10/04/2009

East Midlands Trains, part of Stagecoach Group, has today (10 April 2009) announced its best ever punctuality figures.

Latest figures, for the period from 1 March to 31 March 2009, show 94% of trains on time.

Mark Steward, Operations Director for East Midlands Trains, said: "This is a fantastic result, and one that we are very proud of. This is our best period of performance since the franchise started in November 2007, and demonstrates that the investments we have been making are starting to really pay off.

"Over the last 16 months, our train performance has shown a steady and continual improvement, as we have invested money and additional resources in this area."

"A significant contribution has come from the opening of the new joint control centre with Network Rail in Derby, where our teams work hand in hand, minute by minute, getting our 462 trains a day on time."

"The investment in our fleet to improve reliability and the customer environment, the launch of our right time railway initiative and the introduction of our impressive new timetable in December 2008 have also played a crucial part in this success."

Highlights of the period were:

• 100% of services running on time on the Liverpool-Norwich line on Monday 16 March, a first for the company.
• 92.95% of services on time on East Midlands Trains local routes – an improvement of 5.39% year on year.
• 95.95% of services on time on East Midlands Trains London route – an improvement of 1.41% year on year.

ENDS

Notes to Editors
1) Please note that the East Midlands Trains press office is now closed until Tuesday 14 April. For urgent media enquiries during this time, please call 08448 222888 quoting EMT2, where you can leave a message for the on call press officer.

2) East Midlands Trains’ services comprise the existing Midland Mainline franchise that operates high speed long distance services from London St. Pancras to Sheffield, Derby and Nottingham and the regional services operated by Central Trains between Nottingham and Derby – Lincoln – Cleethorpes – Skegness, between Derby and Crewe - Matlock and Norwich and Liverpool.

3) The franchise will run until 31 March 2015, the last year and four months of which will be conditional upon achieving pre-set performance targets.

4) 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 centralized information and security centre, more car parking spaces and two new stations – at East Midlands Parkway and Corby.

5) 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.