Southern shortlisted for Rail Business awards

Southern has been shortlisted as finalists in five categories for the forthcoming prestigious national Rail Business awards. These awards recognise a range of passenger improvement programmes undertaken by the rail industry.

Southern has been shortlisted in the following categories:

Station Excellence – Hassocks station

Over recent years Hassocks station has been transformed, with a brand new building, which is both modern and blended into the local area, and made accessible, with new lifts. Alongside this the station’s partnership has provided beautiful flowers and the new cycle hub includes a community-run bike hire shop.

Rolling Stock Excellence (Trains) – Class 387/1 (Joint entry, Southern, GTR and the Department for Transport)

The introduction of 116 new carriages has significantly improved the passenger experience and added capacity, whilst enabling the release of existing trains to support electrification programmes elsewhere on the rail network. These trains were completed alongside major depot infrastructure and training programmes, and against the backdrop of two organisations merging.

Southern’s ‘This is Me’ campaign (which has been shortlisted in two separatecategories - Customer Information and Service, and Corporate Communications)

This work brought together feedback from passengers with access needs to create posters, leaflets and videos. For staff this has become part of the training and team brief process. The material was also used to promote the assistance services Southern offer to passengers. The campaign has been extremely well received, with our assistance feedback improving to an even higher standard.

Safety and Security Excellence – Rail Neighbourhood Officers (RNOs)

Since 2009, the RNOs have patrolled over 20,000 trains, written up 2,700 Fare Evasion notices, contributed to 340 arrests and given out 37,075 Anti-Social Behaviour warnings. This dedicated group continues to go above and beyond to help our passengers and staff feel safe across our network.

Winners of the awards will be announced on 25th February 2016.