The third passenger forum took place at UK’s busiest station London Waterloo on Tuesday 20 May with hundreds of passengers attended

• Third passenger forum at London Waterloo, UK’s busiest station, attended by hundreds of passengers
• All day event involved representatives from BTP, Passenger Focus, London Travel Watch, Samaritans and the Alliance Charity Panel
• Local charities raise hundreds of pounds during event

LONDON, 2014-5-23 — /Travel PR News/ — Hundreds of passengers met with a cross section of managers from the South West Trains – Network Rail Alliance for the third passenger forum at the UK’s busiest station, London Waterloo yesterday (Tuesday 20 May).

The event gave passengers the opportunity to meet face to face with staff from a wide range of railway roles including directors, drivers, engineers and guards.

Representatives from Samaritans, Passenger Focus, British Transport Police, London Travel Watch and the Alliance Charity Panel were also at the event that was held between 7am and 7pm.

Arthur Pretorius, Customer Service Director for the South West Trains – Network Rail Alliance, said: “This was a fantastic event with hundreds of passengers approaching us. It was a very important opportunity for us to hear first-hand the issues affecting our customers.

“There were a whole host of questions asked about a large range of issues including train capacity, station information, timetable and ticket queries.

“Our customers are at the heart of everything we do both internally and externally. By arranging these events we can make sure we carefully consider their thoughts and opinions when making important decisions.”

The Alliance Charity Panel also had a stand at the event to publicise their work. The panel, which consists of twelve members of Alliance staff, distributes thousands of pounds and tickets every year to local charities and community groups. The panel invited their ‘charities of the year’ to join them at the forum to speak to passengers about the important work they are doing and to collect donations.

Volunteers from Small Steps* charity, a charity based in Roehampton, South London who provide specialist help and support to parents with physically disabled children attended in the morning. Puppy trainers and puppies from Canine Partners* in Hampshire joined later in the day to shale their buckets and raise awareness of their charity that provides trained doges to people with disabilities.

The Giggle Doctors, part of Theodora Children’s Trust* turned up in full clown dress to appeal to the public for donations. Giggle Doctors are specialist entertainers, who work both in the hospital environment and with children with disabilities. They regularly visit hospitals in London and Southampton.

Chair of the panel, Kat O’Malley said, “This was a great opportunity for us to show passengers what we are doing to help charities across our route. Every day we donate tens of thousands of pounds and tickets to worthwhile charities and community groups. We also support our staff who are raising money for good causes. It’s our way of giving something back and it’s really important for us to explain this valuable work to our customers.

“We also had some of our chosen charities attending to collect money. It was a great day for them raising both awareness and more than £500 for their worthy causes.”

A full transcript of the questions asked and the answers provided will be available online from Friday 23rd May at: http://www.southwesttrains.co.uk/tell-us.aspx

Passenger Forum events take place every six months at Waterloo station, the next event is on 16 December 2014.

ENDS

Notes to Editors

*For more information about the charities involved please go to:

http://uk.theodora.org/en-gb

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