CSR Progress Report by Northern Rail

Social Responsibility

2012 Review

Social Responsibility 2012 – A year in view

Introduction

Contents

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Together with dramatic improvements in punctuality and reliability the massive investment has helped us to attract 42% more customers since the start of our franchise. From day one, we’ve focused on delivering consistently good local train services for our customers. However, we’ve always been aware that our services have also brought a lot of economic, social and environmental benefits to local communities. We asked an independent firm of consultants, Arup, to find out just how much we contribute. Arup looked into a variety of areas, including the role that we play in local economic growth and environmental benefits, and they estimate that our services generate at least £650m of economic and other benefits for the north of England. This means that for every £1 of subsidy received we generate approximately £2 of benefits.

Direct employment benefits We have estimated the value of all jobs directly employed on our services. If we included the support services then the economic and community impact figure would be even greater.

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Through hard work and innovation, combined with our strong ethos of partnership, we’ve attracted over £100m of external investment and Serco and Abellio, our parent companies, have invested £30m. This £130m has been used to improve our trains, stations and services.

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Over the last seven years we’ve had an extraordinary journey, establishing a Northern culture which is reflected in our values and branding.

None of the areas exist in isolation; as you would expect, there is much overlap between them. However, we believe it is sufficient to see where our focus lies. This update is written to reflect the subjects in the wheel where we have made progress in 2012.

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The wheel below is a simple representation of all the areas we need to address if we are to be a socially responsible business.

Environment

Introduction

Our services provide an alternative to travelling by car, which in turn helps limit traffic growth, increases in car journey times and delays from congestion.

Tourism We offer convenient access to important tourist areas in

the north. Our services are particularly important for such places as Blackpool, Scarborough, Morecambe and the Lake District, where tourist income is essential.

We believe that we are really adding value, which is what our approach to social responsibility is all about.

Carbon benefits The average travel CO2 emissions of rail passengers are about 50% lower than if the journey had been made by car.

Safety impacts More people are using a safer method of travel as, statistically, rail is safer when compared with the car.

Productive time Almost 12% of our commuters work during their journey. This not only provides economic benefits but also means they can work on the train rather than at home, offering them more ‘quality’ time.

Social Responsibility 2012 – A year in view

Introduction

Introduction continued... We believe that we are really adding value, which is what our approach to social responsibility is all about. To help our customers, we’ve taken a structured approach and targeted the main areas we know will make a difference. We know that the UK road network is becoming more congested, leading to environmental problems and worsening journey times so we’ve increased the number of seats available for commuters to Leeds and Manchester. We’ve introduced new services across our network and improved others; in December 2008 our Leeds – Nottingham services began and we improved train frequency on the Calder Valley line between Leeds and Manchester Victoria from two to three trains an hour, providing a real alternative to the motorway. As stations are the gateway to our network we’ve worked closely with stakeholders to improve facilities for customers. Working with stakeholders we’ve installed Customer Information Screens, power-operated

doors, height-adjustable ticket counters and waiting rooms at a number of stations and started development work at Manchester Victoria and Wakefield Kirkgate. For our customers in rural areas, we support 18 Community Rail Partnerships in their work to promote rural lines and bring the railway and local communities closer together. Our services on the Esk Valley line between Middlesbrough and Whitby take 60 children to school each day. Some areas have limited road access and during harsh weather conditions, our service can be the only transport link to and from Whitby. We’re committed to becoming a low carbon business and our research indicates that the average CO2 emissions for rail passengers are about 50% lower when compared with driving. In addition, between 2007 and 2012 we reduced our total carbon footprint by 19%. We have seen commitment from the government by supporting the industry in improving the capacity and journey times between major cities, especially for commuters. They also want to see better links to ports and airports and an electric ‘spine’ through England, including the north. To that end, they have fully funded three major development programmes: electrification of both the North West and the TransPennine routes and the ‘Northern Hub’. Electrification will help services become more speedy and efficient for customers. The Northern Hub is the industry’s vision of rail at the centre of local and regional economic growth and development. It is a range of plans which complement each

So, more services, more seats, more commuters... more regional economic growth. We see Northern as being at the heart of some really exciting plans for the future.

other and are due to deliver in stages between 2013 and 2018. Here’s a selection: • two new platforms at Manchester Piccadilly station to allow more trains to run through, rather than terminate in Manchester. This will enable more direct services across the North • the Ordsall Chord to provide a link between Manchester Victoria and Manchester Piccadilly stations, allowing for a new route across the city.

Although not technically part of the hub, Manchester Victoria station will undergo a major transformation. So, more services, more seats, more commuters... more regional economic growth. We see Northern as being at the heart of some really exciting plans for the future. As well as changes to the physical infrastructure, the coalition government, through the Department for Transport (DfT) is also consulting on a change to the way the rail industry in our area is governed. They’re pursuing ‘devolution’

or ‘decentralisation’, which would transfer responsibilities for franchise management, service levels, fares and rolling stock specification from central government to local organisations. As ever we continue to work with a range of partners to deliver solutions to the challenges facing the industry. We have maintained our role as a part of the rail industry’s Sustainable Rail Programme. This report highlights some of our achievements during 2012, starting with our special visitors

and success in receiving a number of awards. We were honoured to have a number of special guests visiting Northern facilities, from royalty to politicians. Her Majesty The Queen, accompanied by His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh, visited Manchester Victoria as part of their highly anticipated Diamond Jubilee tour and HRH Prince Charles visited Wakefield Kirkgate station where he learned about the £4m improvement plans for the station and how the new premises will be available for community and business use. 5

Social Responsibility 2012 – A year in view

2012 was another great year for Northern and its partners. We were very proud to have been recognised for our achievements in a number of areas and to be the recipients of the following awards. Business in the Community CR Index We were delighted to achieve Gold status in Business in the Community’s (BITC) 2012 Corporate Responsibility Index (CRI), the UK’s leading voluntary benchmark of corporate responsibility. We believe we demonstrated how implementing and managing a systematic approach to business practices can help companies accurately measure, manage and shape their social and environmental performance. Scoring 93% and achieving Gold status means that our corporate responsibility strategy is articulated in an effective manner and includes clear and measurable targets.

National Rail Awards Northern Rail’s Manchester Stations team was recognised for its visibility, support and assistance to passengers during the disturbances in Manchester’s city centre in August 2012. The team were announced as winners in the Judges’ Special Award category at the National Rail Awards after they showed the best of the railway spirit under incredibly difficult and dangerous circumstances. 6

Introduction

Although managing crowds of people comes naturally to the tight knit team, judges recognised the extraordinary challenge presented to them when rioting and looting broke out on the streets of Manchester last year. As both tram and bus services were suspended throughout the city, the Northern team made sure passengers kept on the move. It was vital their employees were safe so that not only were Manchester commuters guaranteed to make it home in one piece, but the team ensured they could provide a service the following morning when the dust had settled.

ATOC Cycle Rail Awards Northern won ‘Best Video’ category and was highly commended as a ‘Cycling Champion’. The video captured Northern’s ‘Summer of Cycling’ activity, which saw a number of engagement events aimed at encouraging more passengers to cycle to stations and use a more sustainable mode of transport. Northern’s ‘Summer of Cycling’ was designed to raise awareness of new cycle facilities at a number of our stations, which were the result of a government grant to upgrade cycle racks and storage at over 100 stations across its network. The video focused on

National Railway Heritage Awards

the ‘Tour de Garforth’, which saw 65 local people of all ages enjoy a led cycle tour, with a French picnic, bicycle maintenance, safety briefs and traffic control from local police. The Highly Recommended in the Cycling Champion category went to Les Webb and Simon Geller, who form the joint secretariat for the Northern Rail Cycle Forum.

Community Rail awards Northern Rail took the Overall Winner’s Prize at ACoRP’s (Association of Community Rail Partnerships) Community Rail Awards, as it was recognised as contributing the most to community rail development in the past 12 months. Northern currently supports 18 Community Rail Partnerships, promoting rural lines and bringing the railway and local communities closer together. Inspiring groups throughout the Northern network won six other categories, including Community Art Schemes for the Running Man Art Project at Heaton Chapel, Best Station Garden at Dronfield, the Local Station Development Award for the Glossop Station Project, Northern Employee member Jason Townsend winning Outstanding Railway Employee Contribution and Mid Cheshire CRP winning the Teamwork Award for their Mid Cheshire Line in Bloom project.

RoSPA Awards

National Rail Heritage awards Glossop station was highly commended by judges in The Railway Heritage Trust Conservation Award category at the 2012 National Rail Heritage Awards. The station, which is managed and maintained by Northern Rail, was applauded for the restoration and conservation of its buildings, platforms and facilities. The work was funded by Northern Rail, Network Rail and Derbyshire County Council.

National Safety awards Northern had its outstanding commitment to health and safety commended at the 2012 RoSPA Occupational Health and Safety Awards. Winning the ‘Transport, Storage and Distribution Industry Sector Award’ for the fourth year in a row, Northern also scooped the ‘Workforce Involvement in Safety and Health Trophy’ for the second time. The RoSPA Occupational Health and Safety Awards scheme is the largest and longest-running programme

of its kind in the UK and recognises commitment to accident and ill health prevention. It not only looks at accident records, but also entrants’ overarching health and safety management systems, including important practices such as strong leadership and workforce involvement.

Railway Industry Innovation Awards Northern’s Community Ambassadors Scheme won in the Small Scale Project category at the Railway Industry’s Innovation Awards. The scheme was created to promote the use of local rail services with Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) and socially excluded groups around four stations in the north: Blackburn, Brierfield, Rochdale and Farnworth. The DfT, Transport for Greater Manchester and the East Lancashire Community Rail Partnership have all supported the growing venture, which is helping build confidence with new rail users and bridge communities across Northern’s network.

2012 was a very successful year for cycling across the region. Northern received funding of £0.9m to improve cycling across Greater Manchester. The stations, including Manchester Oxford Road, Manchester Victoria, Bolton, Blackburn, Eccles, Ashton, Hazel Grove and Blackpool North, will all receive new facilities to encourage passengers to travel to and from

the station by bike, resulting in a total of 550 cycle spaces. In addition, £198k was awarded to include cycling facilities at Northern stations in Lancashire. The funding includes a £483,000 project to install sheltered cycle storage at seven stations across the region, featuring secure, swipe card access and the installation or upgrade of CCTV equipment. It is hoped that both Manchester Victoria and Bolton stations will be seen as ‘cycle hubs’ with storage facilities for 200 bikes, as well the opportunity to hire bicycles on arrival at the stations, with a total investment figure of £392,000 for the two schemes. Northern was also awarded £800,000 to operate a bike hire facility scheme – Bike n Go – from 25 of its stations.

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We continue to focus on encouraging rail travel as an environmentally sustainable form of transport and ensuring it is integrated with other forms of travel. We continue to work to manage and reduce our resource consumption, our carbon footprint and work with communities to enhance the local environment.

Modal Shift – Cycling

2009

Environment

Whole life carbon footprint (gCO e ppkm)

Social Responsibility 2012 – A year in view

RESOURCE CONSERVATION

Energy management Despite an increase in nontraction energy consumption during 2012, we have worked hard to ensure we have robust measurement of consumption across our vast estate. We introduced an energy budgeting regime whereby all areas of the business had specific reduction targets based on robust data from the metering programme and provided regular information to key managers. We have also installed sub-meters at appropriate locations and have, through improved management, obtained rebates or avoided costs of significant amounts. 8

We undertook energy surveys at a number of our stations to identify where we could make savings and installed a heating control system at our Heaton train maintenance depot.

Waste Management During 2012 we consolidated the waste management contract for our engineering function, which should result in increased recycling rates throughout 2013. We did start to see the rate increasing as 2012 ended. We were also successful in meeting our recycling target for stations

of 25%. The way waste is removed from stations and then sent to waste transfer stations means that the recycling rates are calculated based on averages provided by the waste contractor for mixed wastes. In reality a higher proportion of the waste will be being recycled, but until waste is removed and accurate weights are given we have little choice but to use this data. At some locations we segregate the waste and these figures are part of the calculation. This is fairly universal across the industry. 9

Social Responsibility 2012 – A year in view

Uniform recycling

Following a redesign of our uniform, we donated more than 3,000 items of clothing to Salvation Army Trading Company Limited (SATCoL). Weighing in at over 629 kilos, the branded items were collected from our employees working across Northern’s network from drivers, conductors and ticket office employees. As the uniform is branded with the Northern logo, it cannot simply be donated to local charity shops, without having the identifying tags removed. The clothing collection scheme from SATCoL ensures the items are used in a variety of ways to get the most out of each item. SATCoL will export the clothing where it will be

reused or recycled. Profit from the sale of donations is gift-aided to The Salvation Army to help fund its work throughout the UK and Republic of Ireland, including homelessness, elderly care, help at emergency incidents and much more. Not only was the project conceived to be of benefit to both the environment and the wider society, it helped with employee engagement. The Northern Sustainability team travelled around the north of England, collecting bags of clothing from a number of its different depots and stations, before bringing it all together at Harrogate station for collection by SATCoL.

Donating old uniforms

– gasoil (gCO2 ppkm)

65.82

2012

Traction energy

Carbon reduction

Sustainable Infrastructure

Northern was the first rail operator in the country to measure its entire carbon footprint, and continue to measure it annually. We successfully reduced our carbon footprint by 18.5% between 2007 and 2012. This equated to an emissions reduction of 79,020 tonnes (CO2e), the equivalent of taking just over 31,000 diesel 1 cars off the road for one year.

We have continued to promote more sustainable and energyefficient refurbishments across the estate, despite where we are in the franchise. In terms of trying to embed this in the business, increasing the environmental and social sustainability of projects is part of the early design discussions. To make things easier we have produced a Sustainable Product Guide, which is updated as new products are tried and tested.

Carbon emissions are measured from three sources known as Scopes 1-3: gas and fuel consumption, electricity consumption, and finally the supply chain. After four years of a steady decline in emissions, we saw a rise in 2012. Our scope 1 and 2 emissions increased, primarily as a result of new facilities, new equipment, increased heating as 2011/12 winter was cold, and increased fuel use for the trains. In terms of fuel used for the trains, we ran more miles in 2012, which impacts immediately on fuel use. Plus we are using 100% ultra-low sulphur diesel fuel which was introduced by legislation to reduce harmful emissions that impact on local air quality and health. Unfortunately this fuel is not as efficient as before, which means trains have to burn more to achieve the same power. As a result we did see gas-oil consumption increase in 2012. We believe that our Responsible Driving Programme helped to manage the rate of increase, and the commitment of Northern and the drivers to this programme continues unabated. Now we understand the impact of the new fuel on our fleet we have set a reduction target to be achieved by end 2013. 1 DfT National Travel Statistics 2010. Average UK car mileage is 8,420 miles. Defra GHG conversion factors. Average diesel car travels 3,322 miles to emit 1 tonne CO2e

Case study

Engineering waste recycled

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Environment

Going green on the Cumbrian Coast

Following on from the installation of a shelter at Maryport in 2011, four new passenger waiting shelters were installed at St Bees and Seascale stations. Each of the shelters has been produced using environmentally sustainable materials and they mirror the natural surroundings of the coastal community. Modelled using Iroko hardwood, the strong, very durable timber is both FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) and PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification) certified, helping reduce the environmental impact of the new structures. Jointly funded by Northern Rail and Cumbria County Council, the £80,000 investment also

Shelter at Seascale

includes the recycling of the existing shelter at Seascale which was moved on to Corkickle. Jim Savege, Cumbria County Council’s Environment Corporate Director, said: “The county council welcomes the installation of the sustainable rail shelters along the Cumbrian coastline. This initiative provides better weather protection for rail passengers, and also reduces our carbon footprint. Increasing the number of people travelling by train, as opposed to car journeys, is recognised as being both efficient and climate-friendly and we are pleased to work in partnership with Northern Rail to achieve these objectives.”

Biodiversity We have limited influence over improving biodiversity, but we can act to minimise any risks that our activities pose. We have improved our Environmental Management System so that it now takes into consideration the biodiversity value of sites adjacent to the facilities we manage. We have also worked to develop projects in partnership with different bodies to further both biodiversity awareness and action. In 2012 we supported a student from the University of Hull in the delivery of his final year dissertation as part of his BA (Hons) Geography degree. His work identified and analysed the potential benefits of station development near Sites of Special Scientific Interest, focusing particularly on the involvement of local communities and the protection of biodiversity. We are looking to develop some of the recommendations of the study. 11

Social Responsibility 2012 – A year in view

Case study

Social Responsibility 2012 – A year in view

Pollution prevention

Improving the local environment A group of students from Burnley College’s horticultural department formed the ‘Friends of Burnley Central’ group, taking ownership of the station’s plants and flowers to ensure the station is a welcoming environment for passengers. The partnership was formed when one of our Community Ambassador’s Sultana Jamil realised the station was well used by students, and wanted to find a way to work with them. Thanks to support from East Lancashire Community Rail Partnership, the college formed the station’s ‘Friends of’ group. We supplied the planters and compost, while the students grew and maintained the pots. This project formed part of the students’ coursework.

During 2012 we successfully retained our certification to ISO 14001 and ISO 50001 for our approach to environmental and energy management, developing the Environmental Management System to be a true management tool and not a ‘tick box’ exercise. This is the means by which we manage and control our activities that pose the highest risk to the environment via either resource consumption or pollution.

Community

We launched a refreshed approach to incident reporting across the business, to enable us to capture information and then investigate any incidents. The procedure aims to capture more incidents than would have been done previously ie only oil/fuel/ chemical spills. We now capture and report on incidents covering the following areas: • spillage, leakage or dumping of waste • spillage, leakage or dumping of oil, fuel, chemicals or detergent • train engines idling in stations for longer than 10 minutes • pollution of rivers, ponds, and drains on or near our estate • contamination of land on or near to our estate • damage to plants, animals and the natural environment on or near to our estate

• aesthetic damage to historic/listed buildings such as discolouration from exhaust fumes • impacts that may annoy local residents, such as noise, litter, light, odour and vibration • wastage of gas and electricity such as platform lights and heating systems being left on when not needed • water leaks • presence of pests such as birds, insects and rodents.

As always we continue to work hard to develop our work with community groups and all our stakeholders to ensure we are delivering services that meet everyone’s needs. It is hard to choose which stories to report as there are so many examples.

Trains on time (PPM) 2009

Station waste recycled (%)

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90.8

2011

2012

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91.8

2012

91.3

Social Inclusion We’re delighted that independent market research has reinforced our belief that our Community Ambassador scheme benefits both the local community and Northern. The report outlined that community leaders had only praise for our scheme and for Northern: they explained that the scheme had been introduced at a time when it was most needed – when there were cuts in local authority support and services. 83% of those who attend our ‘accessibility trips’ say they’re now finding it easier to use trains and over half of them are now using the train independently. Plus our Ambassadors account for a 7% growth in rail usage at our targeted locations, so this scheme really does benefit our community and our business. As mentioned in the introduction, the Community Ambassadors scheme won the Small Scale Project Category at the Railway Industry’s Innovation Awards. 13

Social Responsibility 2012 – A year in view

Community

Case study

Community Involvement The extent of our community involvement goes from strength to strength, and during 2012 we were involved in a whole range of activities. We have continued to support Community Rail Partnerships and the many Friends groups we have around the network. One such example is the Friends of Wigton station group, led by Doreen Cape. Since they began in 2009 they have made great progress with a range of activities. In 2012 they delivered another project giving the station a facelift. As Doreen said: “We really enjoy working at the station, and the reaction of the community to our latest project has been fantastic. So many people have contributed to the stonework, and we wanted to do something that we felt would be really impressive. The Community Rail Partnership has supported our work from the start, and we think we’ve made a real difference for all our rail passengers. We’re already working on our next project.” The Friends of Goostrey station collected an amazing 60 bags of waste and heavy vegetation from platforms and the surrounding area during one of their clean-up days. Their work and effort has made an incredible difference to the station. Bramhall station also benefited from a clean-up, when a well organised local young offenders group achieved some great results. In January 2012 the Mid Cheshire line was awarded Service Designation by the Department for Transport. This made it an ‘official’

Community Rail line and opens access to new funding sources for small projects. It presents the opportunity to raise the line’s profile with Local Authorities and other stakeholders. Continuing with our tradition of naming trains after those who have made a significant contribution to the communities we serve, we named a train in 2012 after railway pioneer Timothy Hackworth, who helped create the Darlington and Stockton Railway. The ‘Timothy Hackworth’ is a 156 diesel train which operates around the north east, reminding passengers of his contribution to the railway and how influential he was in the production of the first ever locomotive for Stephenson Engineering. Earlestown station in Newton-leWillows benefited from a welldeserved spruce-up thanks to an innovative project aimed at improving Northern Rail stations between Edge Hill and Glossop. Known as Route 28, the scheme demonstrates what an integrated approach from industry partners alongside support from the local community can achieve when working together and coordinating resources. Colleagues from Merseytravel, Transport for Greater Manchester, Network Rail, Northern and The Railway Heritage Trust helped with a litter pick. We continue to work alongside communities to encourage them to take ownership of their station, bringing back a real sense of pride which we feel is the key to strengthening the whole transport network.

Jane Tomlinson Appeal We extended our partnership with the Jane Tomlinson Appeal by supporting the charity’s Walk for All in April 2012 and the Dales Walk for All in August 2012. For both walks we donated revenue from the ticket sales to the Appeal. We put on additional carriages on our services throughout the day of both walks to transport walkers to and from stations for the start and end of the walks. For the April walk we worked in partnership with our colleagues at First TransPennine Express (TPE) to ensure walkers were able to reach Hope in time to set off on the 09.30 walk. The Jane Tomlinson Appeal has been very keen to encourage walkers to take the train, saying: “It’s a great relaxing way to start the day.”

Performance Management We operate around 2,500 services every day – more than any other UK operator and accounting for 13% of the national Public Performance Measure (PPM), with over 91% of these trains arriving on time during 2012. We manage our performance through a strong partnership approach, both with Network Rail and with other operators, while we continually review our progress and identify areas for improvement. During the year we built on our successful introduction of GPS technology to track progress of trains on the Whitby route and displaying this on customer screens at platforms. By using this technology to investigate delays on other routes we were able to deliver timetable solutions to combat delays on those routes. We will be adopting this

Case study

approach to improve timetabling across the North East network. In addition, working in partnership with Network Rail we analysed performance on a route by route basis, carrying out a first-hand investigation into challenges faced on individual routes such as customer loading, train planning or regulation issues. With Network Rail we used the outputs of these exercises to deliver timetable improvements, customer benefits and a reduction of our impact on other operators. 2012 was not without its challenges, particularly seasonal, with flooding and associated landslips causing particular difficulties across the network. A higher than forecast loss of train drivers to other companies, coupled with some significant

infrastructure reliability issues meant our performance did not improve in the way we originally forecast. We have engaged a number of action plans to combat these challenges, including having the highest number of drivers in training than at any other time in the franchise. These plans are beginning to bear fruit, and we continue to plan for the enhancements of the rail network in the North as a result of Government investment. We embrace an overarching performance improvement plan, called ‘Challenge 94’, which also harnesses the engagement of frontline colleagues to deliver performance improvement.

Allerton Train Care Depot

Although it opened in December 2011, Allerton Train Care Depot was officially opened in May 2012 by the then Minister for Transport Theresa Villiers MP. The depot is home to Northern’s fleet of additional 156 trains, introduced to the network as part of the Department for Transport’s rolling stock programme. Northern received 60 additional carriages, providing its passengers with much needed additional seats.

Walk for All

Delivered in partnership with Network Rail at a cost of £10.6m, significant time and cost savings were made by partially running the design and construction work in parallel. As a result, the depot was operational within six months, a fantastic achievement, with the once derelict site transformed into a modern train maintenance facility, employing a total of 46 employees. 15

Social Responsibility 2012 – A year in view

Social Responsibility 2012 – A year Community in view

Heritage

Education can take many forms, and at Northern we like to try our hand at all types. On World Book Day in March 2012, employees from Rochdale Library helped distribute one million books from passionate readers to members of the public across the UK. When employees at the library discovered they would be giving away some of their favourite titles, it seemed obvious to them how they would do it... sharing them with members of the public who may not have time to benefit from the free books at their local library, such as the busy commuters on the local line.

The Northern Rail network is steeped in railway history. In 2012, MP for Liverpool Wavertree Luciana Berger unveiled a Railway Heritage Trust blue plaque to commemorate the historical significance of Edge Hill station and its role in the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Arts organisation Metal, which uses the station buildings at Edge Hill as space for art, events and conversation, co-hosted the day with us.

Rochdale Library has also donated some titles to Friends of Hebden Bridge station, Friends of Todmorden station, Friends of Littleborough station and the Sowerby Bridge station partnership, each of which operate their own book exchange programmes. Children from Yearsley Grove school in York visited Leeds and

Case study

Harrogate stations as part of a ‘Transport Yourself’ project. The project involved students from the University of York working with Northern in primary schools to teach children about different aspects of the railway. The children were taught about rail safety, planning journeys and the different jobs that we do. This is the fifth trip we have organised with different primary schools: once again the feedback we had from the teacher and students was that the children had been really inspired and motivated and they wanted to thank all our colleagues on the day for being so welcoming.

Olympic art

The Friends of Heaton Chapel station unveiled a poignant reminder of the 2012 Olympic legacy in the North West. Passengers passing through the station will now spot The Running Man, which was installed on the Manchester-bound platform at Heaton Chapel station. The original artwork has been designed and produced by local artist Karen Allerton. Pupils from Broadstone Hall, St Thomas’ Church of England and Norris Bank schools helped Karen create the bespoke piece. The Running Man installation features a collection of images, each with their own significance for the close-knit community. Local songstress Jessie Rose from The Jessie Rose Trip officially unveiled the artwork and as someone who has lived in the Heatons all her life, appreciates the dedicated work that goes on here.

We also named a class 156 carriage ‘George Bradshaw’ after the celebrated Victorian publisher of railway timetables and guides. Bradshaw reached a wider audience through the BBC series Great British Railway Journeys where Michael Portillo travelled the length and breadth of the country using his copy of Bradshaw’s Victorian railway guidebook as his guide. Published since 1841, Bradshaw’s Guide has gone on to survive the reorganisation and nationalisation of the railways, and although last published in 1961, is still revered by many throughout Great Britain today. We were pleased to support Rainhill’s railway heritage when we unveiled a freshly painted MK1 carriage at Rainhill Library. The work, undertaken by Northern Rail engineering employees and its contractors, WG Specialist Coatings and HMG Paints, completed the renovation of the MK1 carriage. Inside the restored vehicle is a history of the Rainhill trials and the illustrious Liverpool and Manchester Railway and as the vehicle is now attached to the library, visitors there can browse the exhibition of historical prints.

0.65

2012

Educations and Arts

Charitable donations/ sponsorship as % pre-tax profit

Regeneration We undertook a large number of refurbishment projects during 2012, which all improve our offer to our customers. Although not necessarily funded in total by Northern, we have worked hard to secure the levels of investment and have been responsible for the delivery of the majority of the projects. Examples of projects, which have all been delivered and funded through the DfT’s National Stations Improvement Project have included: • a £200,000 refurbishment scheme at Workington. Work here included refurbishing the booking hall and the waiting room on platform two, as well as additional seating and a new accessible ticket counter. A public announcement system was also installed throughout the station • a £400,000 refurbishment scheme at Darwen. Work has included improving access and shelters on both platforms, as well as station-wide Customer Information Screens and CCTV. The platforms have also been resurfaced, with the addition of new signage, information boards and fencing. The project was delivered in partnership by Northern Rail, Network Rail and Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council

• a £340,000 refurbishment scheme at Buxton. Work has included renovated toilets, new Customer Information Screens and a station-wide public announcement system, a refreshed ticket hall including a disabled-friendly ticket counter, a new Ticket Vending Machine (TVM) on the platform, an additional waiting shelter on platform one and improved lighting and CCTV throughout. The project was funded by Northern Rail and Derbyshire County Council and provided in partnership with Network Rail • a £430,000 refurbishment scheme at Wigan Wallgate. Work has included a modern renovation of the concourse area, disabled-friendly ticket counters, renovated toilets, a refurbished waiting room, additional Customer Information Screens and seating, improved lighting and an improved station forecourt area. Work to the outside of the station at street level was designed and completed in keeping with a Wallgate street improvement project put together by Wigan Council Funded in partnership with Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM)

• a £600,000 upgrade at Wilmslow, which started in 2012. The work included the refurbishment of the subway as well as the toilets and waiting area. There was also the addition of antislip flooring to the stairs and dual height handrails to the staircases, additional seating on the platforms, and stationwide CCTV installed. Improved cycle storage facilities had already been introduced as an earlier phase of the scheme, funded by Cheshire East Council. The project was funded with a contribution from Cheshire East Council. 17

Social Responsibility 2012 – A year in view

Case study

Social Responsibility 2012 – A year in view

A successful partnership and strong community spirit

Blackrod station was refurbished as part of a £1.145m improvement project. The work, which benefited from two nationally funded schemes – the Department for Transport’s Access for All programme and the National Stations Improvement Programme – also received significant contributions from TfGM and Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council. Step-free access ramps to both platforms are now available to use along with other improvements to facilities and the environment. Both platforms have been resurfaced with new shelters and seating installed.

Customers who cycle will be able to benefit from the new storage facilities and the station has also had CCTV and Customer Information Screens installed throughout. Local students from the Powerwave Skills Centre at Rivington and Blackrod High School produced and supplied some spring planters in partnership with Network Rail and its principal contractor for the project, Arm4. Volunteers from rail user group the Friends of Blackrod station planted flowers, bulbs and shrubs in the handmade planters. Tony Purcell, Head Teacher at Rivington and Blackrod High

School commented: “Our students have thoroughly enjoyed creating the planters for Blackrod station, and to see their planters displayed in the midst of our community is something that we are very proud of. We established the Powerwave Skills Centre to give young people the skills, knowledge and expertise that they needed to embark upon a career in the Construction Industry. The opportunity that they now have to gain an apprenticeship with Arm4 Rail, and access industry training is invaluable. Thank you to all partners, employees and young people who have been involved in helping our students.”

Our students have thoroughly enjoyed creating the planters for Blackrod station.

Marketplace

We are very conscious of the need to provide excellent customer service and value for money, especially when many of us are facing increasing financial pressures. The following sections offer a flavour of where we have been focusing our efforts. Customer Service Customer service is key to all that we do, and we know there are areas where we can improve. However, we continue to work hard in a number of areas providing better information, services, facilities and trains. In 2012, we saw an increasing number of comments from customers expressing their displeasure at very short delays of two or three minutes as they’re not used to them. This wouldn’t have happened 12 months previously, and it shows us that as our train service performance goes up, so do the expectations of our customers, and rightly so. More than anything else it demonstrates the importance of our Challenge 94 project and right time departures. Challenge 94 is an overarching performance improvement plan which also harnesses the engagement of frontline colleagues to deliver performance improvement. A trial service on the Cumbrian Coast was introduced, thanks to Northern colleagues working tirelessly to ensure its success. The trial consisted of two additional trains being resourced and operated by our partners DRS and was aimed at benefiting Sellafield workers, although

other Cumbrian Coast users will benefit too. The initial feedback we received was really positive and we saw a substantial number of additional passengers using this new service. The intention was to maintain the service after the trial and we tried to find a permanent solution, but sadly that wasn’t to be. We continue to find solutions to issues such as improving the cleanliness of our trains for customers. In 2012 we took a twopronged approach: reviewing our cleaning equipment and checking that the chemicals we use are suitable, and training all colleagues to deliver the standards we expect, through a specially commissioned DVD. We started to trial a new washplant with specially commissioned brushes and more environmentally-friendly chemicals. Results have been very positive with improved cleanliness all round. We have always looked at ways to strengthen services for specific events, such as sporting or cultural events such as the Grand National or Tall Ships race, or as mentioned previously the Dales Walk for All. At Christmas in 2011 we introduced additional Saturday evening services between Manchester Victoria and Rochdale to meet the

increase in demand for shopping and entertainment. The service proved really popular so we introduced the additional services on a permanent basis, with two additional services on the route in the evening. Richard Greenwood, Chairman of Rail User Group STORM, said: “We’re really pleased Northern found it possible to fill the two gaps in the Saturday evening service. Over the past three years Northern has been of great benefit to the travelling public.” In 2012 we continued to refurbish and refresh18 trains in our class 156 fleet operating in the north-west, improving the on-board environment. Instantly recognisable by the vibrant purple and blue upholstery, the refreshed trains feature pale purple wall panelling and improved lighting, alongside new carpets, seat repairs, priority seating and improved toilet facilities. The work has been keeping the fleet teams at our Newton Heath Depot busy since May 2010 with each refit of two carriages taking an average of three weeks. You can see how the process unfolded by watching a stop motion clip on Northern Rail’s YouTube channel: youtube.com/watch?v=CARc WEXJ9aA &feature=channel&list=UL

Social Responsibility 2012 – A year in view

Accessibility

Thousands of passengers throughout West Yorkshire have benefited from a £600,000 investment in new customer information systems. Thanks to a partnership between Northern Rail and Metro, 18 stations across West Yorkshire received the installations, offering passengers up-to-the-minute train running information, as and when they need it.

2009

Revenue generation

80.4

2010

20 11

Customer satisfaction (NPS Score)

We are committed to keeping communication channels open with passengers at our smaller stations and continue to look at how we can improve this across the network. The stations that have benefited include Bramley, Castleford, Cross Gates, East Garforth, Fitzwilliam, Hebden Bridge, Horsforth, Knottingley, Micklefield, Moorthorpe, Mytholmroyd, Normanton, Outwood, Pontefract Monkhill, Sandal & Agbrigg, Sowerby Bridge, Todmorden and Woodlesford.

83 2012

80 20

As the difficult economic conditions and impact of austerity measures continue, we are aware that many of our customers face difficult choices when deciding how to spend what money they have. Given that our services are often more cost-effective than other forms of transport, many of our customers are reliant on us continuing to offer good value for money, and we price our products accordingly. Firstly, commuters are often reliant on our services to access work, and we offer discounted season tickets with validities from seven days to a full 12 months, all of which provide substantial discounts compared to the price of day tickets. We also participate in multimodal ticketing schemes around the major cities we serve, ensuring that those customers who are reliant on bus/light rail as well as rail travel can purchase affordable, easy to understand tickets that cover their whole journey.

We are similarly focused on providing good value for money in relation to our off-peak services, and offer a range of discounted tickets that meet the needs of our many different off-peak markets. Over the past 12 months we have developed this range further by introducing Advance tickets on selected routes, with these tickets offering a further discount on already discounted off-peak tickets when purchasing before the day of travel. We sell these tickets through our ticket offices, online, and through a telesales facility, ensuring that the tickets are available to widest cross-section of society possible. Following our launch of online ticket sales in 2011 we developed a new TV advertising campaign to promote the service. We selected a spokesperson to help us promote our messages throughout this campaign (Chris Northern) which ran through the summer of 2012. This was our first foray into TV advertising.

We broadened our presence in the world of social media as a result of the staggering surge in passengers who now turn to social media for information on the journeys they make. We decided to increase the information available so introduced a number of new streams. We now have a well-established Twitter handle @northernrailorg, which continues to offer one-to-one contact with our Customer Relations team as well as sharing live service and disruption updates and instant information direct from Northern Rail Control rooms. We also have Twitter feeds for our recruitment department @northerncareers, promotional offers twitter.com/northernoffers and the press office twitter.com/northernrailpr. No social media package would be complete without a Facebook page facebook.com/northernrailorg, where our customers can go for news and ticket deals. We also updated the ‘travel tools’ section of our website northernrail.org To keep customers updated in as many ways as possible we launched an app for the iPhone. The app is free to download and allows passengers to plan any journey in Great Britain, check live running time information and saves details of up to 20 previous journeys, making it quick and easy for passengers to find the information most relevant to them. Our customers are also able to purchase tickets through the app, which automatically finds the cheapest available tickets for any journey across the country. Customers can collect their tickets from over 1,000 stations 15 minutes after purchase, with no hidden charges, such as booking or credit card fees. There are plans in place to roll-out a version for android phones soon.

Complaints/100,000 journeys

2010

2011

31 30 2009

Improved information services

2012

Case study

Marketplace

Stakeholder perception We continued our tradition of holding ‘thank you’ events for our stakeholders during the summer: • Keighley and Worth Valley Railway • Heritage event at Edge Hill, near Liverpool • Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway • Midland Railway Centre at Butterley. These events are really important for us because they give us an opportunity to show how much we value and appreciate the support given to Northern by our wide range of stakeholders and partners. 21

Social Responsibility 2012 – A year in view

People

Employee Perception and Employee Engagement Engagement of our people continues to grow each year, and we see this in the results of our employee engagement survey. All respondents replied to the majority of questions in a very positive way (ie agree or strongly agree). It’s great to see that our people are so engaged and we will continue to work on sustaining and/or improving levels of engagement for our people by making Northern a better place to work and be. Our efforts in previous years to improve life at Northern for our people has resulted in Northern being the most engaged TOC for the third year running. Our highest scoring engagement questions in 2012 include: • Safety is important at Northern • I have received the training I need to perform the job I am doing

Our people make Northern the company that it is. We are, therefore, committed to making sure that not only do we recruit the right people, but we make sure they can continue to develop throughout their time with us.

• At work, individual differences are respected irrespective of race, gender, disability, age or sexual orientation. Engagement is always very high on our agenda, with a wide range of activities being undertaken across our network to help make Northern a positive experience for employees and customers.

Some of the activities that have contributed to our high engagement scores include: • Range of employee benefits such as Personal Group Benefits, Passport to Travel, Health Checks, Saving Schemes • My Management intranet site improvements to better support our managers • Work environment improvements to create a more comfortable, safe and improved working environment • Your Say Live sessions throughout the network. We encourage colleagues to apply for internal roles. In 2012, 360 roles were advertised internally, of which 207 were filled by internal applicants. Of those filled internally 62% were a vertical/promotional career move and 38% were a lateral move. Recognition of a job well done is also vital to our approach to employee engagement. We set up a scheme called ‘Vital Sparks’ where we invite colleagues to offer solutions to some of the problems we are facing. We have been delighted with the response we have had.

Recognition of a job well done is vital to our approach to employee engagement. 22

Social Responsibility 2012 – A year in view

People

Case study

It’s great Northern came to visit our little town. I’ve been given some sound advice...

Management Training

One of the courses we run is ‘Coaching for Success’. As well as training managers to be budding new coaches, we also invited volunteers to come along and be coached by the trainees. We have had an encouraging response from both the trainee coaches and the volunteers. “An extremely worthwhile session.” “My coach was genuinely interested in my development areas and in what I had to say.”

Skills and Talent We are always looking at ways to ensure we attract the right skills into the organisation, develop skills and identify talent among our employees, and encourage others to give the rail industry a try. We have a People Development team looking at all those issues. The first stage is to recruit the right people into the business, so we often hold recruitment events in specific areas across the network. For example, working alongside our Community Ambassadors and Job Centre Plus, our Recruitment team held an open day at Farnworth Community Centre to talk to local people about employment opportunities. The small community near Bolton has higher than average unemployment levels so was an excellent location for our Recruitment team to help local residents. They gave tips on career choices, application processes, interviews and CV writing. The event was 24

a great success; helping people find employment and raising Northern’s profile. Of the hundred people who attended, many didn’t realise the range of roles we recruit for or appreciate how conveniently located they were to apply for any of our Manchester-based vacancies. In the words of one resident, ‘It’s great Northern came to visit our little town. I’ve been given some sound advice and know you’ve helped me improve my chances of getting back into work.” Developing talent once in the business is also key to our success. So, we teamed up with an external provider, Tribal Group, to offer a selection of fully funded NVQs to our employees. The courses have to be completed in their own time, but are perfect for those interested in self development. The partnership gives employees access to a range of fully accredited,

national qualifications which on completion can boost confidence, support career development and enhance skills. The studying is completed by distance learning, enabling our employees to fit the learning around work and home life. Most of the qualifications are pitched at ‘Level 2 Certificate’ which is the equivalent of a GCSE grade A-C.

The course enables managers to proactively support the performance and development of their people by helping them to find their own approaches and solutions which really work for them. The programme is part of a wider initiative to promote

both employee and leadership development and to unlock the potential of our people. The practical nature of the programme requires real-life learners for our coaches to practise their coaching skills on. This creates a fantastic opportunity for individuals to receive free, focused and intensive development coaching to really inform their personal development. Step Up – our programme for first line managers was externally accredited by the Institute for Leadership and Management. Attendees now receive a Level 2 award in Team Leading. In 2012 we had 22 attendees successfully complete the qualification. Step Up is designed for new and existing team leaders or supervisors who wish to develop their core skills. The programme

is a collection of interactive workshops and development activities spread over three days. It is designed to form a foundation of core-skills which can be enhanced with practical application in any role.

My coach was genuinely interested in my development areas and in what I had to say.

We’ve been working with the TSSA and Unite unions and the City of Sunderland College to develop a range of skills-for-life courses to benefit Northern colleagues. This unique approach is all about pooling resources to improve the lives of employees by focusing on skills such as numeracy and literacy. It was, therefore, a great honour for everyone involved in the project when Stephen Hughes MEP visited Heaton Depot to present Northern colleagues with their literacy and numeracy National Test certificates. 25

Social Responsibility 2012 – A year in view

People

Not only do we work hard to improve our colleagues’ skills, we also look outside the organisation.

Stuart Huntley – Engineering

Simon Crabtree, Outstations Production Manager West, worked with Blackpool and Fylde College to help train the long-term unemployed wanting to return to work. With Simon’s help, they have been working towards nationally recognised qualifications and many of them have successfully applied for Train Presentation vacancies with us.

Turnover (%)

2012

0.23

We also have had a number of students on placement, and you can read their stories below:

Kyle MacNeill – Environmental Management

The placement was really varied. I conducted audits, worked on communications and worked with environmental volunteers to deliver local projects. I also learnt other business skills that I would not have been taught at university such as engaging with colleagues, conducting 26

and documenting meetings and practical personal development and confidence building. I feel that without my experience at Northern I would not have entered my final year of university with as much knowledge in the subject area or gained the professional skills I would need when I started work. My favourite part of the placement was working with the Environmental Champions. This was particularly rewarding when people told me that the time they spent working with me had been useful to them. Like with anything there are ups and downs. The greatest challenge is always with engagement, as we have

a lot of employees spread over a wide geographical area. I was particularly proud of the work I did to arrange a campaign of activities for World Environment Day. For me though, the levels of engagement could have been higher to have achieved an even better result. Following the placement I returned for my third year and came out with a first class degree! My time at Northern had confirmed that I wanted to work in corporate environmental management. Luckily a position became vacant at Northern and after graduating I applied for it and was successful. I now work as the Environmental Assurance Manager, and I am enjoying it very much.

2011

2010

0.2

Since starting the placement I feel I have learnt a huge amount. Having never worked in such a big company it has given me a much better understanding of the various functions and organisation needed to make a business work. My worst experience was that I did not know how Northern goes about things, such as certain procedures and how to complete things, which I have to admit left me panicking on occasion. However, from

this I have gained confidence in my ability and know now that if I am ever unsure about anything, I only have to ask. In my opinion my best experience has been meeting the team and being trusted to complete the various challenges, which have all helped my development. The team at Northern has been very welcoming and helpful, with advice and new ideas, giving me a different perspective on things. I feel I fitted into the team well and even competed on the Engineering five-a-side football team. I have greatly valued my time at Northern and am grateful for the opportunity to gain such valuable experience. After my experience, and finishing my degree I would now very much like a career in the rail industry due to the large amount of diversity involved, although I still have ambitions to work in the motorsport industry at some point in my career.

0.3 2009

When I was in my second year of a BSc Environmental Management degree at Salford University, I approached Northern to ask whether they would consider offering me an industry placement year. I was asked along to an informal interview with the Head of Sustainability and EMS Project Manager. Luckily the interview went well and I was offered a 12-month placement with the environmental team.

I had completed two years at Huddersfield University studying Motorsport Technology and was lucky enough to start a 12-month placement year with Northern Rail in September 2012. I was brought into the engineering department with the specific aim of looking at reducing fuel use on trains. My main role in the placement has been to get a good understanding of how much fuel the company uses and which fleets are the best and worst performing.

Social Responsibility 2012 – A year in view

Social Responsibility 2012 – A year People in view

Ethnicity (%)

We were very proud to be the main sponsor for York’s Northern Pride 2012, an event which celebrates the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) culture and raises awareness of its issues. Northern employees and members of the LGBT forum, Trainbow UK, attended and hosted a stall. All Trainbow UK members attended a variety of Pride events across the North during the summer to promote Northern Rail to the LGBT community.

Case study

2010

2011

2.74 2012

2.24

2.95

At a diversity and inclusion conference held for our employees two of our

Case study

A NEAT promotion

It was a busy 2012 for members of the Northern Ethnicity in AcTion forum (NEAT). They took part in a range of media opportunities to engage the Black and Minority Ethnic audience in service provision while promoting Northern as a local employer. Lee Wasnidge, Area Director West and Mo Malik, Liverpool Avantix clerk, attended a live TV interview on the Islamic UK-based Noor TV channel (broadcasting throughout Europe, Africa,

Middle East and many parts of Asia) where they hosted a number of questions from the TV audience. Lee; Janine Hinson, Recruitment Advisor, and Sultana Jamil, Community Ambassador, also spoke on a slot hosted by Rochdale’s own community station, Crescent Radio. Surj Puee, a Leeds-based Driver featured on a radio programme with Fever FM, a community radio station working for South Asian communities in Leeds, West Yorkshire. The

station serves all South Asian communities in the city and works across the cultures and faith groups, aiming to bring the whole community together. Mansur Khan, a Leeds-based Conductor and Chair of the NEAT forum, and his colleague Mohammed Ilyas, attended the Manchester Mega Mela event in August to promote Northern in the community. In the same month, Maxine Burke, a Leedsbased Conductor, attended the Leeds Carnival to do the same.

Women driver applications on the right track

Think of a stereotypical ‘train driver’ and traditionally it conjures up nostalgic images of Thomas the Tank Engine, greasy overalls and young boys playing with mechanical train sets, but we are predicting a definite shift in that perception. We have seen a record number of women apply for our train driver vacancies between 2011 and 2012, with an increase from 5% to 17% in the number of female applicants putting themselves forward to drive trains across the North of England. Tracie Wing, a Driver out of Blackpool North stations said: “I love this job for many reasons. I get to see plenty of daylight during winter, when most of my friends are stuck behind a desk. At times it can feel like I am my own boss as I am working my shift, driving my train and in complete control. The pay is excellent and I get to work varied hours allowing me to see more of my family than I would in a traditional 9 to 5 role. The banter with the team is something I really enjoy and would encourage any woman to consider doing this; we are just as capable as the guys!” Adrian Thompson, HR Director for Northern, comments: “We are delighted to see more women applying to become train drivers. The role is certainly a challenging one,

requiring great concentration and knowledge to learn all the routes and mechanical aspects of the different types of train we use, and is as well suited to women as it is to men. “A well paid role, with a host of benefits including final salary pension, is obviously appealing and no doubt due to the recession, some women are opening themselves up to more diverse roles than before.” Train driver roles are always popular when they are advertised due to the high salary (trainee starts at £17k, rising up to £40k when qualified). Since 2009, Northern has seen a growth in female applicants across the business, growing from 11% to 15.5%. Mick Whelan ASLEF (Driver Union) General Secretary, added: “Northern has shown a commitment to changing the traditional perception of the rail industry as an employer. The company has made it a priority to recruit more women and ethnic minorities to roles within the company. While there is still some way to go until we have railway depots that reflect the communities in which they are based, ASLEF applauds the efforts that Northern has made.”

2009

13.16 2010

12.88

13.6

Female employees (%)

We run a Women in Northern (WIN) programme which aims to provide women with an opportunity to network with other colleagues and provides time to focus on self development. This initiative will aid empowerment and connect people to opportunities. WIN was originally developed for Northern managers, but the aim is now to engage frontline employees too.

conductors Mansur Khan and Mohammed Ilyas explained that there was a lack of prayer facilities at Leeds station and asked us if we could do anything to help. They mentioned that such facilities are available at Carlisle and Preston and felt that our colleagues at Leeds would benefit from something similar. So with the help of other colleagues we found a vacant room that could be made into a prayer and quiet room. So a bit of a refresh was arranged and after a lick of paint and a new carpet the new facility was soon ready. Mansur and Mohammed are delighted with the new room and have said that it’s already being well used by colleagues.

2009

Diversity and Inclusion

2012

13.71 29

Social Responsibility 2012 – A year in view

Employee volunteering

Huw Davies, Class Engineer from York

We have so many stories of employees giving up their own time, or time during work to assist any number of good causes, and it is always difficult to select which we should showcase. The examples below are just a few of the great things our employees got up to during 2012, and as always we are proud of all our colleagues who undertake challenges that demand time, physical or emotional resources.

People

Case study

York Cares

Northern has been heavily involved with York Cares since 2009, with a number of our colleagues getting involved in several ways. During 2012, Simon Godfrey from our Commercial team and Colton Hyde, a Station Supervisor, worked with a York school to show children what the working day of a conductor is like. A visit to Harrogate station and an opportunity to announce arrivals and departures of trains went down very well with customers, employees and children. This is a very popular event enjoyed by those who give their time and by the children and employees. Sadly Simon passed away earlier this year – his hard work and enthusiasm for helping young people through York Cares will not be forgotten as Colton Hyde and Elissa Robinson also in the Commercial team will continue with this module. Simon was awarded a special “Golden Moments Award” this year (2013) which was received by his children at a York Cares Awards Evening. This award recognises those who have gone the extra mile to help, and we are all very proud of what Simon achieved.

We also help out with ‘The Right to Read’. Colleagues give up their lunch times to go into schools during term time each week to sit and listen to children read. Those involved in 2012 were Claire Daniels, Becky Daniels and Emma Hind. All say how much they enjoy it and would like to continue helping. Through their enthusiasm others are wanting to offer their time and support. In September, a team from Finance undertook a full day working on the ‘Poppleton Community Challenge’ module. This involved clearing vegetation in and around Poppleton station and Poppleton Nursery. Aches and pains and a few scratches were all worthwhile when they stood back and looked at the results. Everyone enjoyed working together on a different challenge to the normal working day and said they would like to do it again. In December we took part in the Christmas Collection of gifts to give to a charity nominated by York Cares. Gifts were generously given by colleagues and were gratefully received by Arc Light, a residential home for the homeless.

Sledding for a good cause

Two members of our Safety and Assurance team, Emma Hind and Maggie Whittaker spent two years preparing for a 250km sledding experience in the Arctic. Their preparations included both physical fitness and raising £8,000 for Barnardo’s with a whole range of activities including raffles, bucket collections, a charity gig and even a naked calendar. They chose Barnado’s because of its 400 projects around the

Shay Walker, Conductor at Manchester Piccadilly, wanted to find a way that his running could benefit others as well as himself so has entered the 2012 London Marathon in aid of St James’s Hospital, Leeds. He chose the charity because his fatherin-law received life-saving transplant surgery here in 2009. St James’s is the leading transplant hospital in the north of England, treating adults and children, some of whom are born needing transplants to survive.

UK which help over 100,000 vulnerable children and their families every year. The challenge saw them spending up to 14 hours a day sledding. Every evening they had to make camp, tend to their huskies and make dinner before finally getting some sleep in the minus 30 degree temperatures. In their words: “Thank you to everyone who has sponsored and supported us over the past

John Midgley, Conductor at Leeds, undertook a 300-mile cycle ride to raise funds for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance and Huddersfield Town Academy. He trained with fans, players and employees of Huddersfield Town Football for the event which went from Yeovil to the Galpharm Stadium in Huddersfield for the final game of the season. His own aim was to raise £1,000 to add to the £150,000 already donated. He explained that the YAA is such a worthy charity, providing a life-saving rapid response service to five million people across Yorkshire.

two years. It’s hard to put this experience into words. It was thrilling, exhausting, absolutely freezing and the hardest thing either of us has ever done. We spent three hours each morning and evening looking after the dogs, organising camp and ensuring we had some warm food and drink – not easy in freezing temperatures and three feet of snow! Would we do it again? Absolutely, with one condition – sleeping in a bed.”

Members of the Engineering team abseiled from a city centre building in Leeds on behalf of Leeds Mencap, a charity that has been supported by our engineering team at the Neville Hill Depot for some years.

We are all very proud of what Simon achieved.

Social Responsibility 2012 – A year in view

People

We believe that recognition of colleagues going that extra mile is vital to not only their self worth but also improving the service we offer to customers. So we run a competition to find who should be our Northern Stars.

In 2012 a caring Conductor from Liverpool won our highest accolade in customer service. Eddie Burns, a Conductor at Liverpool Lime Street station was named ‘Northern Star of the Year’ after he stepped in to help a customer with a life threatening illness at St Helens Central. Recognising instantly that the customer in need was unwell, Eddie acted with great calmness by making sure he was safe and getting him the urgent medical assistance he needed. With an estimated 285 million people living with diabetes globally, Eddie identified this was the cause of the customer’s problems and fetched him a glass of warm milk and sugar to stop him slipping into unconsciousness. Not only did Eddie have the aptitude and capacity for kindness to care for this customer on the day, and not content with his valiant efforts he later phoned the man’s wife

Many of our colleagues are also nominated for awards both inside and outside the rail industry. Here are our 2012 winners. Nicola Hosty, Head of HR Support Services for Northern was awarded the ‘Rail Manager of the Year’ title at the 2012 RailStaff Awards. She works with our 4,900 employees to spearhead our diversity and inclusion programme across the business. Nicola’s work to promote minority groups both within the company and the wider industry, is what gained attention from the judges. Nicola, from Methley in Leeds has worked for Northern for six years and for the railways since she was 16. She says: “The award was totally unexpected and I was so pleased to receive it, especially as I was nominated by my colleagues on the TrainbowUK team. We work to change the culture both within and outside of the company to bring positive improvements to individuals’ professional and personal circumstances.”

to inquire after him and also received a phone call from the man himself, to personally thank him for averting what could well have been a disaster. Eddie has worked for Northern at Liverpool Lime Street for nine years and won over the judges with this fantastic example of thinking on your feet and an amazing display of human kindness. Our judges were bowled over by the combination of quick thinking and compassion that Eddie showed.

Eddie won a £4,000 luxury holiday for his selfless act and said: “I think I only did what anyone would do in that situation! I’m always keeping an eye on every single one of my customers, so it’s a real treat to be honoured for doing my job. I’d like to thank everyone who nominated me, the judges who chose me as their Northern Star and to my colleagues, customers and friends. I’m really looking forward to my holiday!”

Colleagues who nominated Nicola stated: “Nicola is dedicated, professional, trustworthy, patient and accessible at all times on a professional and private basis and should be commended for all her hard work and dedication. I’ve never worked with someone so enthusiastic about changing the way people see the railway industry.”

Martyn Guiver, Head of Crime Management was awarded the ‘In-House Security Manager of the Year’ title at the 2012 Security Excellence Awards after helping reduce crime across the Northern network. The award was presented to Martyn who beat off tough competition from eight other nominees, all of whom demonstrated excellence and inspiration in their role. Judges praised Martyn for reducing costs while improving quality, developing the concept for Northern to take on ownership of CCTV at its stations from Network Rail: an industry first. Martyn said: “My team and I have worked hard to get Northern to where it is today. We have had to be creative

Mohammed Ilyas, a Conductor and RMT Union Learning Representative (ULR) in Leeds, won the Regional ULR Award at the Unionlearn Yorkshire and Humber Regional Conference. He was presented with his award by MP Hilary Benn, in recognition of his achievements during the past year. Mohammed has helped more than 30 colleagues

and innovative with limited resources to get results and we’ve achieved a couple of industry firsts along the way. For example, we are the only TOC in UK to have a mobile CCTV unit capable of being deployed instantly to any location. This is a key tool for special events, sports matches and stations with no CCTV. We are also the only TOC to own the CCTV assets. All the rest are Network Rail owned. Having it in-house has reduced maintenance costs by 40% per annum and also ensured new schemes could be delivered at a fraction of the cost previously realised. Reducing crime on our network with my rail response officers has really been my biggest triumph and it is so satisfying to see all our hard work recognised.”

improve their computer skills and gain qualifications in literacy and numeracy. His dedication to the ULR role is really valued by Northern colleagues because they often find it difficult to attend courses due to their shift patterns. However, Mohammed overcomes these barriers by setting up flexible learning programmes that suit everyone.

Nicola Hosty

Newcastle Driver Scott Gaunt was a worthy winner at the Serco Global Pulse Awards. Scott received his accolade to a standing ovation when the audience heard about his ‘truly selfless act of courage’ which saw him stop his train and save the life of someone he’d spotted on the opposite track. The Pulse award was presented by Chris Hyman, Chief Executive of our parent company Serco Group plc.

Social Responsibility 2012 – A year in view

Safety and security Safety and security continues to be a major focus for Northern and in 2012 we made some good progress in a number of areas, as can be seen in the data provided in section 7.

Customer Safety and Personal Security We address customer safety in a number of ways, by improving the environment around our stations and buildings and on trains to increase the feeling of wellbeing, by increasing the human presence, eg the Rail Response teams, and by raising awareness of the issue of safety among the community.

2012

Employee accidents/ 1,000 employees

79.24

Customer accidents /million customer journeys

3.78

2012

Safety and security

Education and awareness raising can take many forms. Interestingly, our ongoing sponsorship of the Northern Rail Cup has opened up opportunities to support our communities in the area of public safety. Sadly, trespass on the railway is an increasing risk and our trains and stations are sometimes involved in serious, often fatal incidents, despite the best efforts of our people to avoid them. So it’s encouraging news that we’re starting to work more closely with the Samaritans and Network Rail on an industrywide initiative to reduce these incidents on the railway. We’re also leading the way through a number of community safety activities to educate children – raising their awareness of the dangers and discouraging trespass on the railway. One of these schemes has seen thousands of school children educated in rail safety through a rugby league-endorsed engagement programme. We set up a nine a-side tournament for schools in the north-west of England, which was open to pupils aged 11 to 15. The schools received two short rail safety DVDs, which are endorsed by John Duffy, captain of the 2011 Northern Rail Cup Winners,

Leigh Centurions. Most of the schools reported that they’ve shown the DVDs to all their pupils, meaning that up to 250,000 young people have been educated in rail safety. “We’re delighted to be working in partnership with the Rugby Football League to promote both rugby league and rail safety in schools across north-west England,” said Gary Stewart, Safety and Assurance Director. David Wilkinson, our Community Safety Manager spends much of his time working in partnership with the community, through

schools and colleges to spread the message. Pupils at Pinfold Primary School in Hattersley had the chance to question David about railway safety. Along with the Friends of Hattersley Group and Station Manager Theo McLauchlan, David spoke to the children about rail safety and explained the dangers that are at stations. The children were asked what they could do to keep safe and there was a ‘question time’ with prizes up for grabs. The assembly was a great success with all of the children taking the opportunity to find out more about the railway. 35

Social Responsibility 2012 – A year in view

Safety and security

Category A SPADS/million train miles

2012

0.49

Occupational health and safety

Case study

Approximately two-thirds of all accidents that occur in Northern are as a result of unsafe behaviour. Behavioural safety is not a quick win subject. Not only does it require all-round commitment, it requires patience and determination to succeed.

CCTV at Greenbank

A number of stations either had upgraded or new CCTV systems installed. An example is Greenbank, a busy station on the Mid Cheshire line, which benefited from a £25,000 investment with the introduction of a new CCTV system, funded in partnership with Cheshire West and Chester Council. Lee Wasnidge, Area Director for Northern Rail commented: “We’re committed to improving passenger journeys and in turn, the station facilities they use. Early signs are that the newly installed CCTV system is already deterring antisocial behaviour and this improved security will help us boost customer confidence. We’re thrilled to have the vital support of Cheshire West and Chester Council for this project.” Councillor Keith Musgrave said: “I am delighted that we have been able to play a part in bringing this state-of-the-art CCTV system to Greenbank station. By covering all parts of the station, the cameras will help passengers to feel safe and deter antisocial behaviour.”

2012

1.60

Employee assaults/million customer journeys 36

Engagement with our colleagues is an important way of spreading the safety message, listening to concerns and looking at how other businesses tackle the same issues that we face. We undertook a Safety Culture Survey to hear from colleagues about what they feel about what we are doing and what could be done to improve our safety record. We held a Senior Manager Safety Workshop in April 2012, with guest speakers from the Office of Rail Regulation discussing their role, and their expectations from Northern, plus colleagues from Merseyrail discussing how they are tackling safety issues. These type of events help us to develop focused action plans for improvement.

Case study

Behavioural Safety Campaign

To try to reduce accidents, we developed a campaign to address the subject of behavioural safety in an attempt to make a serious step change. This is all about choice. We wanted our colleagues to understand that they have to make a personal and conscious choice to change their behaviour for the safety and welfare of both themselves and their colleagues.

understanding of how unsafe acts may occur Analysis: to objectively identify systemic drivers of unsafe behaviour and to allow for targeted recommendations for improvement. These pillars are supported by the following KSBs:

Being careful where you put your hands and head to avoid trapping

Not walking past a hazard if you see one, do something about it

Awareness: to increase understanding and reduce resistance

Using the correct lifting and load handling techniques

Management: to lead by example and support the process

Using handrails when on the stairs or getting on/off trains

We developed a six-pillar framework which sits on five Key Safety Behaviours (KSBs).

Ownership: to increase participation and develop commitment to continuous improvement Measurement: to provide a proactive means of measuring daily safety performance Feedback: to recognise and praise good safety performance and seek

Stations with Secure Station status

2012

Using the correct personal protection equipment.

The campaign has been running since 2011. In 2012 the campaign included safety roadshows, the development of an online game to test safety knowledge, plus a contest for colleagues’ children to design posters that demonstrated the five key safe behaviours.

Social Responsibility 2012 – A year in view

Safety and security

Financial support to Rail Response Team (£)

2012

603,000 AntiSocial behaviour Following an unwelcome spate of vandalism in recent years, passengers at Blackpool South station now have a brand new shelter on their platform. After the shelter was burnt down we invested much needed funds in a refurbishment project. Craig Harrop, our Client and Stakeholder Manager describes the work that has taken place: “Just over £3,000 has been invested back into Blackpool South station which has included a fresh coat of paint, new poster cases, refurbished seating and of course, a brand new shelter for passengers to use.” We are continuing to look at ways to improve the station environment for our passengers and have recently set up a working group with Blackpool Council, the Community Rail Partnership and Network Rail that will look to involve local communities, businesses and schools in enhancing the station and surrounding area. With the help of Network Rail we also cleared the fly tipping that was an eyesore on the station embankment. Cable theft continued to be a major cause of delays on 38

the railway. Not only is it a criminal activity that causes disruption to our services, incurs costs for cable replacement but it is a seriously stupid act that endangers lives. In 2012 Operation Tornado began to combat the increasing problem of metal theft. The trial scheme was launched by Lord Henley, Minister for Crime Prevention and Antisocial Behaviour Reduction, and involved scrap metal recyclers throughout North East England. The scheme required anyone selling scrap metal to participating dealers in Northumbria, Durham and Cleveland to provide proof of identity with a photo card. At the moment, a seller doesn’t have to provide any ID so there’s no record of any transaction and we can’t trace where the metal has come from. The trial lasted for six months and in the trial areas Durham and Cleveland police reported a 55% reduction in offences, Northumbria police around 40% and the British Transport Police (BTP) around 60% reduction. After the success of the trial, it has been rolled out across many local police forces. We’re delighted that cable

theft is now being tackled at the highest level and hope that through everyone working together we will have fewer delays due to signalling problems caused by stolen cable. We have continued to work with various groups to engage and raise awareness of the disruption caused by antisocial behaviour. For example, Bradford-based charity ‘The Lighthouse Group’, Pupil Referral Unit (PRU) took part in making a rail safety awareness video. In the UK, a Pupil Referral Unit (PRU) is a centre for children who are not able to attend mainstream school for any period for reasons such as illness or exclusion from school. PRUs offer a basic curriculum which includes English, Mathematics, the Sciences, Personal Social Health Education and Integrated Computer Technology and is legally a type of school which can be inspected by Ofsted. It was hoped that supporting diversionary activities such as making rail safety messages will prevent boredom that young people often cite as a reason for trespassing on the tracks and committing antisocial behaviour.

Schools signed up to Schools Charter

2012

Case study

Students help with safety messages

For the third year running we worked in partnership with the ‘Life Channel’ and the University of Central Lancashire to make a series of short railsafety films. We have had two films created so far – ‘Drinking and Transport’ and ‘Yellow Line, Life – it’s worth the wait’. The latter was screened for two months on the Life Channel to a potential audience of just under half a million young people in the north of England. The film was written by a BA (Hons)

Screenwriting student, Sorrell Blammon, and received good national publicity. The film was played continuously at the Rail Safety and Standards Board Annual Forum, an event held in London that is attended by delegates from all parts of the rail industry. Sorrell graduated with first class honours! Both films can be seen on YouTube. The winner of the 2012 competition was Screenwriting student Sam Picone, with a script about fare evasion.

Social Responsibility 2012 – A year in view

Monitoring progress

2009

Monitoring progess 2009

2010

2011

2012

375,635

339,506

348,812

Scope 1 emissions (tonnes)

123,469

124,728

122,125

128,158

Scope 2 emissions (tonnes)

37,498

33,093

32,611

34,816

Scope 3 emissions (tonnes)

268,106

217,814

184,770

185,838

217

188

163

164

68.53

67.89

64.6

65.82

486,926,721

478,744,459

476,563,114

503,188,957

Whole life Carbon footprint (gCO2e ppkm) Traction energy – gasoil (gCO2 ppkm) Traction energy gasoil and electricity (kWh) Gasoil consumption litres/ vehicle mile

0.71

0.72

0.71

Engineering waste (tonnes)

1,260

1,484

2,135

1,990

Engineering waste recycled (%)

385*

1,105

1,127

953

329,084

349,855

4,514

Station waste (tonnes) Station waste recycled (%) Water used (m3) Water recycled (m3)

2012 target

91.6

90.8

91.8

DDA enhancements to date (£000) Charitable donations/ sponsorship as % pre-tax profit

Progress

85,268

85,207

89,825

91,000

Average fare/journey (£)

2.08

2.13

2.21

2.41

Customer satisfaction (NPS Score)

80.4

Customer complaints

25,051

27,186

23,034

25,985

Value of inward investment to date (£000)

91.3

0.64

0.65

Progress

89,600

132,000 29,982

40,169

38,529

38,479

EBITA (£000)

33,304

42,166

39,672

39,394

18.8

23.2

19.94

18.2

Number of employees

4,725

4,722

4,853

4,880

4,933

Employee Engagement Scores (EES)

646

680

700

723

700

EES – Line of sight

133

137

142

148

EES – Operating culture

125

132

133

139

EES – Reward

122

130

136

140

EES – Work environment

135

140

142

146

EES – Development

132

142

148

150

Absence rate (%)

5.5

4.9

4.8

4.5

Turnover (%)

0.6

0.3

0.2

0.23

0.3

Female employees (%)

13.16

12.88

13.6

13.71

13.65

Ethnicity (%)

1.86

2.24

2.74

2.95

Employee accidents/ 1,000 employees

96.29

97.06

84.62

79.24

83.59

Employee assaults/million customer journeys

2.18

1.87

1.75

1.60

1.57

Customer accidents/ million customer journeys

4.91

4.34

3.8

3.78

3.80

Category A SPADS/million train miles

0.68

0.79

0.6

0.49

0.64

550,000

600,000

603,000

604,000

Car parks with Park Mark

Schools signed up to Schools Charter

PEOPLE 159

92.1

8,451

0.83

2012 target

Profit before tax (£000)

EBITA (%)

COMMUNITY Trains on time (PPM)

2012

Passenger journeys (000)

Complaints/100,000 journeys 429,073

2011

MARKETPLACE

ENVIRONMENT Total Carbon Footprint (tonnes)

2010

0.6

SAFETY AND SECURITY

Financial support to Rail Response team (£) Stations with Secure Station status