02 March 2007

Dear Colleagues,

When we started the project to upgrade all aspects of the rail service and commissioning the new trains, we set the objective to be recognised as among the best regional rail operators in the UK or Ireland.

Some at the time thought this was a bit ambitious. Obviously our passengers think we are doing the right things as we have seen their numbers rise – they are voting with their feet! But now we have some outside recognition too.

On Wednesday, NI Railways enjoyed success in the (UK) HSBC Rail Business Awards. We won the Rail Public Relations Campaign of the Year category for our ‘Dead Cert’ public safety campaigns and were highly commended in the Rail Marketing Campaign of the Year (‘Getting There Is Getting Better’) and the Internal Communications Excellence (‘Power of 6’ / customer service communications) categories.

These are the flagship industry awards and all major UK rail businesses are involved, including Eurostar, London Underground, First and GNER. We were playing with the ‘big boys’ and came out winning!

Congratulations to everyone involved in these campaigns – it is particularly good that the customer service aspect has been recognised. Delivery of the new service has been a real team effort.

I have no doubt there is a lot of what we do which is excellent. Here is the challenge! If you think what you do deserves recognition, highlight it, tell someone and we can test it against the best outside of Translink.

Awards like these are important because they allow us to compare what we do with the best in the market. We have been very successful in picking up such awards for all aspects of what we do – for both bus and rail and across all divisions.

This recognition is something we should be proud of; it means we are doing the right things for our passengers.

Philip O'Neill

Acting Chief Executive

This recognition is something we should be proud of; it means
we are doing the right things
for our passengers