Trio of wins for Northern Rail

Northern Rail, the UK’s largest train operator and a joint venture between Serco and Abellio has taken home three prestigious honours at the North of England Excellence Awards held in Leeds on Thursday evening.

The awards recognise organisations that achieve and maintain superior performance and they use the EFQM (European Foundation for Quality Management) Excellence Model to help assess entries. Assessors look for clear examples of a structured and all-inclusive approach to performance improvement and this year, the process was focussed around a site visit to Northern, so the sights and sounds of a train operator in action could be experienced.

Nominated for four awards in total, the train operator took home accolades for Customer Service, Ethical Culture and Sustainability. Northern’s fresh approach to customer service was commended as it has put a strong emphasis on showing evidence of success and pre-empting customer expectation.

After recently being awarded Investors in People and Investors in Diversity, Northern has been proactively using these best practice models to help shape the ethical culture within the business. This approach has in turn also been passed onto customers and stakeholders.

Company-wide sustainability credentials have been supported with Northern being one of the first UK businesses to attain the IS0 14001:2015 environmentalmanagement certification.

Alex Hynes, Managing Director for Northern is delighted to see the hard work of his colleagues being applauded: “Each award we are nominated for is a reminder to our people and our customers that Northern is always working to improve the service we provide. To win awards in Customer Service, Ethical Culture and Sustainability is a fantastic achievement and only strengthens this promise to our people and our customers.”

The North of England Excellence Awards was held in the Royal Armouries, Leeds on Thursday 19 November.

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