East Midlands Trains is celebrating its 1st birthday today, 11 November 2008. To mark this anniversary the company has been giving out birthday cake to passengers and compiling a list of just 100 of the many achievements made in the first year.
Managing Director, Tim Shoveller says, “In the relatively short period since the launch of the franchise we’ve wasted no time in making a start on improvements and planning for a brighter future for passengers.
“Looking at this list, which is only a fraction of what we have done, makes me feel very proud and excited to anticipate what we can expect in the future. We have a new and improved timetable launching in just over four weeks and £90m still to invest in stations, trains and depots. This major investment, coupled with the obvious ‘green’ benefits of rail travel, will attract even more people to use our services, helping to invest in the future of the railway for us all.”
Attached photographs, taken at Nottingham train station earlier today, show:
1. Jason Cocker, Station Manager at Nottingham, with Ann Brown, Senior Conductor from Lincoln
2. Dave Carlisle (left) and Dave Bevan, Platform Assistants from Nottingham
Just 100 of the achievements made by East Midlands Trains in just one year! :
1. Seen the first refurbished East Midlands Train completed (we're refurbishing the entire fleet during our franchise)
2. Operated more than 120,000 train services
3. Appointed the contractor to start a £20m redevelopment of our Etches Park depot in Derby
4. Sold over 60,000 megatrain.com cheap train tickets to or from London from only £1 plus a 50p booking fee
5. Launched 'My Journeys' personalised section of website - including create your own timetable
6. Seen the start of major improvement work by Network Rail at Derby train station to install new lifts and rebuild the platforms and canopies
7. Introduced £79 through fare to Paris with East Midlands Trains and Eurostar
8. Operated a much more reliable Sunday service than prior to the franchise - running more than 95% of all Sunday services
9. Seen 6.7% more passengers travelling by train
10. Filled 315 vacancies, including 132 new entrants
11. Launched the Liverpool Norwich Route Development Stakeholder Board - working to improve service on this route
12. Run a popular 2-for-1 promotion on journeys to and from Lincoln
13. Served over 1.5 million cups of tea and coffee
14. Launched a brand new website
15. Held integrated transport liaison meetings with Stagecoach bus companies in East Midlands and Northamptonshire
16. Become Sponsor Members of British Quality Foundation
17. Become member of Derbyshire & Nottinghamshire Chamber of Commerce
18. Launched new "Keep on the Planet Cool" carbon footprint-based marketing initiative
19. Run 80% of services on several days when senior conductors took strike action
20. Rescued Daisy the dog from the track at Long Eaton
21. Appointed M&C Saatchi as our advertising agency
22. Installed free WiFi in Derby train station First Class lounge
23. Sponsored the ACORP Diversity conference at Nottingham
24. Run special music train for ACORP on the Robin Hood Line
25. Produced a "Days Out" guide for Matlock and Poacher lines
26. Run additional services for Matlock illuminations
27. Launched the "Right Time Railway" - an internal drive to improve performance
28. Issued all staff with a brand new accurate-to-the-second watch
29. Issued all despatch staff with a brand new whistle
30. Launched a new "Get on Board" advertising campaign
31. Sponsored the match ball at the Sheffield United v Man City football match
32. Introduced a new Off-Peak fare
33. Worked with ATOC to simplify our ticket types
34. Started new rail-plus-hotel booking facility on our website
35. Consulted more than 100 stakeholders about our timetable plans
36. Procured a new revenue management system
37. Awarded a contract for our new passenger counting equipment
38. Reconfigured our Meridian fleet to ease overcrowding
39. Awarded contract to refurbish our entire Class 158 train fleet
40. Announced the start of Sunday services on The Robin Hood Line
41. Launched a dedicated travel trade website for rail travel agents
42. Opened a UK-based customer contact centre
43. Launched a new First Class catering range
44. Run additional services to support the Spalding Flower Parade
45. Opened a new integrated control centre with Network Rail
46. Worked in partnership with Rail Union Learning to organise a Learning Open Day
47. Still ran 80% of trains on saturdays during RMT action
48. Run special charity train to Scarborough raising over £7,000 for The Railway Children
49. Opened a new First Class passenger lounge at St. Pancras
50. Organised a surprise welcome for wartime sweethearts, Ernie and May at Sheffield train station
51. Chosen to launch the pilot of a "station travel plan" initiative at Derby and Loughborough
52. Introduced a new staff uniform
53. Held a number of on-station and on-train "Meet the Manager" forums for passengers
54. Held a competition to name two new business services from Sheffield; The South Yorkshireman and The Sheffield Continental
55. Provided 130 more car parking spaces at Chesterfield train station car park
56. Recorded a best punctuality figure of 90.9%
57. Taken delivery of a state-of-the-art Hydromaster cleaning machine
58. Leased an additional HST power car to supplement our fleet
59. Celebrated four train drivers being the first in the UK to achieve an ITQ qualification
60. Unveiled the first six of 45 new brand new ticket vending machines (TVMs)
61. Added 100 extra car parking spaces at Wellingborough train station
62. Ran a special timetable for the Christmas period
63. Taken part in a special "summit group" to take forward the launch of Corby train services
64. Run additional services to support the Lincoln Christmas Market
65. Welcomed the Dalai Lama onto our services
66. Signed contract for new head office accommodation in Derby
67. Issued BlackBerrys to even more front line staff - helping them to keep passengers up-to-date during disruption
68. After consultation with over 200 employees, we launched our internal vision, values and behaviours
69. Launched new employee magazine, east - finalist in the CIPR Pride Awards 2008 for best magazine
70. Installed free WiFi in Leicester train station First Class lounge
71. We've run 358 training courses and trained 1,772 employees - that's a total of 5,162 training days
72. We have delivered safety, customer service, retail, operational and engineering training courses ranging from 1 to 20 days in duration
73. The customer service training included the "It's All About You" course, designed to improve the customer experience on-board our trains and increase revenue
74. Delivered a new management development course, "Respect for People", which will work towards strengthening and bringing to life our recently launched values and behaviours
75. Launched new in-house occupational health facility in Leicester
76. Administered 408 free workplace flu jabs for staff
77. Installed free WiFi in St Pancras First Class lounge
78. Promoted 179 of our people to new roles
79. Our HR team have scanned over 3,500 CVs
80. Fitted new flooring in Nottingham Travel Centre
81. Successfully worked with Network Rail to deliver Lincoln resignalling project
82. Improved communications by issuing new radios for station staff at Lincoln
83. Strengthened our summer services to Skegness and operated some special coaches to and from Butlins
84. Worked with Network Rail to refurbish the lifts on Leicester train station
85. Mobilised and organised our entire business in preparation to run a brand new and improved timetable from December 2008
86. Reliveried the first train in our HST fleet
87. Named an HST power car "Sir Terry Miller", in memory of the engineer that designed this type of train
88. Reliveried the whole of our Class 222 Meridian train fleet to our distinctive branding
89. Worked with Network Rail on the build of East Midlands Parkway station - due to open early 2009
90. Worked with Network Rail on the build of Corby train station - due to open 2009
91. Opened a new head office building in Nottingham
92. Successfully transferred our payroll and financial accounting functions to a shared service facility
93. Worked with Network Rail to plan and deliver major improvements work at Bradway Tunnel near Chesterfield
94. Were part of Sheffield city's winning entry to Britain in Bloom
95. Provided 130 extra car park spaces at Chesterfield train station
96. Published our 2008 safety and environment Plan
97. Sent more than five million door-drop leaflets to people in our region
98. Sent over 1.5 million emails to passengers
99. Printed over 225 press advertisements
100. Produced four issues of our passenger magazine - Journeys - 500,000 copies given away
