26.11.14
Abellio GA to hire more staff, improve stations and upgrade train interiors
Abellio Greater Anglia is spending £10m on interior refurbishments for its 24 Class 317/6s and 21 Class 350s, adding an additional set of intercity Mark 3 carriages, replacing ticket gates, and hiring more cleaners, customer service operatives and catering staff.
The operator, which has a new short franchise to October 2016, says it will also spend more on standby buses for people who miss connections at Ipswich, Norwich and Witham when services are disrupted, wireless mobile PA systems at eight stations, and waiting room upgrades at four stations.
Jamie Burles, managing director of Abellio Greater Anglia said: “We are totally committed to delivering a better service for our customers, focusing on those areas they prioritise as important. This extensive package of service improvements represents a major investment in key areas of service delivery including the on-train travelling environment, cleaning, seating capacity and performance.”
The full details of the £10m pledge – which is additional to the £20m announced earlier this year – are below:
- A refresh for the 24 Class 317/6 trains used on the West Anglia routes between London and Hertford, Harlow, Bishops Stortford and Cambridge, with new seat covers and re-painting of the carriage interiors (including grab handles and luggage racks);
- New seat covers for the 21 Class 360 trains used on the Great Eastern Main Line between London and Chelmsford, Colchester, Clacton and Ipswich (provided through a partnership scheme with Siemens and Angel Trains);
- Hire of an additional set of intercity Mark 3 carriages to improve vehicle availability and maintain planned seating capacity during the Mark 3 refurbishment programme, which begins in January;
- Replacement of the automatic ticket gates at London Liverpool Street, Shenfield, Southend Victoria, Colchester, Ipswich, Norwich and Harlow stations to provide new, better, more efficient gates - which will also enable the introduction of more mobile ticketing, print-at-home ticketing and future smart-ticketing schemes;
- Recruitment of an additional 40 cleaning staff (including eight roving on-train cleaners to work mainly on Southend and Clacton trains);
- Recruitment of 10 extra customer service staff at stations including London Liverpool Street, Billericay, Wickford, Chelmsford, Clacton, Norwich and Cambridge to provide additional customer assistance and information;
- Introduction of six additional staff at Ilford and Norwich to repair train interior faults (such as damage to or problems with seats, tables, toilets, lighting or wall panels);
- Recruitment of six additional catering staff for the trial of an at-seat catering service in First Class carriages on three morning and evening peak trains in each direction on the Norwich to London intercity services;
- Wireless mobile public address systems at eight stations (Bishops Stortford, Cambridge, Chelmsford, Colchester, Ipswich, Norwich, Shenfield and Witham) to enable customer service staff to make announcements whilst out on the platforms;
- Additional investment in standby buses to provide support for missed connections at Ipswich, Norwich and Witham in the event of service disruption; and
- A refresh for the waiting rooms at the stations between Southend and Billericay and at Witham and Ipswich.
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