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Record Performance
October Issue 2009
As railway staff up and down the recover from the 2009 RailStaff Awards in Birmingham, punctuality figures just released show Britain’s railways performing better than ever with companies recording performances of over 95%.
The good news comes as party leaders pledged to build Britain’s second high speed line between London, Birmingham and Manchester. Britain’s rail service is maintaining record high levels of punctuality with an industry average of 93.6% of trains arriving on time in period six.
Says ATOC chief executive, Michael Roberts, ‘This is good news for passengers who rightly expect to see punctuality at record levels… Private train operators have delivered significant improvements to Britain’s railway and people are voting with their feet.’
Political leaders backed high speed rail at party conferences. Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that, ‘High-speed rail would provide a fast, low carbon network linking the nations and regions of the UK.’
Theresa Villiers, Conservative shadow transport secretary, said her party was committed to building a high speed rail link to the north of England – that is Manchester and Leeds. ‘We’ll keep our promise,’ she said.
The Liberal Democrats also affirmed support for a high speed rail network. High Speed 1 is already proving hugely popular in Kent with Southeastern having to double the length of its high speed trains.
Weekend services on High Speed 1 started this month and the full service is scheduled for launch in December. Soaring performance levels are understood to have engendered political support for railways across the spectrum.
Says Robin Gisby, director of operations and customer service, Network Rail, ‘Passengers have seen good train punctuality over the past six months…’ The 95% mark was recorded by First Transpennine Express and by Arriva Trains Wales.
Says RailStaff editor, Andy Milne, ‘We should always remember that these excellent results and a new political commitment to high speed rail are the result of the hard work, determination and professionalism of the thousands of men and women who deliver the railway every day.
'We were proud to salute them at the RailStaff Awards.’
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