LAST autumn Arriva Trains Northern made a promise to its customers, the Strategic Rail Authority and the four Passenger Transport Executives, that it would restore the full timetable on June 2, and I am pleased to say that we have been as good as our word.

This is largely due to our very successful driver recruitment and training campaign -- one of the largest the rail industry has seen. With more and more drivers graduating through our training school, our passengers are seeing the benefits of our investment in new people, and this month we are looking forward to celebrating the 200th driver to have completed training. I would like to express my sincere thanks to our customers, who have been patient while we worked to turn around the business and the inherited driver shortage. I would also like to reassure them that the team at Arriva Trains Northern is working hard to continually improve the punctuality and reliability of services. Indeed, our latest passenger charter figures show that over 99 per cent of services operated and just under 90 per cent (89.9) of them arrived on time.

This is undoubtedly good news for passengers, however I do appreciate that strike action taken by the RMT and TSSA unions in pursuit of unrealistic pay demands continues to inconvenience our customers.

We recently made an increased offer of a four per cent pay rise, which the unions strongly indicated could be acceptable and then subsequently rejected. It was a fair offer and a genuine attempt by the company to resolve the disputes.

We have clearly indicated we cannot increase it further. If there is no resolution, we are potentially faced with more strikes until the franchise ends in February, 2003. This would be intolerable for our customers particularly given the improvements we have now made. However, we cannot give in to unrealistic pay demands, as the implications would stretch far wider in the industry than just Arriva Trains Northern.

In spite of the difficulties associated with strike action, our focus on ensuring customers receive the high quality services they expect and deserve will grow from strength to strength as we take the business forward.

Ray Price

Managing Director

ARRIVA Trains Northern Ltd

Room M77

Main Headquarters

Station Rise

York

North Yorkshire, Y01 6HT