Environmental and Social Report 2008

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1 Environmental and Social Report 2008

2 Introduction London Midland operates over 1200 train services a day through the heart of England, connecting London, the Midlands and the North West. The business manages 149 stations and over 45 million journeys will be undertaken on London Midland trains this year. Liverpool Lime Street Crewe Stoke-on-Trent Birmingham Snow Hill Birmingham New Street London Midland is a new addition to the Go-Ahead Group plc. In November 2007 Govia (65% owned by Go-Ahead) was awarded the new West Midlands franchise, which was formed from the former Silverlink County, Central Trains and Maintrain businesses. The new franchise runs until September 2015, with the last two years conditional upon achieving performance targets. About The Go-Ahead Group plc London Midland is part of The Go-Ahead Group plc. Go-Ahead is a major provider of transport services across the UK employing over 27,500 people, carrying approximately 920 million passengers and serving almost 50 million passengers at airports. The Group s operations span bus, rail and aviation services. The structure of its operations is defined by its belief that local people make the best decisions about running local services. Go-Ahead has also developed a common framework for managing its operating companies impact on their local communities and the environment. This report describes our performance against that framework. Shrewsbury Hereford Wolverhampton Stourbridge Town Kidderminster Worcester Foregate Street Stafford Walsall Redditch The London Midland network. Rugeley Trent Valley Lichfield Trent Valley Birmingham International Stratford-upon-Avon Stourbridge Junction Nuneaton Coventry Rugby Leamington Spa Milton Keynes Central Northampton Watford Junction Bedford St Albans Abbey London Euston About this report This report describes the performance of London Midland from 11 November 2007 to 28 June It is divided into four main sections: Marketplace, Workplace, Environment and Community, which describe our various impacts on the world around us, and the approach we take to managing these impacts responsibly. As part of our annual business planning, we have set targets and goals to improve our social and environmental performance for 2008/9. To keep this report short, we will be placing a lot more information on the web. You can find this at Page 2 Page 4 Page 6 Page 8 Marketplace How we run our services Workplace Issues affecting the people who work for us Environment How we manage and reduce our impact on the environment Community Making the communities where we operate better places to live and work

Welcome to this, our first environmental and social report. In London Midland s first period of operation, we are already delivering on our plans to provide real improvements to passengers.

3 Welcome to this, our first environmental and social report. In London Midland s first period of operation, we are already delivering on our plans to provide real improvements to passengers. A priority for us has been to draw on the strengths of the three organisations which came together to form the new London Midland (Silverlink County, part of Central Trains and part of Maintrain) to create one successful new company. We have invested time and resources in developing our own internal culture whilst also launching our new London Midland services across the network. As a key transport provider, it is vital that we consult with local, regional and national stakeholder groups to develop services that reflect their needs and concerns. In doing so, we have identified the following key areas on which our business should focus: Training and developing our people: we have developed training programmes to create a skilled and motivated workforce, and have already achieved Investors in People (IiP) accreditation, two years ahead of our target date, We will deliver a better travelling experience with improved performance, safer stations and car parks, with better facilities. Already 16 of our car parks have achieved the ParkMark safety award and our programme of secure station accreditation will see over 70 stations awarded. The Go-Ahead Group has a long tradition of placing social and environmental considerations at the heart of its business. We at London Midland embrace this ethos and we are taking steps to reduce our environmental footprint. We have appointed an environmental manager and set benchmarks to help monitor progress towards our environmental goals. As we enter the first full year, we would welcome your views, comments and feedback on what we can do to perform better. Stephen Banaghan Managing Director Investing in our trains and our services: in the first two years of the franchise, we will be introducing three new fleets of trains, the first two from December 2008, when we will also launch a radical new timetable for our services, revitalising the railway in the heart of the country and providing new journey opportunities for communities who have not had direct rail services for a number of years, 1

4 Marketplace London Midland s 2,462 employees manage 149 stations and operate and maintain a fleet of 153 trains, seven days a week, 24 hours a day. Rail transport plays a key role in supporting a strong and sustainable economy, helping millions to get to work and carry out other essential daily activities. Travelling by rail and other public transport is also more environmentally efficient than travel by private car. Our primary responsibility, therefore, is to grow our passenger numbers by providing high-quality services. The Go-Ahead Group believes that business success is built on effectively listening and responding to the needs of stakeholders. Stakeholder Advisory Boards, used extensively across the Group, bring together employees, individual passengers, large employers and representative bodies to share views and discuss how we might improve our services. We are in the process of setting up a Board for London Midland. Go-Ahead asked its Stakeholder Advisory Boards to help identify the most important factors influencing people to travel by rail. This report is structured around these factors: Reliability, convenience and punctuality, Accessibility for all, Safety and security, Affordability. Our responsibility: providing reliable, convenient and punctual services We know that our passengers expect the highest standards of punctuality and reliability. London Midland is at the start of a 300m investment programme that will deliver upgraded stations and new and refurbished trains. This investment programme will help us to ensure that our services run smoothly and our passengers have the best possible travelling experience. We are off to a good start. In July 2008, passengers rated the new London Midland rail services for the first time in the National Passenger Survey, and gave them an 81% satisfaction rate overall. We can do more. In addition to our investment plans, we are examining the cause of delays, route by route, and identifying areas where action can be taken. We are working in partnership with Network Rail on a comprehensive joint performance improvement plan. Getting feedback from our passengers is crucial to improving services and the quality of their journey. Every two weeks London Midland Managing Director Steve Banaghan and members of his top team host Meet the Manager meetings for passengers across our network. These sessions are an opportunity for passengers to express their opinions on how we are running our services and to make suggestions on improvements to stations and trains. We act on what we hear. Passengers at London Midland s Rowley Regis station can now buy tickets from a newly installed ticket machine following one of our first Meet the Manager sessions, one of 18 machines being installed across the network. London Midland is committed to making rail travel as easy and convenient as possible. Our plans include providing ticket buying facilities at every station, installing state of the art ticket gates at key stations and introducing smartcard technology from Buying tickets through the London Midland website is easy, there are no hidden charges or booking fees and tickets can be collected from self service ticket machines at over 30 stations, just two hours after booking, as an alternative to having them posted. We have also introduced new ways to pay for car parking including over the internet, by phone and we are trialling paying by mobile phone at Watford Junction and Berkhamsted stations with a view to rolling it out to all London Midland managed car parks in Our responsibility: ensuring the safety and security of passengers, employees and the general public We are already ahead on our target to achieve secure station accreditation for our car parks, with 16 already accredited, against our target figure of 10. We ve also done it quicker than we promised! Our programme of gaining secure station accreditation for our stations has started, as has the setting up of our Security Task Force which will combine the skills and knowledge of British Transport Police, security experts and our own staff to target crime hotspots and deal rapidly with incidence of crime. By working in partnership we have already identified over 6 million of funding, to be jointly invested in London Midland stations and facilities by local government and other agencies. This funding will be targeted at investments which increase security including CCTV systems, lighting, improved access, 2

5 shelters and waiting rooms. In the first year, over 400,000 has already been spent at locations such as Nuneaton and Leighton Buzzard. Our responsibility: ensuring accessibility for all, particularly those with disabilities We have a ring-fenced budget of 250,000 each year to invest in improvements which make our services and our facilities more accessible and easier to use. For the bigger projects, which may require major construction, ten London Midland stations have successfully been short-listed for Access for All funding, part of the Department for Transport s commitment to transforming accessibility of the UK s railway. The stations and timescales for this are: Between 2006 and 2009 Kidderminster, Worcester Shrub Hill. Between 2009 and 2011 Northfield, Selly Oak, Sutton Coldfield. Between 2012 and 2015 Berkhamstead, Hemel Hempstead, Henley-in-Arden, Leighton Buzzard, Shirley. Our responsibility: affordability to ensure as many as possible can use our services We are committed to making our services affordable for all members of society. By providing high-quality services at an accessible price, we can continue to grow our passenger numbers and encourage more people to switch from cars to environmentally efficient public transport. This year we struck a deal with some of the capital s top visitor attractions to offer great-value days out for our Milton Keynes passengers. Madame Tussauds, London Zoo, the London Dungeon, London Aquarium and The Tower of London were among the must-see attractions that signed an agreement with London Midland offering two-for-one admission. Theatres, museums, restaurants, exhibitions and art galleries also signed up to the partnership. By combining lower train fares such as the Off-Peak Day Travel Card (which includes unlimited tube and bus travel) or GroupSave discount with these two-forone offers, customers are able to get excellent value for money throughout their days in the Capital. 30m 8.18m Passenger journeys (to the nearest 5m) Train vehicle kms travelled Size of rail fleet 153 Public performance measure (%) Signal passed at danger 5 Target London Midland

6 Workplace The success of our business depends on over 2,400 colleagues who drive our trains and work at our stations and in our depots. We aim to provide a positive work environment that encourages our people to stay at London Midland and that attracts the best new recruits to join us. We offer secure employment, market-leading rates of pay and a wide package of employee benefits including a company pension. Our responsibility: creating a positive working environment Creating an internal culture with which our employees can identify is a priority for any new company; with this aim in mind, we have drawn on the strengths of the three existing businesses that were combined to form London Midland, and worked to build a unified team. Engaging with our employees and giving them an opportunity to voice their opinions is very important to us. One of our first steps was to ask our colleagues about safety matters. In the autumn we will be asking their opinions about every aspect of working at London Midland and using the results to build our plans for the future. Since November, through our company suggestion scheme, regular Meet & Greet sessions with directors, 4-weekly magazines and monthly management conferences, we are listening to what our colleagues have to say and taking action. This year, London Midland held its first London Midland Family Fun Day bringing together around 5,000 of our employees and their families at our Birmingham Tyseley depot. During the day, our employees and families raised 15,000 for charity and enjoyed events such as the first ever public viewing of the new Parry People Mover and a display of vintage steam, diesel and electric locomotives. In addition, London Midland hosted two train naming ceremonies, renaming the County of Essex and the shunt engine Tyseley 100 to mark the centenary of the depot opening. Our responsibility: training and development By equipping our staff with the right skills and training, we can help them to deliver excellent customer service and increase passenger satisfaction for our business. We invested over 80,000 in training our employees last year and our goal is to keep improving performance levels. We have also achieved Investors in People (IiP) accreditation two years ahead of our target date of Diversity by gender Male Female 2, By equipping our staff with the skills and training we help them deliver excellent customer service. 4

Number of employees 2,462 Employee turnover rate (%) 10.

7 Number of employees 2,462 Employee turnover rate (%) Diversity by age (%) We understand the vital role our employees play in the success of the business. Diversity by ethnic group (%) Asian, black or other origin White 16-19: : : : : : : 0.5 5

8 Environment Environmental issues are of growing concern: congestion and air quality are high on the agenda in the areas that we serve. There is also increasing public concern about the impact of carbon emissions on the global climate. The most significant contribution we can make is to keep providing passengers with a reliable, affordable, attractive alternative to the private car. Train operators are dependent on the rail network and surrounding infrastructure to deliver their services. It is therefore challenging for us to isolate our own environmental impact and accurately monitor improvements. London Midland has seen continued growth in the numbers of passengers using our services, including on some of our key commuter and express routes for example on the Birmingham-Liverpool services, boosted by the interest around the European City of Culture. Our responsibility: reducing emissions from our trains, stations and maintenance depots Most of the London Midland fleets of electric trains already use regenerative braking and once the programme of introducing new Class 350 trains to replace the older Class 321 trains is completed by summer 2009, the entire electric fleet will be regenerative. In addition, we are introducing innovative new technology to replace heavy rail operations with a completely new vehicle, the environmentally-friendly Parry People Mover railcar. This will run passenger services on the branch line between Stourbridge Junction and Stourbridge Town in the West Midlands. The new vehicles feature lightweight construction and a hybrid system using flywheel energy storage, which dramatically reduce energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions compared to conventional trains. The light axle loads of the railcars will also cause less wear and tear to the track. London Midland has also signed a contract for twelve 2-car and fifteen 3-car Turbostar trains. The new trains, known as Class 172, will replace some of the oldest trains in the current fleet, and set new standards for environmental performance, both in their manufacture and in their operations. At our Birmingham Soho depot where part of the electric fleet is maintained - employees have come up with plans, strategies and actions which have resulted in a 23% reduction in water usage and 39% reduction in gas, as well as reductions in electricity usage. Our most significant environmental contribution is to provide our passengers with a reliable, affordable, attractive alternative to using their cars. 6

9 Our responsibility: integrated transport Rail is an integral part of the UK s public transport infrastructure network. It is London Midland s strategy to work closely with bus companies and other transport providers, making it easy for passengers to make connections between different forms of public transport. A smooth-running, integrated transport network is the best argument for travellers leaving their cars at home. Our responsibility: measuring our performance For the fourth year, the Go-Ahead Group came top of the public transport companies that participated in the Business in the Community Corporate Responsibility Index. Go-Ahead scored 90.5% and was ranked in the Gold Band by BITC. In the environment index Go-Ahead received a score of 93% and achieved maximum marks for its performance on emissions management and climate change. Electricity usage for traction power (kwh) 99m Air pollution CO 2 (kg) per passenger journey 2.2 Some of the oldest trains in our fleet will be replaced with new, less environmentally damaging trains. 7

Community We provide essential services for those who live and work in the communities that we serve, as well as for those visiting London, the Midlands and the North West.

10 Community We provide essential services for those who live and work in the communities that we serve, as well as for those visiting London, the Midlands and the North West. Successful communities are in the interest of everybody, and running our services is the main way in which we contribute to their well being. We contribute further through cash and in-kind donations, and by encouraging employee involvement. In addition, the Go-Ahead Group provides cash donations on behalf of all the operating companies. We value the benefits of working in partnership with the communities that we serve, and have formed a number of important connections, including creating two Rail Quality Partnerships with Warwickshire and Bedfordshire, as well as the two Community Rail partnerships which support and promote rail travel on the St Albans-Watford Junction Abbey Line and the Bedford-Bletchley Marston Vale Line. A number of London Midland routes had important anniversaries in 2008: 150 years for the Marston Vale, 100 years of the Shakespeare Line between Birmingham and Stratford-upon-Avon, and 100 years for our own Birmingham Tyseley maintenance depot, which was built to support this route. Great value family days out London Midland offers significant discounts for summer visitors to top attractions in and around Birmingham, all easily accessible by train. By showing their London Midland train ticket, customers can receive cut-price admission to attractions such as the National Sea Life Centre, Black Country Living Museum, the Thinktank Science Museum and the IMAX Cinema, Birmingham. We offer discounts for visitors to top Birmigham attractions. Community spend 2, % of total Group spend ( 391,269) At a local operating company level community investment is driven through support in kind activites, while the Group Head Office handles direct financial donations. The figures above include an element of both these community investment streams. 8

Summary Independent Assurance Statement Go-Ahead commissioned Corporate Citizenship to provide external assurance and

2008. In forming our opinion and making our comments, we have had regard to the principles underlying the international

We have also referred to the reporting guidance for content and the principles for defining quality contained in GRI s

Go-Ahead London Midland is part of The Go-Ahead Group plc.

networks, aviation ground handling and parking services.

reporting during the year in order to provide a basis on which to assess the Report s content.

within the selected sample of Group operating companies (namely Metrobus and Plane Handling) to understand the process

internal reporting processes, Reviewed media and carried out desk-based research to ensure that material environmental

addition, for the carbon emissions quantification, we checked to ensure that the scope of the reporting captured Scopes

its commitments to managing environmental and social impacts.

suggest that information presented in the Report has been materially misstated.

11 Summary Independent Assurance Statement Go-Ahead commissioned Corporate Citizenship to provide external assurance and commentary on the information contained within the Environmental and Social Reports for the period July 2007 to June In forming our opinion and making our comments, we have had regard to the principles underlying the international assurance standard AA1000 ( notably concerning materiality, completeness and responsiveness. We have also referred to the reporting guidance for content and the principles for defining quality contained in GRI s G3 sustainability reporting guidelines ( Go-Ahead London Midland is part of The Go-Ahead Group plc. Members of the Group run bus services (in the South of England, London and the North East of England), commuter train networks, aviation ground handling and parking services. Other companies within the Group are: Scope of work We have undertaken a series of activities to review Go-Ahead s reporting during the year in order to provide a basis on which to assess the Report s content. We have completed the following activities: Interviewed environmental and social data managers at Group level and within the selected sample of Group operating companies (namely Metrobus and Plane Handling) to understand the process for managing and reporting progress on CSR, Reviewed that information in the Report has been correctly transposed from internal reporting processes, Reviewed media and carried out desk-based research to ensure that material environmental and social issues or events were not overlooked in the Report or given inappropriate focus (too much or too little), In addition, for the carbon emissions quantification, we checked to ensure that the scope of the reporting captured Scopes 1 & 2 of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard and that emission factors used were relevant and robust. Our opinion In our opinion, the report provides a fair representation of the progress Go-Ahead has made in living out its commitments to managing environmental and social impacts. We have examined the processes Go-Ahead has in place for managing these issues and nothing has come to our attention to suggest that information presented in the Report has been materially misstated. A full verification statement, containing a more detailed analysis together with recommendations for developing the processes for measuring, managing and reporting Go-Ahead plc s environmental and social impacts, can be found at Corporate Citizenship 10 September 2008 Aviation Services (incorporating Aviance UK, Plane Handling and Reed Aviation) Bluestar Brighton & Hove Bus Company Go-Ahead London Go North East Meteor Metrobus Oxford Bus Company Southeastern Southern Southern Vectis Wilts & Dorset

12 More information on how London Midland manages its social and environmental responsibilities can be found at If you have any comments, views or ideas on how we might improve, or have any thoughts on other issues that we should address in this report, please use the enclosed form or write to: London Midland 102 New Street Birmingham B2 4HQ Telephone: This report was put together bythe Go-Ahead Group with help from Corporate Citizenship, and designed and produced by Rare Corporate Design, London. Cert no. SGS-COC-0620 Printed by Beacon Press using their environmental print technology which minimises any negative environmental impacts resulting from the printing of this document. includes the use of vegetable based inks, recycling of 94% of dry waste and 95% of cleaning solvents for future use. Beacon Press holds the Queen s Award for Enterprise: Sustainable Development together with ISO14001 and EMAS accreditations. Beacon is a CarbonNeutral company and uses 100% renewable energy. Printed on Revive 100 Uncoated which contains 100% post consumer waste and is FSC certified.

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