Chiltern Railways has been named 2017’s top franchised train operator in the YouGov BrandIndex UK Rankings.
YouGov BrandIndex measures the public’s perception of brands on a daily basis across a range of measures. The annual rankings are compiled using Buzz scores from across all 52 weeks of last year. Buzz scores measure whether people have heard anything good or bad about a brand during the previous two weeks.
The rankings come following another year of investment and improvements for Chiltern Railways, the Arriva UK Trains company; the new Oxford to London line launched at the end of 2016. This has been a significant addition to transport options for Oxfordshire residents and has successfully grown the rail market at Oxford by over 20% since launch.
The company has also led the way in new ticketing technology as part of the industry’s aim to make travel simpler and easier. It is currently running a “ticket-free” travel trial using geolocation and Bluetooth technology to map journeys with the customer billed the best value fare at the end of the day.
Improvements have been made to capacity both on trains and car parking at stations. 6000 seats have been added per week on average and a new car park at Leamington Spa provided an additional 315 spaces at the station alongside a new café.
Eleni Jordan, Commercial Director for Chiltern Railways, said:
“I’m proud to see the Chiltern brand held in such high regard by the UK public. Our customers are an incredibly important part of what we do, and we will continue to invest to improve the customer experience both now and for the long term.”
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