Top Hurdler Backs Record Breaking c2c

Record-breakers team up as c2c and athlete Perri Shakes-Drayton celebrate another PB!

Double European Bronze medallist and Olympic hopeful Perri Shakes-Drayton, a rising star of British Athletics joined National Express train operator c2c to celebrate their latest record-breaking achievement at London's Fenchurch Street station yesterday.  

Official rail industry figures confirm that c2c has set a new punctuality record for Britain’s franchised railways of almost 99% with a four-week period performance of 98.82%, as measured to 21 August 2010. The new record smashes the old one by almost 1%.

Perri Shakes-Drayton said:

“This is a terrific achievement. I’d like to congratulate everyone at c2c for this record-breaking success. Like all athletes on the international stage I am always striving to improve my performance and exceed my personal best - and I know just what hard work and dedication it takes to achieve it.” 

The punctuality of Britain’s franchised train operators is measured every four weeks by Network Rail for the rail industry. c2c held the previous UK record of 97.97%, set in November last year and has now raised it by almost 1%. This achievement is another record-breaking effort by the c2c team who are continually setting new standards of train service punctuality.

Perri Shakes-Drayton is the reigning national 400m hurdle champion. She is also a European Double Bronze Medallist (2010), European U23 Champion (2009) and European Junior Silver Medallist (2007). In April 2009 Perri was part of the team that smashed the British record for the 200mx200mx400mx800m medley, knocking 10 seconds off the previous record.

Julian Drury, Managing Director of c2c said:

“We are delighted that Perri joined us to help us celebrate this new success. Like Perri we have focused on beating our previous records; we have held first place for two years whilst continually setting new standards for UK train punctuality and we are determined to keep on improving.

Julian added, “Perri is a hero in our part of east London, where she lives. Not only is she the reigning National 400m hurdle champion, but she also helped the British athletics team smash a British record, likewise the c2c team smashed the British record for train punctuality and together we are celebrating delivering the best.” 

Attaining the best period punctuality figure for Britain’s franchised train operators completes a series of triumphs for c2c over the last eighteen months. Early last summer the train operator equalled the Swiss Federal Railways annual punctuality record of 95.8% for 2008, then c2c was awarded the ‘Golden Whistle’ for recording the best punctuality amongst British train operators in 2009. In May 2010, the triumphs continued when c2c broke the record with an exceptionally high 96.7% of all trains in a year arriving inside the PPM (Public Performance Measure) punctuality target.