Customer news

Chris Burchell - Southern Managing Director Welcome to the latest Southern News. This installment contains updates from across the network as well as news from your local area.

As we approach the end of the year, I thought I’d reflect on the past 12 months which have been an exciting time at Southern. We‘ve provided you with more train services than ever before, placed an order for 130 new trains, and played our part in the hugely successful London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. In February 2012, we were delighted to be named Rail Business of the Year, something of which our whole organisation can be proud.

Our punctuality continues to improve and we are now running more services and longer trains – 5000 extra seats were added to some of our busiest peak services in December 2011.

Whilst these improvements are at network level, it’s also a privilege to be part of so many communities across the south east. From art exhibitions to vegetable plots to wild gardens, we have 30 community partnerships on our network and our stations are providing much more than just a gateway to the train service.

Our engineering team is completing a £9million in-house refresh of our existing newer (Class 377) trains, and work is also underway to refresh our South London Metro (Class 455) trains inside and out.

Yet more stations have undergone refurbishments this year improving the station environment including waiting rooms, toilets and information systems. Later this year, major renovations at Horsham and Epsom are due for completion; brand new buildings planned at East Grinstead, Hassocks and Ashtead; and Brighton, Gatwick Airport and East Croydon are set for significant upgrades.

We are now half way through our franchise, but our commitment to our vision of Making Every Journey Better is resolute. Our plans for the year ahead continue to focus on running a responsible, reliable railway delivering value for money improvements for you, our passengers. Thank you for continuing to travel with us.

I hope you enjoy reading the news from Southern and also the news specific to your area. If you have any questions or concerns about Southern or Gatwick Express, please feel free to contact our Customer Services department

Look out for another update in six months time.

Chris Burchell Managing Director

Southern News - Brighton Mainline (369kb)