Better Rail Services - Annual Review 06/07 - About us - Translink

Find Your Translink Service

Core Programme: Better Rail Services

New Rail Service Enhancements l Future Rail Network Development l Belfast - Dublin Enterprise Service

Customer service is at the heart of company plans to deliver a new improved rail service. Internally, a new ‘corporate culture’ was promoted; all railway staff attended customer care training programmes. Passenger satisfaction has risen as a result of staff performance.

Translink is committed to delivering a rail service that is recognised as the best in the UK and Ireland with continuing growth in passenger numbers. Following the introduction of the programme of change and improvement linked to the new rail service, passenger numbers have increased by a substantial 34% over the last four years.

NEW RAIL SERVICE ENHANCEMENTS
During 2006/07 enhancements across all aspects of the rail service were introduced including:

new rolling stock
timetable development
passenger information
advertising
customer service delivery
station improvements
newly refreshed railway branding

With a new rail service, an increase in passenger journeys of 34% has been achieved over the last four years. This is against a target in the RTS of 60% for the ten years 2002-2012.

Milestones

September 2005 - the 23 new C3K trains were in regular passenger service. For passengers, this means travel on state of the art trains that meet the highest standards in terms of safety, accessibility and journey comfort.
October 2005 - the Train Care Centre at Fortwilliam, opened and operates 24 hours a day: ensuring that the C3K fleet is kept in optimum condition for passengers.

Better customer service
The company placed customer service at the heart of its plans to deliver a new improved rail service. Internally, a new ‘corporate culture’ was promoted; all railway staff attended one or more innovative customer care training programmes. Passenger satisfaction has risen as a result in terms of staff performance.

Independent monitoring carried out during 2006/07 on customers’ ratings against the Passenger’s Charter standards recorded increasing and sustained improvements in passenger satisfaction.
A Translink working group developed and introduced a range of initiatives as part of a programme aimed at reducing passenger journey delays caused as a result of the annual leaf fall on railway tracks.
Launched in winter 2006 the ‘Rail News’ news sheet was produced to provide clear communication with passengers and staff on the performance of rail services.

Park and ride facilities

Two new Park and Ride facilities opened at Lurgan and Moira.
38 additional spaces were created at Moira and 49 at Lurgan.

The programme will continue with work on four proposed sites: Greenisland, Jordanstown, Whitehead and Whiteabbey.

^TOP

Other rail infrastructure projects
In addition to major building projects, the railway infrastructure unit is responsible for maintaining railway assets for safe operation. These include 435 bridges across the network and 23kms of sea defences, in addition to embankment and cuttings maintenance.

In 2006/07 maintenance work carried out included:

Essential engineering work on the line in the North West.
Replacement of a bridge at Eglinton.
A programme of bridge assessments on 32 underbridges between Antrim and Coleraine.
Earthworks Inspection, to network rail standards, of 135 earth slopes on the network.

Plans are in place for work to begin during 2007/08 on a significant redevelopment of the railway station at Newry.

Timetable developments
Upon completion of the nine-month Ł25.2 million Larne line engineering relay project, a further new timetable commenced in February 2006 reintroducing full Larne line services.

Passenger facilities
Work is ongoing to upgrade railway stations and halts across Northern Ireland. Part of the new rail service programme, this investment is the next step in improving services and facilities for passengers. The programme will be completed during the next two years.

Enhancements being made to stations include new seating, signage, lighting and shelters, with station access improvements to include re-grading of ramps and provision of lifts where required.

A primary aim of the work is to improve accessibility to and at stations. The work will ensure that stations are Disability Discrimination Act-compliant, making them fully accessible for wheelchair users and those with mobility issues.

Awards
Translink has won several notable prestigious industry awards for aspects of the new rail service including:

The ‘Dead Cert’ safety communications won ‘Rail PR Campaign of the Year’.
Customer service improvement campaign received ‘Highly Commended’ for Internal Communications Excellence.
‘Getting there is getting better’ received ‘Highly Commended’ in the Rail Marketing Campaign of the Year.
The railway change programme received first place in the Services Marketing Award at the annual Chartered Institute of Marketing Ireland Awards ceremony in October 2006.
N I Railways won two accolades at the first ‘International Best Station Awards’ ceremony for Central and Carrickfergus Stations.

Innovative rail travel promotions

The ‘getting there is getting better’ advertising campaign that comprised television, radio and press advertising ran at points over the year to raise awareness of service improvements made.
Off peak travel promotions offering ‘1/3 off Day Returns’ on local lines ran several times.
Taking advantage of the more than two million visits made annually to the Translink web site, exclusive web fare promotions sold travel on Enterprise services - offering Dublin Day Returns at special prices - in the autumn and spring months.
A vibrant advertising campaign was used to remind customers of the attractions of travel by rail to Dublin - ‘go Enterprise’, supported by a number of ‘2 for 1’ travel promotions in association with popular newspapers.

^TOP

FUTURE RAIL NETWORK DEVELOPMENT
The programme to deliver further growth in passenger numbers through the new rail service will continue. Additionally, plans are being developed for further modernisation and expansion of the network. These will be subject to economic appraisal, Government approval and funding.

Performance and growth (2006-10)
Translink’s immediate objectives:

Continue to attract more passengers by optimising current investments.
Consolidating the current performance, timetables and service plan.
Implement frequency improvements for Ballymena, Antrim and the Larne line.
Reliability modifications are being made on the older class 450 trains.
Driver recruitment and training continues.
Enhanced performance will be delivered from the new C3K trains.

Future size of railway network
Through the ‘Future Options for Rail Services Steering Group’ (on which NITHC/Translink is represented) the Government is currently reviewing the long-term future of the so-called ‘lesser-used lines’ (ie Ballymena to Londonderry; and Whitehead to Larne). The result of the review will determine the submission to the Comprehensive Spending Review 2007.

The review follows the ‘Strategic Railway Review’ by Booz Allen Hamilton, commissioned by Translink in 2004, which concluded that the ‘lesser used lines’ were economically viable as part of the total existing network. It also emphasised that the major assets of the railway (track, trains, etc.) should be maintained and renewed on a regular ‘life-cycle’ basis, to avoid the problems of ‘stop-go’ investment patterns. This is the basis of Translink’s current capital investment programme and asset/project
management approach.

The future options project also include:

The like for like replacement of class 450 trains 2010-2012;
The possibility of increases in fleet size to deliver capacity and frequency improvements across the network; and
Associated infrastructure works required to facilitate increased capacity.

The supporting business case for further investment in new rolling stock is already being clearly demonstrated by the current operations of the C3K fleet.

Beyond RTS
The future of the railway needs to be considered over a longer 20-30 year timeframe, partly because investment in railway assets have this length of life; also taking into account longer term economic, competitive and environmental issues facing Northern Ireland.

^TOP

BELFAST – DUBLIN ENTERPRISE SERVICE
Performance on the cross border Belfast-Dublin Enterprise service has been problematic over the past two years, since a major civil engineering programme by Iarnrod Eireann in 2004 curtailed services, which had a knock on negative impact on passenger numbers.

Working to address this decline through:

On line yield management programmes.
Aggressive marketing campaigns.
By upgrading the on board catering service.

In the longer term, Translink is developing an outline ‘Vision 2020’ with Irish Rail for a high speed rail service to Dublin that would have departures every hour and a 90 minute non-stop journey time.

Bookmark with:

Delicious |

Digg |

Reddit |

Facebook |

Stumbleupon |