Julian Drury
With staff after winning Rail Operator of the Year at the National Transport Awards. Stephen Jessup-Peacock, next to Julian, won Frontline Employee of the Year for his heroic leadership during last summer’s riots
something to be proud of. ‘From the day I joined, I have been proud’, says Drury. ‘They are a really, really great team here and very committed, in a way that I haven’t encountered elsewhere, to turning in good results. On the few occasions that we don’t, people take it personally, which is very interesting.’ But it wasn’t always the case, because a well- documented piece of rail history is that it used to be known as the ‘misery line’. The days in the early 80s, when tired commuters would pour into Fenchurch street from Tower Hill tube or offices in the City, longing to get home to Essex and get their slippers on, only to find a crowd that would have done the Olympic stadium proud. And this would happen once or twice a week.
‘I wasn’t there at the time, but customers still tell me
about it,’ says Drury. ‘Often conversations start with, ‘Now you won’t remember this, but…’ and then they tell me about the misery line and how much better things are now. In fact I was told some months ago that in those days the company used to issue notes which passengers could take to their employers to prove that they really were delayed, which I find amazing! Even the idea that could happen is difficult now to understand.’
A virtuous circle So what is the secret to c2c’s ‘journey of transformation’? According to Drury it’s in the detail. A whole series of incremental improvements built upon each other in the last 15 years. And he gives an emphatic ‘yes’ when I ask if he feels it has needed a full 15 years. ‘It’s given us a long-term horizon for investment. So starting right back in 1996 with the line being re-signalled (a decision taken by British Rail in its closing days and implemented in the early days of privatisation), we then had the really big improvements that came as a result of franchising investment in a new fleet of trains in 2003, £30 million spent on the stations; a fully gated network (unique for a franchised operator), and CCTV on all our stations, which are also credited with Secure Stations Accreditation, a police accreditation mark.’
Awards & records
• C2C is delivering the best performance in the UK rail industry by a franchised train operator, holding UK records for annual punctuality at 97.5 per cent, and four-weekly punctuality at 98.8 per cent. Customer satisfaction with C2C services measured 91 per cent in the past six National Passenger Surveys.
• Rail Operator of the Year at the National Transport Awards 2012
• 4-star award EFQM (European Foundation for Quality Management) R4E (Recognised for Excellence) 2012
• Suburban and Metro Operator of the Year 2011 - National Rail Awards
• Best Business in the Community, Essex Countrywide Business Awards 2011
c2c also introduced driver-only operation in 2003 and is still the only toc to have done so post-privatisation. Drury credits a lot of efficiency being introduced as a result of that move. ‘What you get is a network which is gradually getting better levels of investment, higher levels of facilities, tighter security, improved revenue protection, reduced costs, increased efficiency, and by putting all those together you start to get into a virtuous circle.’
Exchange of expertise The network the company runs on is superficially simple in structure, but it turns out that brings its own challenges and explains why Drury and his management team focus hugely on making the service 100 per cent reliable. ‘What we’re running is a network that’s operating at its absolute maximum at the busiest times of day. For a large part of the route it’s a two-
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