HomeHigh Speed RailFast race for HS1

Fast race for HS1

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High Speed Rail is popular with the public. That’s the happy new year message from HS1.

Over 25 million domestic passenger journeys have been made on Southeastern’s High Speed One services between London and Kent since the launch of the service.

December saw the three year anniversary of the introduction of Britain’s first domestic high speed service. Hard working staff at Southeastern have achieved some of the best records in punctuality and customer satisfaction in Europe.

Says Charles Horton, managing director of Southeastern, ‘The service has been an overwhelming success. In the three years since the launch we have extended the service to more destinations such as Maidstone West, and to Sandwich and Deal with the support of Kent County Council, and we’ve boosted the number of services in the timetable to meet the increased demand.’

The service was launched in December 2009 and achieved 7.2 million passenger journeys in its first year. Journeys grew to around 8.2 million in the second year, and it now transports over 9 million people a year.

Says Nicola Shaw, chief executive of HS1 Ltd, ‘The world class reliability of High Speed 1 infrastructure keeps delays to customers down and delivers very fast journey times from Kent to London.’

Punctuality is high and the service consistently scores over 90 percent. The service achieved international recognition last summer during the 2012 London Olympics carrying over 2.4 million people to and from the Olympic Park at Stratford.

Athletes, officials, VIPs and thousands of members of the press joined the millions of spectators who left their cars behind to use the Javelin service during the Games.

Half the fleet of Hitachi 395s are named after Britain’s fastest athletes. Southeastern is set to honour the stars of the London 2012 Games and will name the remaining trains after top Olympic and Paralympic Champions as voted by Southeastern employees.

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