Case Study: TransPennine Express extends internal communications reach with Thrive

How the British train company use an app to extend their communications reach and form the basis for a new, streamlined mobile intranet

TransPennine Express, the British train operating company, needed a better way to communicate with colleagues across a large and varied workforce, including staff without company email addresses and frontline teams overloaded by operational messages. They wanted to improve employee engagement and ensure important news, safety updates, and customer information reached drivers, conductors, station staff, and contractors more reliably.

Thrive implemented “The Loop,” a simple-to-update native mobile app that combines news, push notifications, and practical job-support tools such as journey planning and airport terminal guidance. The app was launched on preloaded phones and personal devices, grew organically to around 500 regular users, and supported a 60-second monthly video update plus safety and transformation updates; TPE also reported reduced printing costs and plans to use the app for ideas, suggestions, and richer two-way content, with a longer-term usage target of about 75%.

TransPennine Express

Catherine Unsworth

TPE Internal Communications Manager