Railways

RAILWAYS ACT 1993

NATIONAL RAIL ENQUIRY SCHEME

During this year the franchised train operators have failed to ensure that calls to the National Rail Enquiry Scheme (the 0345 484950 number) are consistently answered to the standard required by their licence. On 30th October 1998, the Regulator published a notice stating that he proposed to make an Order, using his powers under section 55 of the Railways Act 1993, against the franchised train operating companies to ensure that the performance standard is met. The notice invited representations and after considering those representations and taking into account the steps that have been agreed and are being taken to improve performance, the Regulator has decided to proceed with enforcement action by making the following Order. The Order requires the franchised train operators to ensure that 90 per cent of calls made or up to 4.6 million calls in a 4 week period to the National Rail Enquiry Scheme are answered and to pay a penalty based on the percentage below 90 per cent which are not answered. RAILWAYS ACT 1993 Section 55—Enforcement Order National Rail Enquiry Scheme Under section 55 of the Act I make the following Order: 1. You, [franchised train operator], shall ensure that the calls made to the TEB telephone numbers used by the ATOC National Rail Enquiry Scheme (“NRES”) which is the arrangement for the operation of a telephone enquiry bureau for the purpose of condition 7.1(b) of your passenger licence, are answered in accordance with the Performance Standards. 2. For the purposes of determining whether you have complied with this Order: (a) the percentage of calls answered shall be the percentage of the calls made to the TEB telephone numbers in a Period which are answered; (b) the number of calls made to the TEB telephone numbers shall be the number recorded by BT as having been made to those telephone numbers; (c) without prejudice to the obligation in paragraph 1, the answering of 90 per cent of calls made to the TEB telephone numbers or answering 4.6 million calls, whichever is the less shall be deemed to be compliance with the Order in respect of that Period; (d) a call shall be deemed not to have been answered: (i) unless the caller receives a response to his or her enquiry; or (ii) if the call is put on hold; and (e) you shall not have failed to comply with this Order if the failure is a result of a Force Majeure Event. 3. Should you fail to comply with this Order in respect of the Period commencing 15th November 1998, or any subsequent Period, you shall pay to me in respect of each failure a monetary penalty, within one month of demand, equal to an amount: (a) where the number of calls made to the NRES number is equal to or greater than 5.1 million: (i) where the number of calls answered is greater than or equal to 4.34 million, but less than 4.6 million, of £500,000; and (ii) where the number of calls answered is less than 4.34 million, of an additional £500,000; or (b) where the number of calls made to the NRES number is less than 5.1 million: (i) where the number of calls answered is greater than or equal to 85 per cent of calls made but less than 90 per cent of calls made of £500,000; and (ii) where the number of calls answered is less than 85 per cent of calls made, of an additional £500,000. multiplied by your Attributed Percentage which is current for the Financial Year in which you have failed to comply with this Order. 4. This Order shall come into effect on 4th December 1998. 5. Expressions used in this Order have the same meaning as given to those expressions in the NRES agreement. C. Bolt, Rail Regulator Franchised train operators to whom the Order relates: Anglia Railways Train Services Ltd Cardiff Railway Company Ltd Central Trains Limited The Chiltern Railway Company Limited Connex South Central Ltd Connex South Eastern Ltd Gatwick Express Limited Great Eastern Railway Limited Great North Eastern Railway Limited Great Western Trains Company Limited Island Line Ltd LTS Rail Limited Merseyrail Electrics Limited Midland Main Line Limited Regional Railways North East Limited North London Railways Limited North Western Trains Company Limited ScotRail Railways Limited South Wales & West Railway Limited South West Trains Limited Thameslink Rail Limited Thames Trains Limited Cross Country Trains Limited West Coast Trains Limited West Anglia Great Northern Railway Limited 3rd December 1998.