Rail Privatisation (Hansard, 17 March 1997)

§ Mr. Watts

[holding answer 4 March 1997]: Improvements to passenger and station services implemented by Great Western Trains, South West Trains and LTS Rail since commencing operations, are as follows: Great Western Trains GWT has introduced a large number of product enhancements including family carriage and business standard services, improved first class facilities, increased capacity for the carriage of bicycles, expanded catering services, and special offers and promotions to all rail passengers. Weekday train services have been increased and some long-distance journey times have been reduced by up to 20 minutes. By the summer, GWT will be running an additional 11 services per weekday above the summer 1995 timetable. 420W A £50 million rolling stock upgrading programme is under way and the first five completely refurbished and re-liveried high-speed trains are now in service. A further seven trains will be available by May. GWT has established a new telephone inquiry bureau and six telesales offices creating 180 full and part-time jobs. GWT has completed the refurbishment of customer waiting lounges at Swindon, Newton Abbott and Bristol Parkway. Buffet facilities at Swindon have been refurbished and a customer service desk introduced. Self-service ticket machines have been installed at seven main line stations. New customer welcome teams have been introduced at Paddington. Porters have also been re-introduced at Paddington. Security cover is now provided at all GWT car parks through combinations of trained security guards and closed circuit television. South West Trains SWT has introduced two new bus links from Bordon-Liphook and Winchester-Romsey. It has also introduced more bus service information into the SWT's timetable. More than 2,000 extra sets a day have been introduced to help ease overcrowding. Two additional morning peak services serve Teddington-Waterloo via Kingston and several trains have been lengthened. SWT also has standby trains at London Waterloo and other key locations during the peaks which can be brought into use if needed. SWT has invested over £1 million in improving train reliability— treating traction motors on class 442s to prevent problems with snow, and solving air conditioning problems on class 159s. SWT will shortly be placing an order for 30 new four-car electrical multiple units worth approximately £90 million. SWT has invested £200,000 in new technology and telephone lines at Southampton telephone inquiry bureau, where there are now 25 lines available. In addition SWT is providing extra staff— Bluecoats—at Waterloo, Guildford and Southampton offering help and information to travellers. SWT has spent or committed the appropriate expenditure on its station refurbishment programme. The first stations to benefit from this work will be Brentford, Norbiton, Twickenham and Surbiton. Work is now under way to redevelop station buildings at Southampton Airport (Parkway)station. The existing buildings are being transformed in a project which will include new upgraded station facilities and provide an additional 53 car parking spaces to the current 530. SWT is also carrying out work on car park extensions at Grateley, Eastleigh and Haslemere. Car park resurfacing is also being carried out at 30 SWT stations. There is a further £130,000 project to install CCTV cameras, improve lighting and cut vegetation at 10 stations. Since the programme of CCTV installation by BR in SWT car parks began in 1993, car crime had dropped by more than 30 per cent.; 70 per cent. of SWT car park capacity is now covered by CCTV. SWT increased its passengers charter punctuality standards by two points from February 1997. LTS Rail LTS Rail has introduced additional late evening trains running from Monday to Friday serving all major stations to Southend. Passenger safety has been improved by the introduction of security guards on LTS Rail trains and at stations. In total, an extra 3,000 security guard hours per week have been deployed across the franchise. LTS Rail has launched an experimental low-cost fare called "Early Bird" for early morning Pitsea commuters into London. An Early Bird fare to London from Chafford Hundred will be introduced in April and similar fares are being considered for other stations. LTS has also introduced minicom facilities for the hard of hearing at the Southend telephone inquiry bureau. 421W LTS Rail introduced its first two class 317 sliding-door trains into regular service on 9 December, operating on the Basildon and Tilbury lines in the morning and evening peaks. Since then, LTS Rail has taken delivery of five further 317s and a further two are due to be delivered on 17 March. LTS Rail is well advanced with ordering 44 four-car EMUs. The trains will include full air conditioning, wider seats and more spacious interiors, information in every carriage and public phones. The passengers charter performance target for punctuality will be raised from 88 per cent. to 90 per cent. from 1 April 1997 and a further two points from 1 April 1998. Similarly, the reliability target will be increased by 0.5 points on 1 April 1997 and a further 0.5 points in 1998. LTS Rail, in partnership with Thamesway, has introduced a joint rail/bus ticketing arrangement. From 2 March, commuters from Benfleet station have been able to buy one ticket valid on Thamesway buses, LTS Rail services and London Underground. LTS Rail has improved the cleanliness of stations through increased overnight cleaning.