corporate responsibility report 2010 working for our …€¦ · · 2018-04-08corporate...

Working for our communitiesCorporate Responsibility Report 2010

Corporate Responsibility Report 2010

Southern

We operate one of the busiest rail networks in the UK. We are fully committed to running our business with integrity, listening to our stakeholders and striving to monitor and improve the impact of our business on the communities and wider world around us.

www.southernrailway.comWe’re a part of the

Group

Contents

About Southern 1

Message from the Managing Director 2

Safety 4

Environment 5

Passengers 6

Employees 7

Community 8

Data table 9

www.southernrailway.com 1

ABOUT SOUTHERN

Southern is operated by Govia, a partnership between

the Go-Ahead Group and Keolis and includes the premium

Gatwick Express service. Southern prides itself on the way

it works in partnership with the communities it serves

on a local level.

2010 OPERATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS

• Pioneer of regenerative braking on the third rail DC network

• New passenger Priority Seating scheme makes train

travel more accessible

• Award winning marketing campaign offers incredible

value fares to all passengers

WHERE WE OPERATE

Our 2,124 train services per day transported 162 million

passengers this year between London and the South East

coast – through South London, Surrey, East and West Sussex,

and to parts of Kent and Hampshire.

Train services per day

REDHILL

GATWICKAIRPORT

LONDON BRIDGE

UCKFIELD

EAST GRINSTEAD

TO

ASHFORD

THREEBRIDGES

HAYWARDSHEATH

EASTCROYDON

HORSHAM

SUTTON

VICTORIA

CLAPHAMJUNCTION

BRIGHTONLITTLEHAMPTON

SOU

TH

HA

MPT

ON

PO

RT

SMO

UT

H

LEW

ES

EA

STB

OU

RN

E

HA

STIN

GS

TONBRIDGE

WATFORD JUNCTION

2 Southern


Message from Chris Burchell, Managing Director

The passenger is at the heart of everything we do at Southern. We work hard to make people feel welcome, show we care about their individual needs and make every step of their journey as easy as possible.

Our Corporate Responsibility approachOur aim is to make a positive difference in the way we work and the services we offer. We are determined to take customer service to the next level and ensure our workforce has every opportunity for personal development. Southern is working on improving the impact it has on the environment and believes that working safely is of paramount importance. We strive to build strong relationships with our stakeholders and support local charities in the communities we serve. In whatever we do we look to continuously improve and sustain our business, encouraging innovation and making the most of technology.

Smarter travelWe are improving customer service by using technology intelligently. At Southern, we place a strong emphasis on the whole journey experience. With the seamless introduction of Oyster pay as you go on Greater London Southern services in January 2010, we are well on our way to delivering integrated journeys through smartcard technology. We are already exploring how we can replicate this success across our wider network. We’ve also improved passenger information by giving our customer-facing employees instant access to travel updates through BlackBerrys and handheld radios.

The world around usOur franchise contract only lasts five years and ten months but we believe that our actions today are crucial to building a sustainable transport network. Our fleet depots already have an ISO 14001 accredited environmental management system and the next phase is to expand this system across our entire organisation. We have continued to reduce our environmental impact and aim to reduce our carbon emissions even further by getting even more out of the energy that we use as part of Go-Ahead’s ‘Driving Energy Further’ initiative, which targets a 20%

Chris Burchell,

Managing Director


Our 2010 performance

reduction in carbon emissions per passenger journey by 2015. We’re also proud to say that we led the industry in pioneering the use of regenerative braking on the electric third rail; the majority of our trains now return electricity to the network when braking, resulting in savings of up to 17%.

It’s good to talkWe take time to talk with our communities because we understand that having an open and honest relationship will improve the service we provide. In October 2009, we held our first stakeholder forum, which was attended by over 80 key stakeholders. We also commissioned our first independent stakeholder relationship audit which is currently being carried out. Our enthusiastic Stakeholder Advisory Board continues to be a great opportunity to learn from our people and passengers and we’ve also been finding new ways to talk to our customers including our new online Passenger Panel, which we use to consult over 600 volunteer passengers on a range of important topics.

Community lifeWhether it’s consultations on train times or charity bookshelves in stations, we make every effort to be active in the communities we serve. In Summer 2009, we made a real difference to Weald School’s charity walk by helping 1,100 pupils and teachers take the train from their local station in Billingshurst to Pulborough in the Arun Valley, where their walk was to start and finish. In 2010, we became the proud sponsor of the Hove-based Sussex County Cricket Club Community Programme, helping young people get off the streets and play cricket, learning good behaviour, teamwork and healthy living through the sport.

GivingCharity begins at home, so for every completed Employee Survey we promised a £2 donation to a charity of their choice, of which the Chestnut Tree House Children’s Hospice (Sussex), Homestart (Tandridge) and Worthing and District Animal Rescue Service were all beneficiaries. This year we also supported Breast Cancer Care by displaying Strawberry Tea campaign posters at stations across our network, and we have a new commitment to donate £1 to charity for every Season Ticket sold online.

Our peopleOur first commitment to our people is to create a safe, flexible and supportive workplace for all. We invest in our employees by recruiting people with the right skills and behaviours to match our business needs and developing their potential through training, reward and wellbeing. As ambassadors of our vision and values, our people are our most important asset, which is why over the coming year we will be working towards achieving the Investors in People standard.

60%OF TRAIN FLEET NOW

USES 17% LESS TRACTION

ELECTRICITY

80OUR FIRST STAKEHOLDER

FORUM WAS ATTENDED BY

KEY STAKEHOLDERS

£19,000THIS YEAR WE

CONTRIBUTED OVER

TO COMMUNITY

PROJECTS AND

CHARITABLE CAUSES

62SOUTHERN STATIONS

IN GREATER LONDON

NOW HAVE OYSTER

PAY AS YOU GO

SMARTCARDS

4 Southern


Working safely to make our passengers feel welcome and secure

Safety

Safer travelOur new Safer Travel Team of Railway Neighbourhood Officers – specialist, accredited rail employees – supported by British Transport Police officers, is reducing crime and the fear of crime across our network. In just a few months, their highly visible presence has led to over 73 arrests, 4,489 antisocial behaviour warnings, 648 penalty fares, and 296 prosecution notices for fare evasion. An innovative reporting system called ‘Eyewitness’ is also giving all employees a simple way to help reduce antisocial behaviour; by reporting an incident via a dedicated email address, so that our centralised CCTV centre and Safer Travel Team are able to take immediate action.

Managing safelyWith over 2000 safety critical employees, safety is top of our agenda and this year has seen a revolution as Southern competency management moved online. Centralised records are now accessible through PDAs for managers on the move. This flexible system helps monitor trends and prioritise improvements. Training results also feed into the new system complementing a new e-learning approach to skills and training.

Preventing incidents Sadly, suicides have far-reaching implications for loved ones, employees and passengers. Working alongside the Samaritans, we have developed a successful suicide prevention campaign including fencing, posters, employee training and support networks. We will continue to work with the Samaritans and our industry partners to further reduce such incidents.

Our Safer Travel Team works in

partnership with the British Transport

Police to help make journeys safer

118STATIONS HAVE SECURE

STATION STATUS

100%OF OUR TRAIN UNITS

HAVE CCTV COVERAGE


Protecting and cultivating the environments around us

Environment

Using less energyWe have invested in new energy efficient lighting systems at all our depots and several stations. This smart initiative uses sensors and high wattage bulbs that use at least 17% less energy than standard lights. New solar panels at South Croydon station, installed in partnership with Seltrans for station access improvements, are also making a positive difference; reducing CO

2 emissions by 6.7 tonnes

per year, South Croydon is the UK’s first carbon neutral station improvement project.

On trackThe majority of our fleet is electric, so traction energy consumption remains one of our biggest energy reduction challenges. As of September 2009, our entire fleet of Class 377 trains (which represents just over 60% of our total fleet) had regenerative braking enabled, which allows the train to return around 17% of electricity back to the third rail. We are also currently upgrading our driver training simulators to include energy efficient driving skills, which is set to further reduce the amount of energy our trains use.

BiodiversityOur network is rich in natural heritage so we’ve been doing our bit to make sure our stations are home to local flora and fauna. At Kenley station we’ve worked with Riddlesdown Common to turn a piece of unused land into a snapshot of the common’s natural habitat and at Plumpton station a wild flower garden is being cultivated by the local village. Over the next year we will be on the lookout for more opportunities around our network.

17%

NEW LIGHTING SYSTEMS

AT DEPOTS AND

STATIONS USE AT LEAST

LESS ELECTRICITY

100%OF CLASS 377

TRAINS NOW USE

REGENERATIVE BRAKING,

WHICH RETURNS OVER

17% OF ELECTRICITY

TO THE THIRD RAIL

Volunteers help to create the UK’s first

carbon neutral station improvement

project at South Croydon

6 Southern


Making every journey better for our passengers

Passengers

Welcome to our networkPassenger satisfaction is reaching record levels. With brand new station buildings at Smitham and Uckfield, over 300 new secure cycle spaces and deep cleans planned at every station, the passenger experience is really improving. We are currently introducing Class 313 trains to our network and will refresh them inside and out. We are committed to increasing our network’s capacity by 10% and Class 313 trains are already making a difference, allowing us to create more space on some of our busiest services.

Making travel more affordableLoco Toledo, Southern’s award winning marketing campaign, has been opening up rail travel by making tickets more affordable for everyone. Thousands of new and lapsed passengers have been travelling off-peak with discounted web fares of up to 50%. Our premium brand, Gatwick Express has also offered great value for money with discounted fares, cheap upgrades and an enhanced carnet ticket option offering 10 tickets for the price of 8.

Putting passengers firstOur station improvement programme provided lifts at three more stations this year, making our network more accessible, and at Sutton station we installed the first Changing Places toilet at a UK railway station, providing a dedicated adult changing facility. To help make passenger journeys easier, we publish a comprehensive accessibility guide and in 2009, we also launched a hugely successful Priority Seating scheme which gives passengers who particularly need a seat an easy way to travel through an industry-first Priority Seat card.

On timeDespite the challenges of a harsh winter, we have delivered more trains on time this year than ever before. Engineering innovations have improved train reliability and an even sharper focus on punctuality has delivered record performance levels. Promoting cross-industry teamwork and a passenger-focused attitude at every stage of the journey, we plan to deliver even more trains on time next year.

300OVER

NEW CYCLE SPACES

50%UP TO

OFF FARES WITH OFF-

PEAK ONLINE TICKETS

The launch of our innovative Priority Seat

card at Purley Station

90.7ppm


Being a good local employer

Employees

Our peopleEach and every one of our employees is central to our success. We invest in their skills and development because it will ultimately benefit our passengers and communities. Over the past year, our training school delivered over 16,500 days of customer-focused skills training and coaching, giving our employees the tools they need to do their jobs well and achieve their goals. In September 2010 we are launching a brand new customer service training programme for all customer-facing employees.

A face-to-face conversation is the most effective way to say thank you, swap ideas and check progress, so we encourage our employees and managers to meet regularly. Our annual Employee Survey and regular insight workshops also help us to find out how employees feel about working for Southern and we are committed to using these results to improve the way we work year on year.

RewardWe aim to pay all our employees fair and competitive salaries and in early 2010 we enhanced our employee benefit programme by offering even more discounts across a range of retail and leisure activities. Our annual staff excellence awards scheme saw over 143 people and teams praised for their outstanding contribution, and in November 2010 we are launching ‘Share in Success’, an employee bonus scheme linked to business performance.

We are a key local employer and look to

develop our people and teams so we can

improve the service we give to passengers

3,985EMPLOYEES

£1.15 mINVESTED IN

EMPLOYEE TRAINING

8 Southern


Working in partnership with our local communities

Community

Community spirit The Sussex Community Rail Partnership helps us to get local communities involved in our railway and this year we agreed an enhanced funding scheme which has enabled the addition of a new officer. Together, we launched a new Station Partnership Scheme, which has already seen several keen community groups sign up, including a converted milk float being used as a fruit and vegetable stall at Hackbridge station and, at Hassocks station, the local community has planted beautiful flower beds.

Stakeholder Advisory Board Our Stakeholder Advisory Board of passengers and employees gives us valuable insight into the passenger and employee experience here at Southern. This year the Board ran an environment themed staff competition to inspire new energy saving ideas and led a youth project to encourage entrepreneurship, creativity and teamwork, which saw students from East Surrey College present ideas on how to encourage young people to travel by train.

Experience SouthernA reliable train service is a vital community link, but there are many more ways in which we add value to our communities, such as our ‘Try-a-Train’ day in June 2010, which gave people with disabilities and their carers the opportunity to find out more about travelling by train.

Our popular engineering apprenticeship scheme offers workplace learning to around three new apprentices every year and we have also become a work experience placement of choice for many youngsters – over 15 students experienced Southern as a workplace this past year. We’ve also visited schools, giving careers advice, and welcomed school and youth groups to our network.

305

7STAKEHOLDER MEETINGS

TOOK PLACE THIS YEAR

15OVER

YOUNG PEOPLE EXPERIENCED SOUTHERN AS A WORKPLACE

NEW PARTNERSHIPS

CREATED BY NEW

STATION PARTNERSHIP

SCHEME

A customer buys fresh local produce

from The Veg Van which visits

Hackbridge station as part of our

new Station Partnership Scheme


Data table

2009/2010 2008/2009 2007/2008

Safety

SPADs (per million train miles) 0.83 0.6 0.97

Fleet with CCTV (%) 100 87 97

Environment

Carbon emissions per passenger journey (kg) 1.41 1.56 1.53

Station/depot energy savings

– Gas consumption (kwh) 28,280 15,121 16,366

– Electricity consumption (kwh) 11,433 33,738 31,590

Diesel Rail fuel efficiency (km per litre) 1.66 1.84 2.07

EC4T Rail fuel efficiency (km per kwh) 0.52 0.45 0.49

Passengers

Number of journeys running to schedule PPM MAA (%) 90.7 90.7 90

Certified accessible trains RVAR (%) 68 72 72

Fully accessible stations (%) 60 55 53

Web sales (%) 6 0.64 –

Smartcard journeys (%) 24.7 20.23 19

Employees

Number of employees 3,985 4,153 3,713

Turnover rate (%) 10 8 11

Absence rate (%) 4 4 4

Number of staff training days 16,531 25,496 128*

Diversity by ethnic group (%)

– Asian, black or other origin 18 19 18

– White 82 81 82

Diversity by gender (%)

– Women 15 16 14

– Men 85 84 86

Average length of service (yrs) 9yr 2m 9yr 3m 10yr 7m

Community

Charitable giving and investment (£) 19,339 13,228 38,329

Number of stakeholder events 305** n/a n/a

* Health and safety training only.

** First year of data collection.

For information on the full Group data please visit our corporate website www.go-ahead.com

You can find out more about Southern by visiting our website www.southernrailway.com and more information on how Southern manages its corporate responsibilities can be found by visiting www.go-ahead.com/corporateresponsibility

If you have any comments, views or ideas on how we might improve, or have any thoughts on other issues that we should address in this report, please write to:

Sarah MorrisonSouthernGo-Ahead House26–28 Addiscombe RoadCroydonSurreyCR9 5GA

Tel: 020 8929 8600Email: [email protected]

This report was put together by The Go-Ahead Group and designed and produced by Black Sun plc, London.

Printed by Park Communications using environmental print technology which minimises any negative environmental impacts resulting from the printing of this document. We include the use of vegetable based inks, recycling 85% of dry waste, 85% of cleaning solvents and use 100% renewable energy.

Printed on Revive 100 Uncoated which contains 100% post consumer waste and is FSC certified.

We’re a part of the

Group

Verification of Corporate Responsibility data For the second year Bureau Veritas UK Ltd has worked with the Go-Ahead Group plc (Go-Ahead) to verify and to provide an independent opinion on selected corporate responsibility (CR) key performance indicators (KPI) data contained within the Go-Ahead Group’s Corporate Responsibility Report 2010. The information and data reviewed for this verification process relates to the period of 28th June 2009 to 3rd July 2010. The verification incorporated site visits, interviews, document review and checking of Group and Operating Company data.

The full Bureau Veritas verification statement is available in Go-Ahead’s Corporate Responsibility Report and at http://corporateresponsibility.go-ahead.com/

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