Frontman for South Western Railway addresses 'tough couple of years'

Anyone reliant on the train service from Honiton will no doubt have been affected by the recent strike action (27 days in December) and a high level of late-running/cancelled services.

For many, the service is known for being unreliable - with journeys often disrupted or inadequate in terms of seating availability.

The Managing Director at South Western Railway, Mark Hopwood, has now issued a statement in which he accepts personal responsibility for the quality of the service and outlines how he aims to improve it.

He said: "I know it's been a very tough couple of years for everyone who uses South Western Railway.

"I would like to tell you about our plans to make improvements that you will see and feel in the coming days and weeks, as well as in the longer term.

"I also know that the recent strikes have had a very significant impact on our passengers and employees and I am determined to find a resolution.

"With over 30 years' experience of managing rail businesses and delivering improvements for passengers, I am confident that our plans can make a noticeable difference quickly and we'll be taking action as soon as possible.

"Some of our other goals will take a little longer, but we will make progress on all of these with the same aim in mind – to improve customer service for you.

"Firstly though, I'd like to say this: I'm sorry that our service has not been good enough in recent times. It's my mission to change that.

"Secondly, to achieve that mission, we will relentlessly focus on changes that can make an immediate difference to the number of trains running on time.

"Thirdly, that means we need to make changes. In addition to me joining the business, we have brought together several key departments under our Chief Operating Officer Mike Houghton.

"Mike was key to turning round performance in his last job in Melbourne Trains in Australia, and will help us get that relentless focus on running more trains on time here at SWR.

"Finally, we can't achieve this alone. Many of the problems we face are caused by the infrastructure, so I have agreed with Network Rail at the very highest levels that we will work hard together to address these issues.

"My previous experience tells me that a strong, collaborative relationship is key.

"I know you don't want to hear parts of the industry blaming each other for issues you just want to see fixed. So my approach is that it might not be our fault, but it is still our problem.

"So that's the 'how' we'll make changes. What about the 'what' we'll actually do?

"I'm making five commitments to which you can hold me.

1. We'll increase the number of trains running on time, and address problems like trains running with fewer carriages than they're supposed to and trains missing out stops to make up time.

This will be a slow and steady improvement - I'm sorry to say there's no silver bullet to solve these issues overnight, and I expect we'll still have bad days like everyone else.

But we have developed a robust 'performance improvement plan' to reduce the problems that cause delays and manage those we do have more effectively. I am confident you will see more trains running on time as a result.

1. We'll introduce new and refurbished trains, that will allow us to bring in new and more reliable services, and to roll out more Wi-Fi, toilets on trains and other things passengers tell us they want.

1. We'll be open and honest with you. Open about what we're trying to do and how we're trying to do it, and honest about the problems we face. We'll try and do this all in Plain English, cutting out the jargon and railway-speak.

1. We'll empower and enable our staff to provide the help and advice you need and want. Our job is to get you where you need to be, at the time you need to be there, and our people already work extremely hard to try and do that. I'll remove obstacles to them doing so.

1. We'll be approachable and accountable. Tell us when there's a problem and we'll try and fix it and explain what we're trying to do about it. Obviously I can't reply to each and every one of you. But I've got a team of over 5,000 who can, and I'll report back to you regularly on progress against these promises so you can hold me to them.

"I am determined 2020 should be a much better year for you.

"But we know it will only be better if we can deliver a service that gets you where you need to be, when you need to be there.

"So my whole focus, and that of my team, will be on doing that. I hope you will notice the first improvements very soon."