Tuesday 7th, September 2006 was a landmark day for everyone at Midland Mainline – the day our company secured the blue riband accolade of 'Passenger Operator of the Year' at the National Rail Awards for the first time. This was an immense achievement.

It came not just because our parent company (National Express) had been steadily investing in the business since 1996. Not just because the National Express Trains Division had made a determined effort to improve performance across all our businesses, but because everyone at Midland Mainline had decided it was time to be the best. It's important to remember that our route was neglected for decades.

Sandwiched between the prestigious West and East Coast Main Lines, we never saw full-scale electrification in the 1960s, '70s and '80s. Our trains were usually hand-me-downs and our line speeds were low: many of our natural passengers chose to railhead from other places. This began to change when BR cascaded some diesel HSTs to the route, but the big boost in rolling stock came when National Express took over the franchise.

One of the first actions was to procure a new fleet of Turbostar trains to increase service frequency and add new destinations to the route. A few years later, we set about procuring the Class 222 'Meridian' fleet – trains which bring 21st century levels of speed, acceleration and comfort. The Meridians also use the latest diesel technology, making an important contribution to reducing carbon emissions and other pollutants.

So, we had the kit, but now we needed to maximise its potential. By 2003, Network Rail was getting a grip on the legacy of Railtrack. In National Express Group's Trains Division, we decided to create an entirely new and methodical way of working with Network Rail to deliver performance benefits for customers.

We called this the Performance Management Improvement Process, or 'P-MIP'. P-MIP systematically identifies the root causes of delays, and then implements the measures needed to eliminate them. We allocate responsibility to individual managers and we work in close partnership with Network Rail to give them operator and customer perspectives on problems.

Through P-MIP, we also work very closely with the suppliers and manufacturers of our trains. It's no good just expecting to take the wrapping off and away you go; trains are complex, sophisticated – and expensive. They need to be commissioned into the real life of the railway, and operated by crews who deal with live passengers rather than computer generated simulations.

In National Express we take special pride in our ability to introduce new trains successfully and then get the very best out of them. In the case of Midland Mainline, P-MIP took the form of 'Project Speed', a plan bringing all of our 1,200-strong workforce into a joint endeavour to improve punctuality.

It worked – our punctuality and reliability score ('PPM') has improved from 62.9% in 2003 to the opposite end of the scale, with Midland Mainline breaking industry records by achieving 93.3% PPM for the latest quarter. Our Moving Annual Average PPM is running at 92.5% in 2006. Who would have thought just a few years ago that we would be able to point to 13 days when 100% of trains arrived on time.

A multitude of efforts by individual Midland Mainline personnel, managers and teams are behind this success – like the engineers who worked with the leasing companies to modify our HSTs, improving the electronics and cooling systems of these aged but still magnificent trains. The depot staff who delivered a step change in attention to detail within depots to eliminate late starts. The Operations Control staff who have successfully co-located with Network Rail to improve Teamworking. The station staff who have revised despatch procedure at stations – including the use of the formidable Acme Thunderer whistles to reduce dwell times. And the resource staff who have improved diagrams and rostering.

Although running a successful railway is about more than just punctuality and reliability, Midland Mainline's performance improvement is a key driver in improving the overall customer experience. The National Passenger Survey carried out in Autumn 2005, showed a 15% year on year increase in the number of passengers satisfied with punctuality and reliability, up to 86% in total.

This leap in satisfaction is a direct result of Midland Mainline's commitment to improving performance on its services. We were the most punctual intercity train operator for the whole of 2005, and this trend has continued for the majority of 2006. It is an upward trend replicated across all the National Express train businesses.

We know that top quality performance needs to go hand in hand with top class customer service if we are to continue to grow the market for rail and compete successfully with the car. National Express Group's new customer service ethos has already started to have effect.

Our new Group Chief Executive at National Express – Richard Bowker – has publicly declared that we will put the customer at the centre of all our thinking. So, the Midland Mainline Customer Services Strategy has the goal of achieving continuous improvements in customer satisfaction. We want to be consistently the best, not just in the intercity class, but in the whole industry. We want to put Midland Mainline in a class of its own.

We are empowering employees to make decisions that positively affect our passengers, and to champion the customer's cause by giving local teams accountability, and by celebrating success in delivering for them, building on our reputation established by our Customer Services Academy in Derby.

Having the right foundations in place is vital. We created a 365-day Plan with derivative customer service plans for each depot, station and function. We created a Centres of Excellence programme to recognise and achieve best practice targets every time.

The scheme sets detailed criteria for each location to achieve levels of accreditation based on their ability to deliver against customer expectations. A Centre of Excellence will set the standard for other areas of our business to follow. The programme is aimed to motivate and encourage all employees.

This means, for example, that we've launched a new process for train presentation and cleanliness. We're also developing a template strategy for providing information during times of disruption. And we've addressed basic issues like making sure that all of our customers arriving at London St. Pancras are welcomed by Midland Mainline personnel.

Results are beginning to reap dividends with customer complaints at an all-time low and improvements in our mystery shopper scores, which gives us confidence that we can build on this year's success.

A train company should be part of the communities it serves. We've made a big commitment in this direction through our environmental policies. At the recent national recycling awards, Midland Mainline scooped the accolade of 'Best Commercial Waste Initiative', and was commended for championing a new initiative at the Derby maintenance depot. We now recycle 50% of rubbish collected from trains returning to Derby, with paper, glass, bottles, cans and cardboard removed by hand from the waste stream.

We were also praised for our community initiative – momentum – under which we work with secondary schools to promote the importance of waste management and recycling to 11-16 year olds. One thing we certainly are consigning to the dustbin is the idea that the Midland Mainline is the poor relation amongst the intercity railway businesses.

With the new East Midlands franchise now less than a year away, we are determined to move forward from our success with Midland Mainline, making rail a serious force in the transport choices of customers, and creating sustainable prosperity for the communities we serve.