TransPennine Express named Train Operator of the Year and Rail Business of the Year at national awards ceremony

TPE captured the two prestigious titles as well as the Marketing and Communications Excellence Award and a highly commended in the Education and Training Excellence category at the 24th Rail Business Awards.

Well established as the first national awards for the UK rail sector, the Rail Business Awards celebrate the achievements across every aspect of the rail industry. 

TPE secured Train Operator of the Year and Rail Business of the Year for demonstrating overall business excellence, exceptional performance and providing the most outstanding customer service.

Despite the challenges faced during the pandemic, TPE’s passenger numbers grew during 2021 as the rail operator delivered improvements across stations. In addition, TPE made tremendous progress in getting performance back on track and rebuilding the trust and confidence of their customers with performance remaining at over 90% in 2021. 

In the Marketing and Communications Excellence category, TPE picked up the award for deploying a marketing and communications campaign reassuring customers that train travel was safe as the country emerged from the pandemic. The campaign was a success with 82% of customers feeling reassured, 71% feeling positive about rail travel and 75% were encouraged to use trains.

In the Education and Training Excellence Category, TPE secured a highly commended for their work undertaken at the Learning and Development Hub located in Huddersfield where the Mission Room, a state-of-the-art facility of which offers interactive and immersive display systems is located. The facility is also home to the TPE apprenticeship programme which currently has the highest conversion rate ever into full time employment.

Matthew Golton, Managing Director for TransPennine Express, who attended last night’s ceremony said: “I’m delighted that we have been named Train Operator of the Year and Rail Business of the Year as well as picking up the Marketing and Communication Excellence Award, it’s a fantastic achievement.

“I’m thrilled to see that the hard work of our colleagues has been recognised at this level and it feels particularly special given the challenging backdrop of the pandemic over the past couple of years.

“At TPE we want to be at the heart of delivering positive change for rail customers and for the communities that we serve in the North of England and into Scotland and I’m looking forward to building on our success and working with our colleagues and stakeholders to realise that."

The awards recognise the work done day-in, day-out to keep passengers and freight on the move, as well as the research and innovation taking place as suppliers and operators strive to improve performance and efficiency, creating the foundations for the railway of the future.

The 24th Rail Business Awards ceremony took place at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London last night (Wednesday 23^rd February) in front of a capacity crowd of more than 450 guests and was hosted by comedian Suzi Ruffell, described as one of the most promising comedy talents of her generation.