Your Northern 60

issue60 m a r c h 2 012

Your

Your

3

Railsport Games

8

Our Vital Spark scheme

YOUR COVER STAR Graham Blake from Holmes Chapel station

SLaivye Say

9

Corporate Season Ticket scheme

16

Your questions answered

and much more...

your sneak peek

regular news and views on everything northern

upfront m arc h 2 0 12

Dear colleague, This month we attended a workshop with colleagues from across Network Rail to discuss projects and ideas for this year and look at ways in which we can work together to bring the improvements our customers expect.

Y

ou’ll remember from our recent special brief that we’ve created an alliance between our two organisations which means we work together on projects to bring efficiencies and deliver more benefits for our customers. We’re delighted with what we’ve already achieved together:

significant improvements in punctuality of our trains; improved facilities at stations; and the opening of Allerton Depot on Merseyside. colleagues at Allerton depot

We’re delighted with what we’ve already achieved together.

performance level for our customers.

Colleagues in Engineering achieved a franchise first for reliability (see page 14) and overall 93.1% of our trains arrived on time against a target of 91.8% PPM, a significant improvement on this time last year. Thank you to everyone involved and keep up the great work!

We’re confident that through working together and working smarter not harder we’ll see even more benefits for our customers – we’ll let you know about our projects and how we’re getting on through Your Northern during this year.

Have a good month,

Finally, thank you to every one for all their efforts over the last period that meant we delivered an excellent

Steve Butcher

Ian Bevan

Chief Operating Officer Managing Director

performance dashboard customer service

� In the past month

� Presentation

fleet

our target

90

89.8 90.0

89

� Fleet reliability (miles per casualty) MONTH

service

% 87 85.7 85.7 JAN

FEB

JAN

TRAIN

MONTH

84

7,500

8,000

� Days availability

86

� In the past year

7,115 miles

MILES / CASUALTY 7,000

88

85

8,015 miles

MP C MP C M A A

FEB

STATION

JANUARY

FEBRUARY

DAYS 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

safety � Customer � Employee

worse than target

� Failures to call and SPADs ACCIDENTS

FAILURES TO CALL

ASSAULTS

0 on target

better than target

1

2

SPADS

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10 11 12 13 14

you! it’s all a bout

Olympics Get ready to celebrate the Olympic and Paralympic Games and make the 2012 Games local for you, your family and your community.

Games

Entries are now open for this year’s Railsport Games, which take place in Blackpool on 23 and 24 June.

Check the Special Brief on noticeboards or the intranet for details of how to enter.

I

f you’re excited about London 2012 and want to celebrate with friends, family and neighbours, then there’s loads of help available.

Simply sign up to be a Local Leader at www.london2012.com/ localleaders and whether you invite a couple of friends or your whole community, you’ll be provided with everything you need to make your celebration the one they talk about for years.

Becoming a Local Leader is really simple; just pick an occasion and get planning. You can create your own events or if you need some inspiration, have a look at the ideas below that have been suggested.

Whatever you decide to do, sign up for Local Leader emails and over the next few months you’ll receive things like planning guides, ‘save the date’ cards, decoration ideas and exclusive offers.

To find out more, visit www.london2012.com/localleaders and start getting everyone in the mood to celebrate.

A We’re delighted to offer you the chance to receive 20% off the normal ticket prices for the Rugby League magic weekend in Manchester on 26 and 27 May.

T

he Etihad Stadium in Manchester will host a full round of Super League fixtures in May when Rugby League’s Magic Weekend moves to the home of Manchester City FC. Local rivalries will again take centre stage and as we’re a Rugby Football League (RFL) partner, you have the opportunity to watch all the action at a discounted price.

Here’s the list of who’s playing who and when: Date

Fixture

Kick-off

26 May

Castleford Tigers v Wakefield Wildcats

1pm

26 May

Warrington Wolves v Widnes Vikings

4pm

26 May

Hull FC v Hull KR

7pm

27 May

Catalan Dragons v London Broncos

12pm

27 May

Huddersfield Giants v Salford City Reds

2pm

27 May

Bradford Bulls v Leeds Rhinos

4pm

27 May

St Helens v Wigan Warriors

6pm

To take advantage of this exclusive offer you need to call the RFL ticket office on 0844 856 1113 and quote Partner 2012, or visit www.rugbyleaguetickets.co.uk and use promotional code PARTNER2012.

Our discounted ticket offer closes at 5pm on Friday 18 May so make sure you book early.

MARCH / 3

talking customer

Thanks to you! ely letters that our Here's some of the lov en in because they've be customers have sent ... em th ce you've given delighted with the servi

Re : More than words “Please pass on my thanks to your colleagues at Huyton Station for really excellent customer service.

I dropped my bag in the station and didn’t notice it was missing until I was on the train.

A Northern employee TER called me on my mobile almost immediately, having tracked me down through my library books. Amazing service, thanks.”

STAR LET

Re: Kept informed “When I caught the 16.57 service from Leeds to Doncaster, the train stopped and we were told there would be a short delay due to a signal failure further down the line. The conductor kept us regularly informed of every update and walked through the carriages, checking people were okay and even offering the use of a phone so that they could contact family members to let them know of the delay. This was excellent customer service and he’s a credit to your company.”

emails Ms P J

Re : New belief “When I left my laptop on the train I was distraught and reported it to Simon at the ticket desk in Newton-le-Willows. He swiftly contacted the next station and I was reunited with my laptop in less than 20 minutes at St Helens Junction, when Stuart kindly handed it over. I’m so grateful and have newfound belief in the universal kindness of humankind.”

Comments Mr M M

Writes Ms B C

Your Northern Stars for january are...

David Lodge and Edward Atkinson, both from Skipton On a bitterly cold night, an elderly lady travelling on David’s train told him that she was being met at Garsdale station.

However when they got there, there was no-one waiting for her and she became distressed. Not wanting to leave her alone on a very cold, snow-covered station with no means of contacting anyone, David and Edward persuaded her to stay on the train to Carlisle until they could contact someone edward for her. During the journey, the signaller told them that the lady’s friends had arrived so at the next station the caring pair arranged to transfer the elderly customer to another train to travel back to Garsdale.

The judges were so impressed by the compassion and professionalism of David and Edward they couldn’t fail to award Northern Stars to both of them.

Roy Treggiden,

Maintenance Controller from Manchester

Roy was at a meeting in Leeds when he heard about a failed train near Whitby and sprang into action.

He got the next train north and made his way to Whitby to help with the repairs. He soon got the train moving and our customers got to their destination as quickly as possible.

A true Northern Star! roy (left)

Shaun Clayforth, Driver from Leeds

When three youths were being anti-social on a late train, Shaun came out of his cab to help his colleague protect our passengers.

Despite being assaulted himself, he managed to get the three offenders off his train so that other passengers could travel in safety. He’s a worthy winner of a Northern Star.

Highly commended Northern Stars: �M arian Kuchta, Conductor from Barrow-in-Furness The £25 voucher prize draw winner, chosen at random for nominating a colleague, was Graham Blake, Holmes Chapel Station.

DEBT

fightin

Since 1 April last year we’ve successfully convicted 1,881 people and here are a handful of stories about the 219 successes that we’ve had in the past month...

Block head

fined £7

A passenger arriving at Liverpool Lime Street bought a ticket from the closest station (Edge Hill) only to be told that it was blocked. She then said that she’d boarded at Huyton, then changed it to Roby. She told the revenue protection officer that ‘times are hard’ and she only had enough money for a ticket from Edge Hill. The Magistrates agreed that times are indeed hard and fined her £165 for avoiding the 90p fare.

£165

Ignorance is bliss

Our Customer Relations team received a number of reports about a passenger who boasted that he always travelled using Northern Complimentary Vouchers that were undated or incorrectly dated. When our revenue team stopped him he offered up an undated voucher. We asked if he had a valid ticket for his journey and

from the

#

*

fined

Team work

fined £1

stories

!* ? %

18

fined

,290

*&

At Blackburn, our * revenue team asked a passenger to show his ticket but he was unable to produce one. .40 He was asked for his details three times before he gave them and he then launched a tirade of verbal abuse towards the revenue protection officer.

The Magistrates gave him a £640 fine and awarded us £75 compensation for the verbal abuse, which when added to the £3.40 fare brought his total fine to £718.40.

Falling on hard times

A total disregard of car park rules and not paying five Penalty Parking Notices can only mean one thing – a big fine! Information on some websites tells customers that ignoring parking fines means they will just go away – one lady took this ‘advice’ and ignored all our efforts to contact her. At court, not parking in a bay and causing an obstruction cost this vehicle owner £1,290 in fines.

fighting crime

e conrouirm net work

busters

£200

he replied “No. I would have filled that one out but I didn’t have a pen”.

He then went on to complain about the reliability of the train service before producing another voucher that he’d used after its expiry date.

At court he was fined £200 for avoiding the £3 fare.

British Transport Police

A rea n ort h a n d east

A rea west

Refused travel

Eccleston Park

When a drunken man in Hull wasn’t allowed to travel on one of our trains, he punched the conductor in the face, causing bruising. The man was quickly arrested and has now appeared in court where he was fined £450 and ordered to pay £200 compensation.

A passenger became abusive when he was challenged by our conductor about his ticket.

When he left the train, the passenger spat in the conductor’s face and a DNA kit was used to gather the evidence.

When the sample was sent for analysis a full DNA hit was returned, but the identified man was shown to be at no fixed abode and was classified as ‘wanted’. The hunt for the man continued; he was arrested early this year and has now been charged with common assault and travel fraud.

MARCH / 5

northernnewsround C U S T O M E R

O T H E R

Passenger Assist

N E W S . . .

Cleaner trains We have introduced a heavy cleaning team at Allerton depot, so that we can get our cleaning plan back on track this month.

We want our trains to be cleaned to the standard that our customers deserve and this extra cleaning team will help us achieve this goal.

Last year, in Your Northern, we explained we were the first train company to trial Passenger Assist.

This is an Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) system which is designed to help passengers book assisted travel across the whole rail network.

Feedback so far has been really positive and because we now capture more information about the individual and their journey, it means we’re able to take even greater care of our passengers.

O P E R A T I O N A L

Stranded trains We have reviewed our procedure for dealing with stranded trains and train to train evacuation.

A new risk assessment has been drafted for consultation with Trade Union colleagues.

Graeme Follin, our Business Continuity Manager, has also had a number of meetings with external contractors to see if they can come up with a suitable design for train to train evacuation ramps. We expect a draft design to be available shortly and we’ll keep you informed about how we’re getting on.

O T H E R

First impressions Mystery Shopping Audits are our way of identifying whether we’re getting things right for our customers.

This month’s audits have shown us that we really need to concentrate on the cleanliness of our stations, having found that we have too much litter and too many cigarette ends lying around.

N E W S . . .

British Open Golf Tournament

Cutting fuel usage

We’ve been working with Network Rail, the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, and Lancashire County Council to review how we can run an improved service for the British Open Golf Tournament.

As a result, it’s been agreed to extend the platform at Ansdell & Fairhaven to provide extra safety for busy services throughout the event.

We’ve identified four routes where we believe we can significantly reduce the amount of fuel we use by simply driving using different techniques.

The routes are around Wigan, Manchester Piccadilly, Leeds and Darlington and we think we could save between 5,000-7,000 litres of fuel a year.

Peter Sheppard, Eco-Driving Manager, will explain more about this at the next Responsible Driving Meeting.

C u l tura l

O T H E R

N E W S . . .

Nigel Bore, driver from Sheffield, has a twelve-year-old son, Tom, who’s recently received the Child of Courage Award for his outstanding bravery.

Benefits package We’re delighted to say that the Human Resources team has secured an improved benefits package for you and your family.

It includes discounted shopping vouchers, enhanced counselling sessions and a free of charge confidential support service. For more information on these improvements, contact Paul Stephen, Compensation and Benefits Manager, on 01904 568553.

Tom was chosen for the award because of his courage and positivity despite illnesses that mean he is in constant pain and struggles with tasks that most children take for granted, such as telling the time or riding a bike.

Despite these huge obstacles Tom is TOM BORE always thinking about others and regularly volunteers to help other children in his local area.

After receiving such an accolade we felt he deserved a treat and so, as Tom is a huge rail enthusiast, we arranged for a cab visit with his dad, Nigel, which he was absolutely delighted with.

C O MM E R C I A L

Rugby League We successfully launched the eighth season of the Northern Rail Cup last month and our on-going involvement was highlighted at the packed launch event.

With the support of our Rugby League partners we continue to receive positive media coverage that promotes Northern. We’ve also secured the sponsorship for 2013 which will take us all the way to the end of our current franchise period.

O T H E R

N E W S . . .

Pay your fare

On-train conduct

Our Debt Recovery and Prosecutions Unit (DRPU) continues to target those who believe they can travel without paying a fare. Whilst prosecutions are viewed negatively by those who are directly affected, our fair and transparent approach ensures passengers on our services are reminded that we take fare paying very seriously.

Recent Mystery Shopping Audits have found preventable situations where passengers could travel without paying. Throughout last month we had a number of services where no ticket checks were completed and it’s something we need to focus on more consistently if we’re to support our DRPU colleagues in preventing ticketless travel.

MARCH / 7

northern newsround

Courage of a child

Vital Sparks

l a t i V the question The last problem we asked you to think about was how do we get more people to travel with us? We realise that overcrowding is an issue on many of our peak services; however, we still have capacity to carry more passengers during off-peak and we want to grow our evening market on lines where we provide a regular evening service.

To get your ideas, we posed the question: What ticket or product do you think would encourage people to travel after 7pm?

We explained that your product could be either network-wide or for specific routes. However, it had to use the existing train service pattern.

We set up our Vital Sparks scheme so that you could tell us how to solve some of the specific problems we’re facing and we’re delighted you’re taking the opportunity to send us your ideas on how we can do things better.

the top three Your response was amazing and we’ve selected three ideas we’d like you to consider and then tell us how we might improve them. Remember, all colleagues who’ve helped design the idea we end up using will be entitled to part of the prize fund. The three we want you to think about in more detail are:

1 Lucky Seven ticket: a few similar ideas were sent in, but we thought this one was the most suitable. The idea is that we produce a ticket called ‘Lucky Seven’ which is for use after 7pm; costs £7 and offers unlimited travel on our services for one person.

How do you think this will work? How could we promote it?

Is it too expensive or too cheap?

2 Night Owl season ticket: although we had similar ideas, none were linked to a season ticket. This is simply a season ticket for use off-peak (7pm to 7am).

It could be popular with night workers or those who can alter their shifts.

Is it a good idea? Could we offer it at other times? Will people use it? Will you be able to check it’s being used correctly?

Has it got the potential to cause you any problems?

3 Season ticket add-on: we simply offer season ticket holders the

chance to purchase a flat rate (or discounted) out-of-hours ticket that allows their friends or family to travel after 7pm on our services.

It should be simple to manage, and rewards our most loyal customers (season ticket holders), yet attracts new people to our services.

Will it be popular? Might it be a problem to manage?

You’ll have great insights into whether these are good ideas or whether they could be further improved; let us know by sending your comments to: Vital Sparks (Freepost RRZX – XGKU – REHS), Northern Rail, Floor 6, Northern House, 7-9 Rougier Street, York Y01 6HZ

other ideas

ut linking to local We received loads of ideas abo nce on public e will be discounted, due to the relia attractions, and while none of thes just too great. was the risk of anti-social behaviour houses, restaurants, etc., we felt king on the spot and we’re already wor There was one idea that really hit ers can g a ‘Northern App’ where custom something similar. We’re producin you up to date t or last services and we’ll keep get information about late nigh with how we’re getting on. the d this time, you can still improve Finally, if your idea isn’t include ! fund e a par t of the priz other ideas and ear n yourself 8 / m arc h

As you might already know, buying an annual season ticket costs the same as buying 40 weekly season tickets so customers can make substantial savings. But it can be difficult for some customers to pay the whole amount at once, especially in the current economic climate.

I

Elissa Robinson is our Sales Manager in charge of the scheme and she approaches businesses who are interested in helping their employees save money through benefit schemes like our own ‘Your Benefits’, or who want to promote the use of public transport within their organisation.

We are always on the lookout for more companies to approach and if you recommend a business which then becomes a member of the scheme, we will give you a £20 shopping voucher!

Ideally the business should be within 10-15 minutes’ walk of a station and employ over 50 people such as a council, university, college, bank, solicitors or accountants for example.

Retail parks and shopping centres aren’t really suitable for the scheme.

ss

ar ob inson

n 2008 we introduced our Corporate Season Ticket Scheme. The scheme allows local businesses to help their employees buy annual season tickets: the business purchases the Season Ticket for the employee and then recovers the payment through deductions from the employee’s salary. We now have about 80 businesses purchasing annual season tickets for their employees.

e

li

ss

•

If you r ec

ss

nd a bus ine me m o

SHOPPING VOUCHER

nd a bus me ine om

£20

MARCH / 9

Season Ticket Scheme

e t a r o p r Co t e k c i T n o s a e S scheme

• If you rec

your tell us and s ie stor h 0 wor t get £1 pping of sho ers! vouch

sc h oo l

stat i o n

tr i p

Transport Yourself Children from Yearsley Grove school in York really appreciated their visit to Leeds and Harrogate stations recently.

The Area has had a really good start to the year in terms of performance, service quality and strengthening of our services.

A

t 93.1% our Public Performance Measure (PPM) was above target for the third month in a row and all three Performance Monitoring Units (PMUs) contributed positively to the result. We should be really proud of this PPM figure because, during one of the toughest months of the year, over 93% of our trains arrived on time for our customers.

The trip was the highlight of a ‘Transport Yourself’ project that involves students from the University of York working with Northern in primary schools, to teach children about different aspects of the railway.

The children learn about rail safety, planning journeys and the different jobs that we do. At Leeds they visited the travel centre and ticket office before travelling on to Harrogate, where they were met by Colton Hyde, station supervisor, who taught them how to announce the next train over the tannoy system.

Returning to school the children held a special session where they invited parents to come and see what they had learnt. 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.

recog n i t i o n

With such a good PPM, our Moving Annual Average PPM now stands at 91.8%.

� Service Quality (SQ) The average score for the way we present our stations was nearly 92%, which is a full percentage point improvement on last month’s figure.

We do have areas where we can make quick improvements though: we need to be better at dealing with litter and ice.

As for our trains, we’re achieving much better standards than this time last year and all PMUs are above target.

Richard Allan, Area Director North & East 10 / M A R C H

Mo Ilyas with mp hilary benn

Mo wins Regional Award Our congratulations go to Mo Ilyas, RMT Union Learning Representative (ULR) in Leeds, who won the Regional ULR Award at the Unionlearn Yorkshire and Humber Regional Conference.

area north & east

� ROYAL VISIT We were delighted to welcome Prince Charles to Wakefield Kirkgate station on 24 January.

He asked about the £4m improvement plans for the station and wanted to know all about the new premises that will be available for community and business use.

� METROCENTRE CUSTOMER INFORMATION SCREENS

COLTON HYDE and a young announcer

an

Kh

We asked Eddie Fisher, Community Ambassador, and Nikki Hosty, Head of HR Support, to look into

r

At a diversity and inclusion conference last year, 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 Northern colleagues at Leeds would benefit from something similar.

su

Our new multi-faith prayer and quiet room was officially opened in February.

Man

Multi-faith prayer and quiet room

tan t

o p e n

si s

f ac i l i t i es

As

stat i o n

e

r

l eeds

We’ve made good progress with our plans to improve the amount of information available to customers using Metrocentre station.

Managers of the shopping centre have agreed to partner us in installing real-time customer information screens at the station to help their shoppers plan journey times.

wi

th

Ram

esh Purohi t, C

what we could do and to try to find suitable accommodation.

With the help of other colleagues, the pair realised that the vacant Station Team Leader’s office 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.

to us

m

� KEIGHLEY Listed building consent has now been granted for our improvement scheme and we expect the work to start this month.

C O N G RATU L AT I O N S TO . . .

Steven Simon, Driver from Leeds, Wayne Hudson, Driver from Hull and Mark Ford, Driver from York who are the Area’s latest delay-repor ting prize-winners.

M A R C H / 11

your tell us and s ie stor h 0 wor t get £1 pping of sho ers! vouch

Our excellent start to 2012 continues to get better.

The additional capacity available to us through the HLOS extra vehicles, coupled with the tremendous effort from our engineering colleagues, and improved traincrew availability means we’ve had the best month ever for strengthening our services.

O

ur performance is in great shape too. Lancashire and Cumbria (LC) achieved a Public Performance Measure (PPM) of 93.0% which moved the Moving Annual Average (MMA) PPM to a record 90.5%. This is almost two percentage points better than last year. Manchester and Liverpool (ML) also improved its PPM to 92.2%; a massive 4.2% improvement on the previous month.

The biggest winners of course are our customers, because more of our trains are getting them to their destinations on time.

� Service Quality (SQ) Although the scores for the way we present our stations are reasonable, they are lower than this time last year with ML scoring 88.5% and LC achieving 89.8%.

As for our train scores, they are worse than last month, but better than last year and we really need to focus on why we’re losing points during the auditing process.

Lee Wasnidge, Area Director West 12 / M A R C H

co m m u n i ty

p roject

Green fingered students ‘befriend’ Burnley Central A group of students from Burnley College’s horticultural department has 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 Sultana Jamil, Community Ambassador for Brierfield, realised a lot of students from the area were using Burnley Central station to get to college every day 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 now supply the planters and compost, whilst the students grow and maintain the pots.

This project will form part of the students’ course work and be included in their final year results.

The students have really put a lot of effort into Burnley Central station and have already identified other areas of the station where they think they can make a difference and make it more welcoming for passengers.

With more and more students choosing to travel by train to get to college every day, we’re hoping to find other ways to work in partnership with them. If you have any ideas about what we can do, then share them with one of our community ambassadors.

eve n t

p l a n n i n g

Sea Odyssey Sea Odyssey takes place in Liverpool from Friday 20 until Sunday 22 April.

It’s one of the highlights of this year’s events in the city to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.

The street festival is one of the most complex events the city has ever staged, and is set to attract hundreds of thousands of visitors to Liverpool.

With engineering work taking place at weekends on the electrification of the line between Liverpool and Wigan, our planning team have been working on an enhanced timetable that will include additional buses serving key destinations. As well as the buses planned in the timetable between Wigan and Huyton, there will be a direct bus link between St Helens Central and Lea Green, to get people into the city more quickly by train.

' crowd

bust i n g '

area west

Timetable changes Following the successful operation of Saturday evening ‘crowd busting’ trains from Manchester Victoria to Rochdale in the run up to Christmas, we have decided to operate these services on an ongoing basis.

The additional trains, leaving Manchester Victoria at 19.55 and 20.55 and Rochdale at 20.25 and 21.25 started on 18 February.

� HOUGH GREEN After working closely with Halton Borough Council and Network Rail, plans for the extension of Hough Green car park have now been approved. The risk assessment has been done and we’re pleased to say that the improvement work has already started.

friends of burnley central

co m m u n i ty

ra i l

l i n e

Mid Cheshire designation

� ROCHDALE SUBWAY

The Mid Cheshire line was awarded Service Designation by the Department for Transport in January.

This makes 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.

Rail Minister Theresa Villiers said: “I want to encourage communities to become more closely involved with their railways to

help create the services and stations passengers deserve.

“That’s why I am delighted to announce this latest community rail designation.

Today’s designation is a major step towards helping the Mid Cheshire Community Rail Partnership work closely with local groups to provide innovative and more cost effective rail services for their community.”

As part of a park and ride and regeneration project, Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council is looking at re-opening the station subway. We fully support the project and have asked that security issues be addressed before any work is started.

C O N G RATU L AT I O N S TO . . .

Paul Har ter, Conductor from Blac kpool, Neil Sharples, Conductor from Wigan and Kate Smith, Driver from Manche ster Victoria who are the Area’s latest delay-reporting prize-winners.

M A R C H / 13

ngineering and depot

news

Last month’s reliability figures are something we should all be proud of in Engineering. I know that you all work hard to get it right for our customers and I’m delighted that through your efforts we achieved record levels of reliability. Never before in the history of Northern have we achieved a Miles Per Casualty score of over 8,000. Thank you for making it possible!

ngineering

Stuart Draper, Engineering Director

Heaton and North District From John Alexander, District Maintenance Manager North...

It’s that time of year again where we hit the road for our engineering road shows.

� DAMAGED TRAINS Last month 156454 suffered damage when it hit a tree that had fallen across the line during high winds.

In addition unit 158842 had a final drive failure and both trains have been sent away for repair.

� DERAILMENT Investigation into the derailment of 142032 at Wigan sidings has revealed that it was caused by a worn set of points, which as you know sit within Network Rail’s responsibility.

� ON PLAN Allerton depot will soon benefit from extra facilities as the drop pit, side pit and under-frame work nears completion.

14 / M A R C H

This gives us the opportunity to reflect on all the hard work we carried out in 2011 and some of the great results that we delivered during the year. It also gives us the opportunity to look at what 2012 has in store for us in terms of building on last year’s successes.

It’s also a good opportunity for me personally to get to know some of the team I have yet to meet, specifically at our outstation locations in Scarborough, Darlington and Carlisle.

We will face the challenges of 2012 without some of our long standing team members who have left us in recent times.

These include Roger Warren, John Golightly, Brian Bolton and June Burns.

They will all be missed around the place and leave us with a combined

length of service of around 100 years and it’s fair to say they were all sad to be leaving the team at Heaton.

I was very pleased to be able to say a personal goodbye to them all and wish them well in the future.

june on her last day

This was very much the case with June Burns.

June was given a great send off after cleaning our amenity blocks for the last 17 years.

June certainly was a character and the number of people who turned up to give her a great send off spoke volumes of what people thought of her.

She’s planning on taking up golf in her retirement and plans to spend time learning the game with her husband John.

Newton Heath and West District From Dave Allen, District Maintenance Manager West...

I’d like to share with you a significant change to the way we work in District West.

From Julia Wraithmell, District Maintenance Manager East...

I would like to begin by thanking the District East team for their response during the recent cold weather snap.

The seasonal preparations that have been developed as a result of lessons learned in previous winters ensured that our fleet continued to perform. The extra efforts that were delivered without exception in the District were very well received by our customers.

Work has been completed on the refurbishment of the First Aid room at Neville Hill. The extensive upgrade included external doors and windows, new flooring and easily accessible equipment.

The Quality and Facilities team embraced this challenge and has given us a facility that is second to none. I would especially like to thank Steve Wilson for his direction and project management.

February saw the final 144/3 leave the C6 Heavy Maintenance production line. The team at Neville Hill have done an excellent job and I am sure everyone will agree that the transformation of this fleet is tremendous and our customers will undoubtedly be grateful for the brighter interior.

The next Heavy Maintenance challenge that the team will be undertaking will be our 158/9.

We will have a dual purpose team at Newton Heath to concentrate on both UAT (Ultrasonic Axle Testing) and to be custodians of the component drop pit.

This will allow consistent delivery, with engines and transmissions being pre-built so essentially, instead of swapping parts round, they will be almost "plug and play". Maintenance team members will then join the permanent team on a rotating basis, to ensure best practice and methods are employed for increased efficiency and most importantly, safety.

It’s also good to see that since the introduction of the additional units and the opening of Allerton depot, the District West strengthening figures

have risen dramatically from last year’s mid 70% scores, with Merseyside and TfGM (Transport for Greater Manchester) hitting impressive scores of over 80%.

This is excellent news for our customers so I’d like to thank you for all your hard work to make this happen.

And finally, one of our targets now is to get ready for the summer.

You may think I’ve taken leave of my senses but, as we’ve found out over the last couple of years, April can be been unseasonably warm.

The indications are that this year will continue the trend, so ensuring the cooling systems on our units are working at full strength.

The systems haven’t been used for a few months during winter, and when we start to use them any weaknesses will be exposed.

Let’s build on two successful years and pre-empt any problems.

TPO Talk

by Keith Healicon, Area Train Presentation Supervisor

The music men

Nigel fidler and gary booth

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our refurbished first aid roo

M A R C H / 15

engineering

Neville Hill and East District

Your

Q

We have one train toilet in our fleet that makes you smile – a solitary 323 is decorated with a poppies adhesive picture! It’s wonderful – let’s get all units fitted similarly please.

Say Q A

A

More alcohol checks are needed. I know for a fact some colleagues are over the limit at times.

You’re right to be concerned – anyone who’s on duty and under the influence of alcohol can be a danger to our colleagues and customers. If you think someone might be under the influence of drugs or alcohol while they’re at work, please tell your line manager immediately.

If they’re not available, get in touch with your local on-call manager or the Duty Control Manager.

Q

ay Say e v i L Your

The cleaning teams were part of a trial across our network. We were looking into how customers reacted to seeing people picking up litter on trains and whether this affected scores in the National Passenger Survey. The survey is carried out twice a year and the scores tell us where our customers think we’re doing well and where we need to improve. We’re looking at the results closely but in the meantime please remember that all colleagues can make our trains a nicer place for our customers by removing litter when they see it.

Is it possible to have the West Yorkshire zonal maps redisplayed in the class 333 fleet of trains? They were a vital reference point for explaining to passengers who were travelling outside the permitted zones of their tickets, especially into North Yorkshire.

A

Metro (West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive) tell us which posters they would like to be displayed on our class 333 fleet.

We’ve been in touch with Metro to let them know about your concerns and they’ve promised to look into the issue for us.

What would you like to ask us this month?

issue60

have...

Q

Why do we no longer have on-train cleaning teams at Newcastle and Darlington? Trains were much cleaner and it made a much nicer travelling experience for customers and colleagues.

This seems a backward step.

A

Your want to

They will follow the guidelines set out in our Drugs and Alcohol Policy – if you want to find out more you can get a copy from the intranet or ask your line manager to download it for you.

We trialled the use of adhesive pictures to brighten up our train toilets but we’ve now realised it’s difficult for anyone with a visual impairment to see the grab rail. To make the grab rail easy to see it has to be in a contrasting colour to the wall. If there are lots of different colours on the wall, like a picture, anything put up against it appears to blend in and can’t be seen very easily.

We’re removing the pictures but we are looking into other ways of making our train toilets brighter.

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area north & east

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Thanks for taking the time to read this issue of Your Northern.

central services

engineering

Please recycle me