Train operator First Great Western has received an award for its innovative staff development programme, which has helped deliver an 11 per cent rise in customer satisfaction in the past two years.

The company has received the passenger experience award at the Railway Industry Innovation Awards, hosted by Modern Railways, for their two-day Putting Customers First (PCF) training programme, which all 2,220 of its customer-facing employees have now attended.

The programme has helped staff to understand how they can deliver the best possible service to the company's customers, and played a key part in helping to improve the company's customer satisfaction scores in the latest National Passenger Survey.

Managing director Mark Hopwood said: "Our customers are at the forefront of everything we do. Their comfort and satisfaction with services is paramount to the smooth running of the network. We realised that by introducing this unique learning programme, which focuses on developing the behaviours to improve the customer experience, we could help maximise customer satisfaction levels."