LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM -- (Marketwired) -- 06/20/13 -- Train operator East Midlands Trains has joined forces with local bus operator, trentbarton, to help provide alternative travel options for passengers during this summer's major re-signalling work at Nottingham Station.
Comprehensive plans are already in place to provide frequent rail replacement bus services on routes which cannot be served by train services during the summer. In addition, East Midlands Trains passengers holding a valid train ticket (including season tickets) will be able to use their ticket to travel on trentbarton's xprss service between Bingham and Nottingham, and Kinchbus 9 services between Nottingham and Loughborough.
Neil Micklethwaite, Customer Service & Commercial Director for East Midlands Trains, said: "A huge amount of work has been taking place to make sure we have comprehensive plans in place for our passengers to keep on travelling during the major improvement works taking place over the summer.
"We're really pleased to be teaming up with trentbarton to offer our passengers an alternative travel choice for their train journeys to and from Nottingham during the summer. This is a clear demonstration of our commitment to putting our customers first and doing the right thing for them during these works."
Alex Hornby, Commercial Director for trentbarton, said: "In times of potential disruption, it makes so much sense for travel providers to go the extra mile in looking after customers and their overall end-to-end journeys.
"We all work so hard to make buses and trains attractive, and it would be such a shame to see people move back to the car. We're really pleased to offer rail users the opportunity to use our services and to be proactively working together with East Midlands Trains on this ground-breaking initiative to support the overall public transport offer."
East Midlands Trains is also working with other rail companies to ensure that its passengers can travel on alternative rail routes avoiding disruption through Nottingham. For example, for a rail journey between Leicester and Lincoln, instead of travelling via Nottingham with East Midlands Trains, passengers will be able to use their ticket to travel via Peterborough and Spalding. A full list of alternative rail routes will be available at http://www.eastmidlandstrains.co.uk/nottingham.
Neil continues: "We've explored every option available to us to ensure that we can offer our customers the best and most convenient journey for them during the summer. As well as working with other bus and rail companies, we're also working closely with the Highways Agency to ensure that our rail replacement buses can run as smoothly as possible during the works."
The resignalling work will take place between Saturday 20 July and Sunday 25 August and will result in significant changes to East Midlands Trains services on routes to and from Nottingham.
East Midlands Trains has already announced plans to offer a 15% discount on train tickets which involve travel on a replacement bus service during the works. In addition, season ticket holders will receive two weeks' compensation if their journey is affected.
Full information and timetables can be found at eastmidlandstrains.co.uk/nottingham.
Notes to Editors
For media enquiries, please contact East Midlands Trains on 01738 442111. Out of office hours: An on-call service operates for urgent media enquiries out of hours. To access this service, please call 08448 222888 and quote MEDIA1. Please leave a short message, including your name, media organisation, phone number and the nature of your enquiry. The on call press officer will then return your call.
For a selection of East Midlands Trains images visit www.flickr.com/photos/eastmidlandstrains.
East Midlands Trains
-- East Midlands Trains, part of the Stagecoach Group, runs fast, frequent
trains from and to London St Pancras International and key UK
destinations throughout the East Midlands, including Leicester, Derby,
Sheffield, Nottingham, Manchester and Liverpool.
-- East Midlands Trains is currently investing over GBP 40 million to
improve stations across its network and every single passenger train
within its fleet.
-- East Midlands Trains is committed to offering great value fares. Use the
Best Fare Finder to search for cheap train tickets and book cheap train
tickets to London and on more than 400 routes across the UK.
Stagecoach Group
-- Stagecoach Group is a leading international public transport group, with
extensive operations in the UK, United States and Canada. The Group
employs around 35,000 people, and operates bus, coach, train, and tram
services.
-- Stagecoach is one of UK's biggest bus and coach operators with around
8,000 buses and coaches. Around 2.5 million passengers travel on
Stagecoach's buses every day on a network stretching from south-west
England to the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. The Group's business
includes major city bus operations in London, Liverpool, Newcastle,
Hull, Manchester, Oxford, Sheffield and Cambridge. Low-cost coach
service, megabus.com, operates between around 60 towns and cities across
the UK.
-- Stagecoach is a major UK rail operator, running the South West Trains,
Island Line and East Midlands Trains networks. It has a 49% shareholding
in Virgin Rail Group, which operates the West Coast inter-city rail
franchise.
-- Stagecoach also operates the Supertram light rail network in Sheffield.
-- In North America, Stagecoach operates around 2,900 buses and coaches in
the United States and Canada. Megabus.com serves more than 100 cities in
North America. Stagecoach is also involved in operating commuter and
transit services, contracted bus services, charters, sightseeing tours
and a small number of school bus services.
Contacts:
Media Enquiries
East Midlands Trains
01738 442111
