ATOC

Regarding Rail Regulator's enforcement order
_______________________________________________________________

date 4 December 1998
source ATOC
type Press release

Commenting on the Rail Regulator's decision to confirm an enforcement order
on The National Rail Enquiry Service, ATOC Chairman Ivor Warburton said:

"This decision is extraordinary. The National Rail Enquiry Service is highly
successful: with 85% satisfaction levels, 96% of calls correctly being answered
and 6 million more calls being handled now than a year ago."

"At a time when the performance of the National Rail Enquiry Service is at an
all time high, it is disappointing that the Rail Regulator has threatened to
impose fines. We should instead all be celebrating the real success that we
have."

KEY NRES FACTS

o The most recent report from the Central Rail User's Consultative
Committee (Dec 98) has shown that complaints about the service have
more than halved over the past year and complaints on access to the
service - the very aspect on which the order has been made - have gone
down by 90%.

o The Regulator's decision is based on a small sample. If taken over one
year NRES has answered 91.5% calls in 12 months to October '98.

o NRES answered almost 20% more calls in October '97 to October '98.

o NRES is answering 6 million more calls a year: 51 million 1997/1998
compared to 45 million 1996/1997.

o The most recent period (period 8) shows a daily average of 95.1% calls
answered. Only 2% of calls are not answered after either one or two
attempts.

Current NRES performance for this year is as follows:

Period PCA (per cent)

1 91.5
2 87.2
3 90.7
4 90.3
5 88.1
6 93.9
7 86.0
8 92.2 (draft)
9 (to date) 96.9 (draft)

The fines mentioned in the Regulator's order are ten times the level originally
laid down in August 1997

ENDS

For more information: David Campbell Bannerman, Communications Director
0171 904 3010 or pager (01523) 523 523 pager no. 849718

Railhub Archive ::: 1998-12-04 ATO-001