11.04.08
Stars shine at National Express trains awards
National Express train companies enjoyed success at the annual Trains Excellence Awards where their achievements were honoured on the 27th March 2008.
National Express East Anglia, Gatwick Express, c2c and National Express East Coast were all successful in the awards which recognise achievements by people in areas such as customer service, safety, innovation and the environment. There were also special awards on the night in categories including station of the year, team of the year and outstanding personal contribution.
The awards were hosted by Trains Director David Franks with Group Chief Executive Richard Bowker and Ray O’Toole, Chief Executive UK both in attendance.
Successes for National Express East Anglia included Peter Tyler, Head of Train Presentation winning the Industry Excellence Award for his work to improve train cleaning. National Express East Anglia was also named as Team of the Year for their “Challenge 90” achievements in improving punctuality, and scooped the Environmental Excellence award for their strategy to save energy, with actions such as regenerative braking and driver training in energy efficient driving.
Ray Stone from National Express East Anglia’s Lowestoft station was named as winner of the Outstanding Personal Contribution award for his tireless work for customers and the community, with Darren Fennah, National Express East Anglia Business Manager for catering and Linda Jury of c2c Revenue Protection both receiving Highly Commended awards.
National Express East Coast were named as winners of the Innovation award for their online booking service and saw Phil Crow and Fiona Neil of Newcastle Station receive a highly commended award in the Industry Excellence category.
Gatwick Express scooped the Customer Service Award for their overall customer service strategy and the Safety Excellence Award for their safety strategy, while c2c’s Tony Smith was named as the winner of the Leadership/Engagement award. c2c also scored success with Fenchurch Street being named as Station of the Year.
A number of Special and Highly Commended awards were announced on the night and the full list of successes was:
Customer Service Excellence
Winner Gatwick Express - Overall customer service strategy
Highly Commended NXEA - Overall catering strategy
Highly Commended NXEA - Wymondham station partnership
Leadership/engagement
Winner Tony Smith c2c
Highly Commended NXEA – Internal Communications programme
Highly Commended Gatwick Express - Employee Engagement programme
Safety Excellence
Winner Gatwick Express - Overall safety strategy
Highly Commended NXEA - Food safety
Highly Commended c2c - Overall safety strategy
Environmental Excellence
Winner NXEA - Overall environmental strategy
Highly Commended NXEA - Energy Efficient driver programme
Highly Commended Gatwick Express – Fleet energy saving programme
Outstanding Personal Contribution
Winner Ray Stone (NXEA, Lowestoft station)
Highly Commended Linda Jury (c2c, Revenue Protection)
Highly Commended Darren Fennah (NXEA, Business Manager, Catering)
Rail Innovation
Winner NXEC - Booking engine and website
Special award NXEA - RPIs performance monitoring /credit card validation system
Highly Commended Gatwick Express – Train lifting sling
Highly Commended NXEA - Class 156 refurbishment programme
Station of the Year
Winner c2c - Fenchurch Street
Special award NXEA - Great Yarmouth
Highly Commended NXEA - London Liverpool Street
Industry Excellence
Winner Peter Tyler (Head of Train Presentation, NXEA)
Highly Commended Phil Crow and Fiona Neil (Newcastle station, NXEC)
Team of the Year
Winner NXEA – Challenge 90
Special award NXEC – East Coast launch team (Communications team, Marketing Pre-launch team, Marketing launch team and Launch train team)
Highly Commended Gatwick Express – Route Management team
Highly Commended NXEA – Corporate Affairs team
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