Govia Thameslink Railway Stakeholder Newsletter February 2016

Govia Thameslink Railway Stakeholder Newsletter

Class 700 starts test runs on Great

Northern

Period 1 2016-2017

We are pleased to share our latest newsletter, featuring business updates, news from our local communities

and performance analysis. The newsletter is issued every four weeks.

Great Northern

P1: 88.01% PPM

Gatwick Express

P1: 71.86% PPM

Southern

P1: 83.78% PPM

Thameslink

P1: 83.23% PPM

Period 1: 1 April —30 April 2016

Public Performance Measure

(PPM) The full performance report is included at the

back of the newsletter. This includes commentary on the

joint GTR and Network Rail improvement plan.

The keen-eyed may have caught glimpses of a brand new ‘Class 700’ train on the Great Northern route earlier this month, as it started its European Train Control System (ETCS) and Automatic Train Operation (ATO) testing. These new systems, and the trains themselves, are essential elements of the Thameslink Programme.

We have already successfully completed several key tests. Functionality testing will continue on the northbound section of the Hertford Loop (outside of the peak) before starting the testing in the core from August until mid-2017.

The first Class 700s will begin Thameslink services later this spring, and will roll out to many other routes over the next two years. Introducing ETCS and ATO on one of the busiest stretches of railway in London will enable us to run up to 24 trains per hour between Blackfriars and St Pancras in 2018, offering passengers a tube-like train service every two to three minutes.

Gatwick’s your oyster The extension of Oyster pay as you go and Contactless payments to Gatwick Airport has seen huge growth in use since its introduction in January, backed by a partnership with Transport for London and the Department for Transport. Currently, 16% of all journeys starting from Gatwick are already on Contactless or Oyster which, in four months, is a significant figure, and that number is continuing to grow steadily. This means passengers are able to travel through the station with greater ease and speed.

Class 700 testing at Royston station

New Railway security message

recorded by 10 year old girl

Update on further RMT strike

action

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‘Please help my mummy and daddy come home safely’ says

10-year-old in new railway security message In a bid to increase security on our network and refresh one of the most heard railway safety announcements, Izzy, the 10-year-old daughter of a GTR employee has re-recorded and now voices the message asking passengers to keep an eye out for unattended items or anyone acting suspiciously on Southern, Thameslink, Great Northern and Gatwick Express.

“Please help ensure my mummy and daddy come home from work today safely,” she says through platform speakers in 236 stations across London, Sussex, Surrey, Kent, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk.

During the current heightened state of security in the UK, we believe it’s more important than ever for our passengers to keep a look-out for abandoned bags and suspicious behaviour. This new voice has raises awareness of a safety message that many passengers will be familiar with.

Izzy re-records new railway security message

Proposed changes at our stations update Earlier this year we ran a public consultation around our proposals to change the opening hours of some of our ticket offices. We have reviewed the responses; picking up on key concerns raised and have now submitted a new proposal to London Travel Watch and Transport Focus, which clarifies our plans and addresses some of the main issues. We believe these plans are the right way forward to running a more modern railway for the benefit of our passengers.

We are also working with accessibility groups and key stakeholders to ensure that our staff can provide assistance to all those that require it when travelling. We have drafted an accessibility impact statement that outlines how our proposals might alter how our passengers use our stations, and how we plan to improve journeys for our passengers with accessibility needs. We’ll be in further discussion with them over the coming months. Our stations will have clearly identifiable hosting points with induction loops, so our Station Hosts will be readily accessible and available. In addition, our platform staff will continue to be available as they are now. Our stations will be staffed from the first train in the morning to the last train at night. Overall, staff will be present for an additional 2600 hours a week, including weekends and we will be able to retail the same range of tickets as we currently do.

Further information will be distributed to passengers at stations via leaflets

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Proposed changes on board our trains

What we do to mitigate disruption during strikes:

• Display information posters at stations

• Hand out information leaflets

• Continually update the Southern website with revised routes and FAQs

• Tweet service updates and useful information

• Brief station staff and customer relations teams

• Redeploy head office staff to support customers at key stations

Our plans for modern rolling stock include evolving the role of our conductors to provide a more visible service to a greater number of customers. This role, known as on board supervisors, will not include closing the doors of the train, a responsibility which will transfer to the driver, aided by modern CCTV offering them a clear view of every door on the train. This already happens on 60% of the GTR network and is a proven safe method of operation. The changes aim to allow more time for customer service for on board staff who will continue to be on trains. We have confirmed that there is a job for everyone who wants one, with no salary reduction.

Unfortunately, our plans for modernisation have been met with opposition from the RMT union, which undertook industrial action on 26 and 27 April, and again on 18 May, resulting in major disruption for our passengers. We would like to take this opportunity to apologise for the reduced service on those days and thank our customers for their patience.

Following the strike action, we continue to have unprecedented levels of sickness at some of our conductor depots – double the usual rate at some. This has meant we have had to cancel some of our services at short notice. We are trying to reduce the impact where possible by using conductor managers to staff services that would otherwise have to be cancelled.

During the April strike:

• We tweeted 4,500 times about the service

• We received 396 direct tweet enquiries from

customers

• Southern Rail was mentioned in 7,000 tweets

• Most of the tweet enquiries related to service

information

Strike action on 18 May

A contingency timetable operated at a satisfactory level and we delivered around two thirds of services on Wednesday 18 May. We provided the best service we could but inevitably, our passengers’ journeys were se-verely disrupted on a number of routes. We updated customers with travel information online, at stations, through media advertising and also re-deployed a num-ber of head office employees to support front line teams in delivering support and travel advice to our customers.

Working closely with the Department for Transport, an enhanced compensation agreement is in place and we are pro-actively encouraging any passengers whose journeys were impacted as a result of the strike to claim. We have also issued an apology to our passen-gers thanking them for their patience over the strike, and took this opportunity to further promote our delay repay scheme. Full details are available here - www.southernrailway.com/your-journey/strike/compensation.

We remain open to talks with the RMT union and are committed to doing everything we possibly can to avert further unnecessary strikes.

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Try a Train days build young people’s travel confidence Bedford College

Bedford College students have been getting an inside look at how a railway network operates. The students, who are either disabled or have learning difficulties, took a ‘Try a Train’ trip with Thameslink staff from Bedford to Blackfriars. After answering the students’ many questions, the staff turned the tables and challenged their visitors to a railway quiz.

Louise Smith, the College’s Foundation Manager, said, “It was a really enjoyable, educational trip, and helped to develop the students’ confidence to travel by train.”

News from our communities

Sandy station makeover At the end of April the green area to the side of Sandy station was given a makeover thanks to a joint effort between the local station staff and volunteers from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB).

The charity, which has its headquarters near the station, has worked with the local station team for many years. This has included the installation of bird boxes around the station building.

Station Manager Dominic Morgan (centre), station assistants

Abigail Birch and Mandy Wiles, with the volunteers

Hassocks awards success:

thanks to local community

The Hassocks community has celebrated their station’s success in two national rail industry award schemes. Hassocks bagged second place in the Most Enhanced Station Building category of the Association of Community Rail Partnership Awards, and was a finalist in the Rail Business Awards for “Station Excellence”.

The awards recognise the wholesale improvements to the station over the past few years. It has been completely rebuilt, with new lifts now providing full step-free access, and is the base for a locally-run cycle hire scheme.

What a difference a day

makes

Great Northern and Thameslink organised a confidence-building behind-the-scenes day for nine members of Noah Enterprise, a Luton-based charity for homeless people. With station managers from Luton and Bedford as guides, the day included turns on the train simulator at Hornsey Driver Training Academy and a visit to the King’s Cross control room.

Noah’s Head of Training and Employment Warren Edwards said, “Everyone was so motivated by the trip. All the work Thameslink is doing with us is making a massive difference to people’s lives in ways you would not imagine. I have also seen a marked improvement in their confidence.”

Members of Noah Enterprise attend confidence

booting training

Celebrating awards: members of the local community join Group Station Manager

Paul Wyborn (holding the bike) and Station Manager Becky Atherton

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News from our communities continued...

Seaford to Brighton line CRP celebrated as Unsung Heroes The Seaford to Brighton line’s Community Rail Partnership (CRP) was recognised for its community role by Cllr Ruth

O’Keeffe, MBE, Chair of Lewes District Council, at a recent event celebrating the contribution of volunteers, charities

and voluntary organisations who work tirelessly for the benefit of others in the district.

A local resident had nominated the CRP for its work on station gardens and artwork, promoting the local area to

tourists and visitors, and creating a community network around the stations.

The Unsung Heroes of Lewes District at Newhaven Fort

Long service and retirement awards

In April we paid tribute to 60 of our Great Northern and Thameslink colleagues at the Long Service and Retirement awards. Presentations recognised and rewarded the unique contributions each individual has made to our industry and business. The event was not only to celebrate their achievements and milestones but also to offer thanks and appreciation to their families and friends for their support and understanding over the years.

Opening the ceremony, Chief Executive Officer Charles Horton pointed out that those collecting awards had together given a staggering 1,731 years of dedicated service. Of the many attending, 16 colleagues received recognition for more than 40 years of service, with one collecting an award for 53 years of service.

Colin Hester retired in February after 48 years and 8 months of service: “It’s rather sad to be leaving the industry after almost 49 years, it’s very strange. But I still go back to the depot every now and then to meet everyone and keep in touch.”

David Knipe, a third generation railwayman, retired in October 2015 after 53 years in the industry: “I miss the comradeship of everybody. From platform staff to cleaning staff, to yard staff, everybody. I’ve been a driver nearly all my life and we’re all one big family. I’m just going to take life as it comes now.”

Long serving and retiring GTR colleagues celebrated

The art of Bexhill Local artist and photographer Louise Kenward has or-ganised and installed the second of four art exhibitions planned for Bexhill station. The photographs displayed on platforms 1 and 2, featuring local people, are creating a lot of interest among passengers, and other potential exhibitors have come forward, keen to show off their works at the station.

The latest exhibition follows a display of Louise’s photos of the towns of Bexhill in Australia and Canada. There are now three Art On The Line exhibitions at stations on the Marshlink line, all proving very popular.

Exhibition of local artist’s work at brightening up Bexhill

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Great Northern Gatwick Express

Southern Thameslink

Major incidents that affected performance in

P1:

19 April 2016: Train fault at Finsbury Park

21 April 2016: Emergency services dealing with an

incident at Stevenage

21 April 2016: Over-running engineering work at

Royston

27 April 2016: Broken rail at Hadley Wood

Major incidents that affected performance in

P1:

8 April 2016: Train fault at East Croydon

12 April 2016: Power supply issues at London

Victoria

16 April 2016: Emergency services dealing with an

incident at East Croydon

18 April 2016: Signalling failure at London Victoria

Major incidents that affected performance in

P1:

12 April 2016: Train fault at City Thameslink

13 April 2016: Train fault at London Blackfriars

16 April 2016: Emergency services dealing with an

incident at East Croydon

26 April 2016: Signalling problems at London

Blackfriars

These graphs present the split of delay responsibility for the year to date (YTD). Underneath is a high level

overview of biggest impacting incidents in the last period.

Key - TOC: train operating company

Major incidents that affected performance in

P1:

8 April 2016: Train fault at Purley

11 April 2016: Vehicle struck level crossing at

Billingshurst

16 April 2016: Emergency services dealing with an

incident at East Croydon

18 April 2016: Signalling failure at London Victoria

Joint Performance Improvement Plan Update Issued 20 May 2016

This report gives progress on the joint improvement plan for Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) and Network Rail with punctuality data by route, as well as the main operational issues this period (there are 13, 4-week reporting periods per year) and planned customer improvements.

PPM* statistics and delay responsibility by route – period 1 (to 30 April 2016)

Gatwick Express

Great Northern

Southern

Thameslink

*The public performance measure (PPM) data above shows the percentage of trains which arrive at their terminating station within five minutes of the planned arrival time. It combines figures for punctuality and reliability into a single performance measure. We have detailed this by week for this 4-week period.

The PPM figures for the period on each route are: Gatwick Express 71.86%, Great Northern 88.01%, Southern 83.78% and Thameslink 83.23%.

A summary of key issues affecting performance this period Unfortunately there were two fatal incidents on the network during this period which had a significant impact on services - at East Croydon on 16 April and near Stevenage on 21 April. A signalling fault with a set of points at London Victoria on 18 April caused many delays across the morning peak, with over 170 trains impacted. An RMT conductor strike took place on the Southern network on 26 & 27 April which resulted in a contingency timetable being introduced for these two days. This resulted in some routes having a limited train service, or no service at all. GTR receives regular progress updates from Network Rail with regard to the removal of speed restrictions. The long term restriction of 30mph near Polegate is now due for removal in June. The 50mph speed restriction near Glynde is also due for removal in June once embankment strengthening works are completed.

Delivering improvements for passengers New trains introduction Thameslink Class 700s 14 class 700 trains are in the UK and two have now been handed over to GTR in preparation for passenger service. Progress continues on driver conversion training and our plans to enter them into service later, this spring. Gatwick Express Class 387s We have received 21 of the planned 27 four-carriage trains and these are in service, or supporting staff maintenance and driver training. They are being built by Bombardier at its Derby factory and all 108 carriages are expected to be in place by the end of the summer. We have started to run 12 carriage trains on some services, providing additional capacity on the route. Driver training programme We are continuing with the UK’s biggest driver recruitment project so that we can cover today’s service, support driver conversion training on all the new trains we are bringing in, and be ready for the additional services that we will run in future. Currently we rely to a degree on our drivers working on their rest days, a long established and common practice in the industry, but increasingly this can’t cover all the shifts required.

At the end of April 2016, 209 new drivers had passed through our training programme since January 2015 and we have 259 more in training. The expectation is that we will reach the number of drivers required to meet our normal operational needs by the end of the summer 2016, although the numbers will continue to rise as we aim to cover for training on new rolling stock.

Improvement Plan

Huge investment is being put into the railway which will ultimately deliver more capacity through new and longer trains at the end of the Thameslink programme in 2018, as well as a transformed station at London Bridge. However, this major construction work is a significant contributor to the deterioration in punctuality across services, more so than anyone anticipated. At the end of 2015, an independent study was undertaken to better understand the impact of the work at London Bridge on the train service. The study revealed that since the work started in 2014 the network has fundamentally changed with a reduction in platforms and approach tracks at London Bridge, with more services diverted into London Victoria or via Herne Hill, leading to knock on delays being longer and being felt over a wider area than ever before.

The Thameslink programme works are at their most difficult phase with the infrastructure at its maximum level of restriction. To mitigate this challenge we have established an Alliance with Network Rail which focuses on improving service reliability and performance. The analysis provided by this study has given the GTR and Network Rail teams a fresh perspective on how to address some of the issues affecting train punctuality. As a result, the joint performance improvement plan has been revised and will focus on key areas which are being developed.

We continue to make progress on this and highlights of the activities this period include:

The right train specification between now and 2018:

Our performance improvement team has been working with our timetable planning team to ensure that the proposed 2018 timetable is as robust as it can be, with a strong framework that will help support good train punctuality. This timetable will include many new routes operating through the ‘core’ of London via London Bridge and Farringdon. They have been working to highlight current weaknesses in the timetable (e.g. where certain trains are repeatedly late at a junction) so that they can be addressed in the rewritten timetable. In addition to this, they are also looking to allocate the most appropriate levels and types of rolling stock to each route, according to passenger demand.

The outline for the new December 2018 timetable has been defined and we are preparing to take this forward, including starting the public consultation this summer.

Service recovery and command & control:

This work is about ensuring that we return to normal service as quickly as possible after disruption, whilst minimising the impact on our passengers. We are working on improving response times in the case of infrastructure equipment or train failures. We are also developing our team in our Control room further (where service decisions are taken during disruption), taking into account the large geographical spread of our network. Teams are being aligned and trained to speed up and improve decision making, involving both Network Rail and staff from the operator. One key area of progress is the introduction of a new role: the senior train service managers as part of the Control room team. This will mean that we have a strengthened team to make more efficient decisions during disruption. We are also introducing a new operations coordinator role at key locations, such as Bedford and Victoria, which will help us restore the service more quickly during disruption.

The Basics – right first time: This element of the improvement plan is well in progress and we have completed a thorough review of how we deploy traincrew, from the design of rosters, to how crew are organised on our day-to-day service. This review resulted in a number of recommendations which have now been turned into an action plan. We are also undertaking detailed work at key locations, ensuring that our trains depart right time, with a particular focus on peak services. We have also completed a review of ‘Right Time’ departures at key locations, where Network Rail and GTR teams undertake observations to identify how we can help ensure that every train departs on time. Work at Victoria station has been completed, and now we will do the same at Gatwick Airport, East Croydon and Brighton.