Southern and Gatwick Express staff support charity work

GTR's Organisation Development Manager, Jason Rassell completes his Venice Marathon

This month Southern, Gatwick Express, Thameslink and Great Northern have hit the £3,000 mark for donations to staff who raise money, in their own time for charity.

Since September 2014, staff on all four routes have taken on a variety of different challenges to support charities close to their hearts. In total, their efforts have raised over £8,000, with many more donations to come. Each individual has received a £100 donation from the company to support their efforts.

• Nigel Patching, a Driver at Eastbourne Depot, who ran the Brighton half marathon in February for Sussex Multiple Sclerosis Treatment Centre
• Derek Gregory, a Brighton based Conductor, will cycle 100 miles from HMS Victory to the Imperial War Museum, in aid of Help for Heroes.
• Littlehampton resident, Jason Rassell, GTR’s Organisation Development Manager, is taking on three consecutive marathons, including the Brighton, London and Salzburg ones in just three weeks, before completing a half Iron Man challenge in September, for St Barnabas Hospice.

Southern’s Community Investment and CSR Manager, Andy Harrowell, said “At Southern we are focused on supporting our local charities and communities. This includes adopting Worthing charity Worthing Kids and Dapper Snapper as our corporate charity, providing raffle prizes to local good causes for their own fundraising efforts, as well as working with community partners who wish to adopt our stations. At the same time we know that individual staff across our organisation go out of their way, in their own time, to support charities which they are passionate about, and we are amazed by how much they have been able to raise for a variety of good causes.”

Ends

Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) operates Thameslink, Great Northern, Southern and Gatwick Express services as follows:

Southern – services between London and the Sussex coast (Brighton, Worthing, Eastbourne, Bognor Regis, Hastings) and parts of Surrey, Kent and Hampshire (Ashford International, Southampton, Portsmouth)
• Gatwick Express – Fast, non-stop direct services between Gatwick Airport and London Victoria
• Thameslink – Bedford to Brighton, Sutton, Wimbledon and Sevenoaks
• Great Northern – London to Welwyn, Hertford, Peterborough, Cambridge and King’s Lynn

GTR is now the largest rail franchise in the UK in terms of passenger numbers, trains, revenue and staff: GTR carries about 273 million passenger journeys per year, employs around 6,500 people and generates annual passenger revenues of approximately £1.3bn.

Details of the franchise are below:

22% of all UK passengers
• 6,500 employees
• £1.3bn annual revenue
• £273m passenger journeys
• £50m investment to enhance all 239 stations
• 50% increase in capacity
• 1,398 new train carriages
• 10,000 additional morning peak seats into London
• Free Wi-Fi at 104 stations
• 20,000 days of customer service training for frontline employees
• £1m per year for local communities to spend on improvements at stations

The GTR investment programme for stations includes funding for more CCTV, toilet refurbishments, new retail facilities, help points and car park improvements – as well as plans for increased motorcycle storage and improved transport integration.
Southern and Gatwick Express websites: southernrailway.com and gatwickexpress.com.
Press office number for enquiries about Southern and Gatwick Express: 0203 750 2030.