COMMENT
A satisfying story
Considering that a recent passenger survey registered a 99 per cent satisfaction rating amongst its passengers, Wrexham & Shropshire have got a lot to be proud of. Rail Technology Magazine spoke toAndy Hamilton, the company’s Managing Director, to find out how the company had gone about this
W
rexham & Shropshire has overcome
many trials and tribulations to recently achieve the highest ever customer satisfaction score in the history of the National Passenger Survey.
The open access train operator, which began operating services in April 2008, provides the first direct rail service between London and Wrexham, also restoring a direct link between Shropshire and London after Virgin Trains ceased its own direct service in 2000.
The company’s success is down to many things, one of which is its Managing Director, Andy Hamilton.
operating expertise at the time to dedicate to the project, so they were looking for an operating partner.
“We then spent some time evaluating their ideas, going back to first principles and working through it for ourselves. This convinced us their ideas had merit, and Laing Rail confirmed its interest.”
A joint venture quickly followed between Laing Rail and Renaissance Trains to develop the proposition, and the hard work began!
“It’s very easy to make bold statements that you are going to run a train between A and B, but there are a number of barriers to get over, especially in terms
“ We employed all new people who wanted to work for us and knew if the business did not succeed we would all be out of a job.”
“The whole idea began when John Nelson and Mike Jones from Renaissance Trains, who having recently been instrumental in setting up Hull Trains, approached Laing Rail and said, ‘We’ve got another idea – what about a service between London and Shrewsbury?’” says Andy, who is also former Engineering Director of Chiltern Railways.
“Having observed the difficulties that Grand Central was going through at the time in convincing GNER to allow the company to operate, John and Mike decided to approach Laing Rail as the incumbent operator at Marylebone, so they would be working with a ‘friend’, so to speak. They also didn’t have the
of timetable development and regulatory approval. None the less, over an 18 month period we developed a serious proposition specifically aimed at giving the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) the information they need to be able to make their assessments. During this period we discovered that Moderation of Competition clauses were still active in the Virgin Trains Track Access Agreement and as a result we had to abandon plans to serve Wolverhampton.
“This meant we had to alter our proposal, and so we took the opportunity to include Tame Bridge Parkway. We considered that, given the good access which Tame Bridge Parkway has to the M6, and the fact the
20 | rail technology magazine Dec/Jan 11
north east of Birmingham has a significant population without a direct service to London, it made sense to make use of this station with an excellent free car park. Following a fairly lengthy public consultation, the ORR agreed to our proposal in September 2007.
“We were not idle during this time as we knew once the ORR said ‘yes’, there would still be a huge amount of work to do. So during the summer of 2007 we had made every preparation we were able to without committing ourselves to any long-term costs.
“This included beginning the recruitment process for drivers and train managers, both of which have long lead times due to potential notice to existing employers and the training required. We were extremely honest in our adverts and at all the interviews; we reminded applicants that until the ORR gave us the go-ahead it was still just a pipe dream, but that as soon as we had ORR permission to proceed we would be in the position to offer them a job.
“This meant by the time approval came in September, we were able to begin their training early in 2008. This allowed us to minimise the lead-in time to startup – all-important when you only have a finite period on your Track Access contract! Although all the potential drivers and train mangers only handed in their notice after we were given approval, it was still a leap of faith for them, because no-one knew if the service was going to be a success.
“During that same period we were looking at rolling stock. We
began with an original concept of running Class 170 Turbostars - we knew the vehicles very well from using them on Chiltern Railways - and although we thought we had a leasing deal sorted out, this fell through – we understand the DfT intervened with the ROSCO saying the rolling stock we had earmarked was intended for another, undisclosed franchisee.
“This left us with no other option than to look at loco haul rolling stock and we decided the only credible option was for us to look at Mark 3 carriages. We began making enquires and concluded the best avenue was to buy some of the ex-West Coast Mainline vehicles that were off-lease in a field, rather than leasing them.
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