Spring 2018 Customer Report

Spring 2018 Customer Report

Welcome Glasgow Central Motherwell Wolverhampton Birmingham New Street Cardiff Central Dundee Inverkeithing Haymarket Cheltenham Spa Weston-super-Mare Cupar Markinch Chepstow Newport Edinburgh Waverley Gloucester Bristol Temple Meads Dunbar Manchester Piccadilly Crewe Lydney Caldicot Aberdeen Leuchars Ladybank Kirkcaldy Wilmslow Arbroath Stockport Stafford Stonehaven Montrose Berwick-upon-Tweed Sheffield Stoke-on-Trent Bristol Parkway Durham Macclesfield Congleton Derby Tamworth Water Orton Alnmouth Morpeth Chester-le-Street Oxford Leeds Wakefield Westgate Chesterfield Leicester Newcastle Darlington Nottingham Coventry York Doncaster Burton-on-Trent Melton Mowbray Oakham Coleshill Stamford Parkway Narborough Peterborough Nuneaton March Birmingham International Basingstoke Leamington Spa Banbury Cambridge Reading Guildford Audley End Ely Stansted Airport A warm welcome to CrossCountry s Spring 2018 Customer Report, giving you an update on how we re performing against our commitments. In partnership with the Department for Transport we are continuing to deliver a range of improvements to make your journey even better. Our three year franchise began in October 2016, and we ve made good progress. You can find out more about our achievements so far later on in this Customer Report. Your feedback is important to us you can get in touch with us through any of the contact details at the back of this booklet. Whether you re a regular customer, or are yet to take your first journey with us, we look forward to welcoming you on board. Thank you for choosing CrossCountry. Andy Cooper Managing Director Newquay Truro Redruth St Erth Camborne Penzance Exeter St Davids Newton Abbot Bodmin Parkway Liskeard Totnes Par St Austell Plymouth Taunton Dawlish Teignmouth Torquay Paignton Tiverton Parkway Bournemouth Winchester Southampton Central Brockenhurst Southampton Airport Parkway - 2 - - 3 -

Your journey We know how important it is that our trains run as planned and on time. We continually work in partnership with Network Rail, who maintain and improve tracks, signals and stations, as well as other train operators to ensure that delays and cancellations to our services are kept to a minimum. Nevertheless, the last 6 months have been very challenging both for CrossCountry and the railway more generally, and this fall in performance is something we are addressing as a priority. As part of our Franchise Agreement with the Department for Transport, we have set targets for our performance, and these are outlined below, together with our latest scores against these targets. The Public Performance Measure (PPM) shows how many of our trains arrived at their destinations within 4 minutes 59 seconds of the advertised time. CrossCountry s PPM Moving Annual Average at Period 13 was 87.7%, against a target of 90.0%. At Period 13 last year, our PPM was 89.7%. We run over 7,000 trains each 4-week period, and record how many of those ran with fewer than the planned number of carriages. Over the 7 periods this report covers (from October 2017 to March 2018), this was 2.0% on average. This was 1.5% in the same period last year. Our CASL (Cancellations and Significant Lateness) score measures how many trains were cancelled, or were over 29 minutes late. The Moving Annual Average at Period 13 was 4.94%, against 3.95% for the same period last year. A summary of cancellations is provided below. 2016/17 Periods 7-13 2017/18 Periods 7-13 n Average full cancellations per 4-week period 28 75 (caused by CrossCountry) n Average part cancellations per 4-week period 57 80 (caused by CrossCountry) n Average full cancellations per 4-week period 46 74 (caused by Network Rail or another train operator) n Average part cancellations per 4-week period 112 133 (caused by Network Rail or another train operator) While we have seen an increase in cancellations compared to last year, the period covered by this report (October 2017 and March 2018) saw a number of specific events which impacted our train service performance. These included: n Industrial action in November and December 2017. This is the first time in more than a decade that our services have been disrupted in this way. Agreements are now in place which will provide for a reliable service on Sundays. n Severe weather conditions in December 2017 and February 2018. Where routes were open, we ran a credible service but many were blocked by snow drifts for considerable periods. n Significant volume of engineering work at key points on the network, linked to major infrastructure upgrades. We have had to support Network Rail in delivering some major projects by accepting some disruption to services at short notice. n A major fire at Nottingham station in January 2018. n A 20mph speed restriction at March in Cambridgeshire, which was in place throughout the period this report covers. The renewal of a bridge had been delayed and access to undertake renewal could not be arranged more quickly. The work is now complete. n A number of line blockages caused by failures of other passenger and freight services. We ve already delivered a number of initiatives to improve our performance, including the introduction of an additional Voyager train to provide more flexibility, and automatic sanding equipment on our Voyager trains to improve performance during leaf-fall. Building on these initiatives, we re now implementing solutions to target specific issues with engines and electrical systems. We re also working hard to reduce the numbers of cancellations and delays caused by staff unavailability. Where delays are unavoidable, we will do all we can to keep you informed, and we continually review and refine our approach to ensure we re giving you the right information at the right time. Our customer information team is on hand 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, providing journey and disruption information in realtime through our website and social media feeds. Your experience We are working hard to make planning journeys and buying tickets easier. You can buy your tickets with us with greater confidence - we don t charge you any fee for changing the dates or times of Advance tickets bought through our website, even if you re travelling with another train company. - 4 - - 5 -

This year we ve also made improvements to our mobile website, and introduced a new version of our mobile app, to make it easier to buy train tickets on your phone or tablet. We welcome customers who need extra help when making their journeys, and we offer our JourneyCare service for this purpose. You find out more about this service on our website or by calling our Customer Relations team (see details in the back of this booklet). Between October 2017 and March 2018, we arranged assistance for passengers on 9,772 occasions (an increase of 24% on the same period last year), and met our commitment to answer 80% of these calls within 20 seconds. As we don t operate any stations, we work with other train companies to ensure they provide the service for customers who require assistance. When you contact us, we aim to resolve any query or complaint as quickly as possible, and have targets in place for how long this takes. In the seven periods from October 2017 to March 2018, we received 18,806 customer contacts (an increase of 88% on the same period last year). The following graphs compare the volume of contacts received relating to each area in the seven periods from October 2017 to March 2018 and the equivalent period in the previous year. Number of Contacts received 12000 10000 8000 6000 4000 2000 0 4420 6703 On-board Facilities 3886 Contact volumes 9691 We continually review our performance including the volumes of contacts we receive to identify areas for improvement and develop plans to address any specific issues. While CrossCountry doesn t operate any stations, we have a dedicated team who work with other train operating companies and Network Rail to ensure that you receive the high standards of station facilities you expect. 673 Topic of Contact Spring 2017 Spring 2018 1119 1006 1293 Train Service Performance Staff Other Your trains We have a number of ambitious projects underway to improve our fleet of trains. Our Turbostar trains, which operate the Cardiff Nottingham and Birmingham Leicester / Cambridge / Stansted Airport services, went through a refresh programme during 2016/17 to improve passenger comfort and introduce additional seating. They also received an exterior repaint. This year this fleet will also go through a mechanical overhaul programme to ensure reliability. Our December 2017 timetable change saw the introduction of an additional Voyager train to provide extra seats on our long-distance network. In the remainder of the franchise, you ll also benefit from: n Free, improved WiFi on all trains, so you can be online on the move. This will also include a range of useful customer information and a real-time information feed on any disruption. n Automatic doors on our High Speed Train fleet, making it easier to board and get off these trains, and help improve punctuality. The first train will be in service soon. n Improvements to the toilet facilities on our Voyager trains, in direct response to your feedback. Our on-board teams are there to ensure you have a great journey with us, and we re investing in new tools to help them help you, particularly on occasions when there is disruption. Your community Our services don t just get people from A to B, they can also help support local communities to grow and flourish. With a network from Aberdeen to Penzance, and from Cardiff to Cambridge, we are proud to be able to help communities right across the UK. We support 17 Community Rail Partnerships, to help promote the benefits of rail travel in local communities and support local project-based initiatives To support this work, and to deliver further benefits, we are also actively partnering with a number of other organisations. We ve already achieved a great deal including the creation of a dedicated online community hub and working with the Scouts organisation to establish a rail safety badge and this work will continue in 2018. We have recently published a detailed report outlining all our activities in the community since October 2016 which you can view on our website. We recognise the importance of interacting with stakeholders to get views and opinions to help shape what we do. We have a team dedicated to managing our relationships with stakeholders across our network. This has included working with Rail User Groups, MPs, Local Enterprise Groups and regional government. We also have regular dialogue with Transport Focus. - 6 - - 7 -

As part of Arriva, we re working hard to reach Destination Green, to reduce our use of resources and impact on the environment, and striving to be a truly sustainable business. This includes initiatives to reduce the use of paper and electricity and to reduce the fuel consumption of our train fleet. Projects to date include a trial to install a new air conditioning system on a Voyager train to assess energy savings, and installing LED lighting at our offices. Your feedback We always welcome your feedback, so we know what is working well and what we can do better. Since July 2017, we have had an online customer panel, to give you the opportunity to get involved and have your say about what we do and what we have planned. We were seeking 1,000 people to join the panel and are delighted that over 2,000 have signed up. We regularly get in touch with the panel to gauge opinions and feedback on a wide range of subjects. Please visit our website for details of how to join the customer panel. The National Rail Passenger Survey (NRPS) takes place in Spring and Autumn each year. We have tough targets for our NRPS scores as part of our franchise agreement with the Department for Transport. The most recent survey was undertaken in Autumn 2017, and the results are shown below, together with our targets for the year. Our annual performance against our NRPS targets is measured as an average of our Spring and Autumn results in each year. Trains Customer Service Group 1 Group 2 Group 1 Group 2 Year 1 (Oct 16-Mar 17) Target 74.0 70.0 69.0 65.0 Year 1 (Oct 16-Mar 17) Score 73.2 69.9 68.4 59.8 Contact us We welcome your comments or suggestions regarding any aspect of this Customer Report or your journey with CrossCountry. You can contact us by: E-mail: customer.relations@crosscountrytrains.co.uk Telephone: 0344 736 9123 Textphone: 0121 200 6420 Post: CrossCountry Customer Relations, FREEPOST RRXU-HUEC-GLLY, Cannon House, 18 The Priory Queensway, Birmingham B4 6BS Join our customer panel today and help shape the future of CrossCountry. Visit crosscountrytrains.co.uk/customer-panel Follow us @crosscountryuk Like us on Facebook Year 2 (Apr 17-Mar 18) Target* 74.3 70.3 69.5 65.5 Year 2 (Apr 17-Mar 18) Score* 74.7 74.4 72.7 63.7 * Against the average of the Spring 2017 and Autumn 2017 results Group 1 covers our long-distance services, and Group 2 covers the Cardiff Nottingham and Birmingham Leicester / Stansted Airport services. All of the scores for Year 1 were below target and a comprehensive improvement plan, in line with our Franchise Agreement, has been implemented. This included a range of improvements to the toilets on board our Voyager trains, launching the JourneyCheck facility on our website, and additional training for our staff. Our Year 2 results show a significant improvement on all measures, however the Customer Service score for Group 2 is below target and we will deliver further initiatives to address this. - 8 - - 9 -