Published on: Monday, 1 July 2013
Last updated: Wednesday, 5 October 2016
Abellio train operator Greater Anglia has won a major rail industry award for its excellent service delivery during the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The company received the Cross-Industry Partnership Award at the national Rail Innovation Awards for its impressive performance and customer service standards, achieved in partnership with Network Rail and Transport for London, during last summer's Games when the eyes of the world were on London.
Greater Anglia welcomed almost 1.3 million additional passengers on its London-bound services over the Olympic and Paralympic Games, with 94.9% of trains arriving on-time. The company provided an average of 150,000 extra seats per day, an increase in capacity of over 25%, with over 600 trains a day calling at Stratford. Extra customer service staff - easily identifiable in their magenta tabards - were deployed across the company's network to provide assistance to passengers to and from the Games. Additional contingencies were put in place so that if key events overran (as then happened with the Opening and Closing Ceremonies) trains could be held back to ensure everyone was able to get home afterwards.
All these plans were especially important with Stratford the key station serving the Olympic Park, so it was vital that both train and station operations ran smoothly, and with effective coordination with Network Rail and other train operators critical to the success of the plans.
The arrangements were the result of a focused approach led by a dedicated project team which ensured that detailed plans were in place and a real 'Games spirit' was created amongst the entire Greater Anglia team and its partners. High standards of customer service were celebrated and encouraged, with the proactive strategy exemplified by the London Liverpool Street cleaner Gaspare Giarracco, whose search and recovery of mislaid Olympics tickets from amongst the huge station waste bins was greatly appreciated by the passengers involved.
Commenting on the award, Ruud Haket, Managing Director of Greater Anglia said:
"I am delighted that the superb efforts of the entire team at Greater Anglia in partnership with colleagues from Network Rail and Transport for London have been recognised with this award. The excellent punctuality results, allied with the highest standards of customer service, ensured that those passengers travelling to the Games last summer enjoyed a great day out and were impressed with the service provided. That all this was achieved only six months into a franchise, was testament to a remarkable team effort, both within Greater Anglia, but also with our rail industry partners. I want to reiterate our thanks to all of our employees and industry colleagues who contributed to such a successful outcome.
"We're committed to building on those high standards to deliver excellent service on our network on a consistent basis, and have achieved new, record-breaking punctuality results in the 10 months since the Games ended. We recognise there is much more to do and the improvements achieved to date, including the Olympics/Paralympics service which led to this award, are inspiring us to provide an even better service for our customers."