Haddenham and Thame Parkway major station upgrade officially unveiled

On Tuesday, 10 June celebrity chef Raymond Blanc OBE officially unveiled Haddenham & Thame Parkway, marking a major upgrade to the facilities at the station.

The station building has been completely rebuilt and now has a larger ticket office and coffee shop area as well as brand new toilet facilities. Chiltern Railways has also upgraded the cycle parking, car park lighting and created a motorcycle parking zone.

Haddenham & Thame Parkway opened in 1987 and quickly became a success due to its close proximity to the M40 and excellent parking facilities. In the last two years alone, the station has seen a 14% increase in passenger numbers with these improvements seeking to further enhance the customer experience.

Rob Brighouse, Managing Director of Chiltern Railways said: "The station rebuild is transformational and a real milestone for Haddenham & Thame Parkway. The work reinforces our ongoing commitment to investing in our stations to give our passengers a high quality travel experience. We hope that Haddenham & Thame Parkway will become a model for other stations nationwide."

Raymond Blanc, Chef Patron of Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons which is a short drive from Haddenham & Thame Parkway station, said: "I, like so many others, rely on a fast and frequent service in and out of London - Chiltern Railways provide that for me and thousands of commuters. Our local station, Haddenham and Thame is just a few miles from Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons.  The Chiltern Railways team also intelligently use social media to communicate any service changes to keep us up to date and moving."

The rebuild has been made possible due to a £500K investment by Chiltern Railways, Network Rail, Bucks County Council and Sustrans.

Notes to Editors:

About us

1. Chiltern Railways is part of Arriva plc, the division of Deutsche Bahn AG responsible for regional passenger transport outside of Germany.
2. The route runs from London Marylebone to Birmingham through the Chiltern Hills, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire.
3. Chiltern Railways is one of the most innovative train operators in the UK. The company increased line speed on the Chiltern line as part of the wide Evergreen 3 project which resulted in faster services between Birmingham and London. In 2011, the company launched Mainline, their fast service between Birmingham and London. At the same time Chiltern Railways launched a ‘premium economy’ Business Zone. They are also the first train operator in Britain to introduce mobile ticketing and fulfilment through their award-winning app.
4. The train company has a number of investment projects planned for future delivery, the most significant of which is building a new line between Oxford and London. It is the first new rail link between two major British cities for 100 years.

Awards

1. The company has won numerous awards including ‘Excellence in Technology’ (London Transport Awards), IT Excellence (Rail Business Awards), Most Effective Mobile Ticketing Solution (Effective Mobile Marketing Awards) the ‘Passenger experience’ category (Railway Industry Innovation Awards) for their app. It was also named Apple’s ‘App of the Week’ and featured on The Gadget Show. Most recently, Chiltern Railways won Passenger Operator of the Year 2012 in the National Rail Awards and transport campaign of the year in the Marketing Excellence Awards.
2. Chiltern Railways continues to exceed its Franchise Agreement target for punctuality with over 94% of trains arriving at their destination within 5 minutes of their scheduled arrival time.
3. In May 2013, Chiltern Railways was awarded 5* accreditation against the criteria of the European Foundation for Quality Management’s (EFQM) Excellence Model.

For more information about Chiltern Railways, visit the company’s website www.chilternrailways.co.uk