Published on: Tuesday, 10 June 2014
Last updated: Wednesday, 5 October 2016
Abellio Greater Anglia has commenced a programme to clean train windows, as part of an ongoing cleaning routine.
As part of a Spring clean of train exteriors, Abellio Greater Anglia’s Train Presentation team at Ilford depot will give all the windows on its Class 321, 315 and 317 trains an additional special clean by hand, in addition to the routine cleans they already receive, to ensure that they are looking their best.
The team has just completed exterior cleaning of all Class 315, 317, 321 and 360 Electric Multiple Unit (EMU) trains using a new product that is applied by hand and strips away any build-up of contamination such as embedded brake dust, restoring the trains’ exterior paintwork to an ‘as new’ finish.
In addition to this, the special window cleaning programme will help to create a more pleasant travelling experience for passengers and further improve the exterior appearance of the trains.
Abellio Greater Anglia’s focus on exterior train cleaning over the past year has helped to improve results in the company’s Service Quality Standards (SQS) audit, which is regularly carried out by a team of mystery shoppers.
SQS scores for trains (which assess exterior and interior cleanliness, the provision of information and on board catering and the standard of the toilet facilities) have been steadily increasing since the cleaning programme commenced, hitting a high of 84.93% in the most recent Moving Annual Average (MMA) assessment period 27th April – 24th May 2014.
The electric trains operate on Greater Anglia’s routes from London Liverpool Street to Braintree, Cambridge, Chingford, Clacton-on-Sea, Enfield Town, Harwich Hertford East, Ipswich, Stansted Airport, Southend Victoria and Walton-on-the-Naze.
Greater Anglia’s Head of Train Presentation, Peter Tyler, said, “Providing a clean, pleasant travelling environment for our customers is extremely important to us, demonstrating our determination to make a real difference for our customers. Our exterior cleaning programme is making a noticeable difference to the external appearance of our EMU fleet, creating an excellent first impression as passengers board these trains.”