near J24 of the M1
- introduction of a new timetable in December 2008, providing more capacity and improved journey times
- continued success of megatrain.com, offering over 3,000 tickets to London from key cities from just £1 (plus 50p booking fee) every week
- start of work to refurbish the Class 158 fleet, providing significantly upgraded trains for the Connect fleet
- launch of a new catering offer on train
“We made immediate improvements to external cleanliness by investing in a new wash plant for trains. Longer term the relivery and refurbishment of our Connect fleet starts later this year.
“This, along with new staff uniforms across the network this summer, will see us start to build a sense of pride and identity for services in our region. We are asking for passengers’ continued patience and understanding whilst we make improvements.
“One of the most interesting opportunities for East Midlands Trains will be the focus on our relationship with stakeholders and community partners along our route. We believe external funding is available for improvements, subject to us creating positive relationships and providing a good case for investment from business partners.
“During the life of our franchise Stagecoach Group is investing £90m in stations and services. I am sure we have the right team in place to now deliver this and more, exceeding what our passengers are hoping for and bringing new passengers to rail.”
ENDS
For media enquiries, or to arrange an interview with Tim Shoveller or one of East Midlands Trains Directors please contact:
Debbie Mather, East Midlands Trains Press Office
Tel: 01332 262010
For more information about Stagecoach Group, contact:
Steve Stewart, Director of Corporate Communications
Tel: 01738 442111 or mobile 07764 774680
email: steven.stewart@stagecoachgroup.com
NOTES TO EDITORS
Stagecoach Group
Stagecoach Group is a leading international transportation group, with extensive bus and rail operations in the UK and North America. Stagecoach operates South West Trains, the UK’s biggest commuter rail network with nearly 1,700 trains a day out of London Waterloo. In addition, Stagecoach has a 49% shareholding in Virgin Rail Group, which operates passenger rail services on the West Coast main line. Stagecoach is also Britain’s biggest tram operator, running systems in both Sheffield and Manchester.
East Midlands Trains
East Midlands Trains operates high speed long distance services from London St. Pancras to Sheffield, Derby and Nottingham and regional services between Nottingham and Derby – Lincoln – Cleethorpes – Skegness, and between Derby and Crewe - Matlock and Norwich and Liverpool.
The franchise started on 11 November 2007 and will run until 31 March 2015, the last year and four months of which will be conditional upon achieving pre-set performance targets.
Highlights of improvements include faster journey times from Sheffield and Leicester to London from 2008, better performance, more seats, train refurbishment, investment at Derby’s Etches Park train maintenance depot, a centralised information and security centre, more car parking spaces and two new stations – at East Midlands Parkway and Corby.
