WEEKLY
TOGETHER
TAKING THE NORTH FURTHER | THURSDAY 21 DECEMBER 2023
Pictured with some highland dancers at East Linton Station is Chris Jackson and Rachel Sydeserff, Historic Environment Scotland's District Visitor and Community Manager.
CONNECTING COMMUNITIES IN EAST LINTON
OUR PERFORMANCE PERIOD 10 WEEK 1
For the first time in almost 60 years, East Linton station welcomed trains onto its platforms, with our first service given a truly Scottish welcome.
Time to 3
Time to 15
Chris Jackson, our MD, said “This is a landmark day for East Linton and for TPE, and we’re really happy we’ve been able to work with our partners to help connect communities in Scotland.
Cancellations
We will be operating up to 14 services a day to East Linton between Edinburgh and Newcastle. Monday to Friday, 11 services will call at the station, with 14 services on a Saturday and nine on Sundays.
WOOD STREET MISSION GIFT APPEAL
NO
56.91%
To commemorate the historic moment, the inaugural TPE service 831210 was renamed ‘Hailes Castle’, sharing its name with the ruins of the nearby fortified manor. The manor dates back to the 1200s and is associated with the Wars of Independence and Mary Queen of Scots. ‘Hailes Castle’ was welcomed into the station by highland dancers and Scottish piper, Roddy.
“For the first time in nearly six decades, rail services are calling at East Linton and it was fantastic to see so many using our newly named ‘Hailes Castle’ train.”
ON OR ABOVE TARGET
Target 68.72%
Target 95.81%
91.63%
NO
Target 4.56%
5.41%
NO
While all measures have missed target, they are an improvement on the previous week.
What held us back?
Services have been extremely busy, and we have struggled with colleague availability resulting in cancellations.
To give back to our communities during this festive season, our apprentices worked with Wood Street Mission to help give families some special memories this Christmas.
Pictured is Victoria Treiber (HR Apprentice), Owen Buckle (Performance Apprentice), Lucy Lightbown (Sustainability Apprentice), and Jake Shore (Service Planning Apprentice)
The mission helps low-income families in the Manchester and Salford area and this year asked for Christmas presents to give to children. The apprentices, alongside some very generous colleagues, were able to fill six boxes and three bags with toys and gifts.
SPREADING FESTIVE CHEER ON OUR NETWORK There were some festive guests on our network on Wednesday (20 December), with Father Christmas and his elves ditching the sleigh to ride on one of our services to spread some Christmas joy to our customers. Santa and his elves, who look very similar to our Customer Experience team, were out on the network giving out mince pies, golden envelopes containing spot prizes and other surprises to customers. Customers were also able to pick up a copy of the official TPE Christmas card for free so they could spread some Christmas cheer to their friends and family. The card was designed by Quinn Kelly, daughter of Adam Kelly (Conductor Instructor), as part of our Christmas card competition.
WELLBEING WEDNESDAY FOR JANUARY Did you know that more than 90 per cent of new year’s resolutions fail? Wellbeing Wednesday is back for 2024 to help you stick to your resolutions and turn them into meaningful action, setting you up for a positive 2024.
HUMANS MCR On Tuesday (20 December) the sustainability team spent the day volunteering at Humans MCR. Humans is a Manchester-based charity that tackles food poverty across the area in a way that provides respect and hope to those in need. The team spent the day preparing the charity’s hub for its Christmas stock, helping the charity get ready for families to come to the centre.
To start off the year, Wellbeing Wednesday will be focussing on the benefits of running. YouTuber and podcaster, Harry Morgan, will be talking about how to make running a regular part of your routine, even if you’ve never run for fun before. Harry, alongside Emily Mayers (Senior Occupational Health and Wellbeing Specialist for Network Rail), will be talking about the long-term benefits of running, both physically and mentally. If you’ve never embraced running but are eager to try it out, this is a perfect time to start! The livestream is at 11am on Wednesday 3 January and is free to join. If you don’t have time to join the livestream, in January’s 5-minute Wellbeing, Harry will be giving his five top tips to running a faster 5km in 2024. If you already enjoy running and want to take things to the next level, this is the perfect video to watch to increase your performance. The video is available to watch from Monday 1 January. You can join the Wellbeing Wednesday livestream or watch 5-minute wellbeing at https://www.railwellbeinglive.co.uk/.
NEW TRAINS FOCUS GROUP
GOING THE EXTRA MILE!
As part of the additional £3.9m of funding for the Transpennine Route Upgrade, we have begun the procurement process for a fleet of up to 55 new trains.
Every week we’re sent some amazing comments about our colleagues. Here’s just a few of the messages customers that were sent in last week:
The exact detail of the trains has yet to be finalised, which is where you come in. We are inviting colleagues to be part of our ‘new trains focus group’. The group will help to inform the tender process and will help design our trains of the future. If you would like to get involved, email Gill Richardson (Rolling Stock Project Manager) at gill.richardson@tpexpress.co.uk with the subject ‘New Trains Focus Group – tender specification’.
SHARE YOUR STORY TPECommunications@tpexpress.co.uk