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‘one’ railway wins Greenest Business (Transport) Award in ‘Suffolk – Creating the Greenest County’ 2008 awards

13 Feb 2008

National Express Group’s ‘one’ railway has won the Greenest Business Award in the transport category at the ‘Suffolk - Creating the Greenest County’ Awards held yesterday at the ‘Suffolk - Creating the Greenest County’ conference hosted by BT at its leading technology and innovation park in Martlesham Heath, near Ipswich, Suffolk.

The awards celebrate the environmental excellence of businesses and organisations across Suffolk, and highlight how the County’s businesses, communities and schools are leading the way on a range of environmental areas, from transport to biodiversity.

‘one’ railway operates one of the most energy-efficient train fleets in the UK, and initiatives have included the introduction of regenerative braking on the fleet of Class 360 trains that operate some services on the mainline to Ipswich, saving around 2,000 tonnes of carbon a year and reducing energy requirements for that fleet by around 16%. Regenerative braking enables trains to generate electricity whilst they are slowing down, by converting the energy created as the train brakes back into electricity - which is then returned into the energy supply system for use by other trains or back into the national grid.

Another major initiative to improve energy efficiency is the training of all of drivers in energy-efficient driving practices using state-of-the-art driving simulators located at the company’s Customer Service Academy. Other key actions implemented to help reduce energy usage include: improved efficiency of heating and lighting controls on trains; station-specific action plans to reduce energy usage and station energy audits; an internal campaign, backed up with posters and publicity, to make everyone aware of energy efficient practices; work to recycle more newspapers left on ‘one’ trains and stations; appointment of energy champions for each route, and a review of non-passenger train workings to minimise energy usage.

Andrew Chivers, Managing Director, ‘one’ railway said: “I am delighted that the efforts ‘one’ railway is making in developing a positive and effective approach to the management of energy-efficient practices across our business, has been recognised by this prestigious award. It demonstrates that the company is making sound progress in this important area, not just in Suffolk, but across London and throughout the East of England where our train services operate.”

Notes to Editors/Picture desks

‘one’ railway won the Best Fleet Management Award at the International Green Business Awards 2007 run by World Business magazine and the INSEAD Business School. The awards recognise best practice in environmental strategy across the business sector.

For further information about this press release, please ring the ‘one’ Press Office on 0207 549 5966/65/64 and ask for Peter Meades, Jill Casswell, Ellen Rossiter or Jonathan Denby. For urgent or out-of-office hours calls, please leave a message by ringing 07623 952612. We’ll get back to you as soon as we can.

All recent press releases can be found on the ‘one’ website:
www.onerailway.com

National Express Group PLC is one of the major train operators in the UK with four rail franchises - c2c, Gatwick Express, National Express East Coast, and ‘one’ (including Stansted Express).