Published on: Friday, 17 August 2012
Last updated: Wednesday, 5 October 2016
Train operator Greater Anglia is working hard to extend the good train performance achieved during the Olympic Games through to the Paralympic Games and beyond. Over 95% of trains arrived on time during the Olympic Games period from 27 July to 12 August, as the company played its part in the first "public transport" games. Greater Anglia also recorded 3.5m passenger journeys into London, a rise of nearly 600,000 passengers (or equivalent to an increase of almost 20%) on the same period last year.
In addition, over 100 additional staff were in place at various locations over the course of the Games. A key focus was obviously on London Liverpool Street, Stratford and Cheshunt, but extra customer service staff were also providing assistance at locations such as Norwich, Ipswich, Colchester, Chelmsford, Shenfield, Romford, Ilford, Tottenham Hale, Harlow Town, Bishop’s Stortford and Cambridge. Easily identifiable in their smart magenta tabards, with their Olympic handbooks at the ready, these friendly, helpful employees offered valuable information about train services and the Games arrangements.
Feedback from customers about the efforts of Greater Anglia staff over this important time has been positive. Everyone was doing their best to contribute to the success of the Games - an attitude exemplified by the Greater Anglia cleaner at London Liverpool Street, Gaspare Giarracco, who went through bins at the station in an ultimately successful attempt to recover tickets which two Olympic-going passengers from Suffolk had mislaid and seemingly lost on a train. Not only were his efforts rewarded by the company, but the heart-warming story of Gaspare's commitment ended up making news around the globe - as far away as the USA, Pakistan and Australia!
The company is now focused on delivering a good service over the Paralympics Games period from 29 August to 9 September, when once again extra seats, additional train services and more staff will be in place to help people travelling to and from the Games.
Commenting on Greater Anglia's performance, Ruud Haket, Managing Director said :
“I am very pleased that Greater Anglia has played such a key role in making the Olympic Games such a success and extremely proud of the efforts of our employees who worked long and hard to provide the best possible service over the Games period. They have been a credit to themselves, the company and the country as we have carried extra passengers, run a very punctual service and proactively sought to make customers' journeys to and from the Games as smooth as possible. We are now fully focused on preparing to perform well again over the Paralympics period and work to continuously improve service standards.”