ASSOCIATION of TRAIN OPERATING COMPANIES

5 November 1998

Dear Mr Feather

NATIONAL ROUTEING GUIDE

Thank you for your letter of 26 October, in which you raise a number of further detailed questions regarding the National Routeing Guide (NRG).

I have to tell you that ATOC does not have the time or resources to devote to answering lengthy enquiries of a "research" nature. I am sure you will appreciate that my priorities in managing the NRG must be:

1. to deal with problems encountered by customers in actually making journeys by train;
2. in the light of the above, to consider requests from customers, train operators and consumer bodies for changes to the NRG.

The NRG is being automated as part of a new Journey Information System due for implementation next year. This will provide speedier and more comprehensive train timetable, fares, ticket and routeing information, benefiting customers and ticket/enquiry office staff alike.

You will be pleased to hear that, as part of this automation process, the NRG is being scrutinised to discover and correct any anomalies. Once the Journey Information System is in operation, you will be able to obtain appropriate routeing information for any rail journey that you are planning.

Finally, regarding the information you received from various enquiry offices, you should address any complaints to the relevant train companies.

Yours sincerely

Tim Stevens
Retail Services Manager