The RailStaff Awards 2019 show book

Moroccan Nights

THE RAILSTAFF AWARDS 2019 THE NEC // THURSDAY // 28TH NOVEMBER WWW.RAILSTAFFAWARDS.COM TheRailStaffAwards

Rail Media

@railstaffawards

A NEW KINGDOM It has been a record-breaking year for the RailStaff Awards, once again beating last year’s record, with 1,360 nominations and 100,740 votes cast!

do the exotic characters as their graceful bodies push the boundaries of possibility in mind-blowing spectacles of skill, distortion and contortion.

Well done and best of luck to all who have made the finals.

With so many nominations and votes, it is a real honour to have made it here tonight. You are a finalist. The best of the best. Each one of you deserves to be applauded for what you have achieved this year.

Performers fly, spin and twist as you enjoy a succulent four-course dinner, fine wine and the company of your fellow rail staff.

Year on year, you, the great people of the rail industry, keep providing fantastic service to the travelling public whilst upgrading and working on the infrastructure and we are delighted to be able to shine the spotlight on your achievements.

This year, the RailStaff Awards enters a place of mystery and adventure, but it’s no concept of the imagination. An oasis of beauty that fuses African and European culture and leaves visitors mesmerised by its rich landscapes. As you pass through the gates of the NEC, be prepared to be wowed as the sights and sounds of Morocco.

Inspired by the bustling souk and giant archways of Marrakesh, the minarets towering into the sky, the vibrancy of the marketplace with intriguing characters brushing by, expect an electrifying production on a staggering scale.

Having left the cold winter’s night behind, silhouettes of minarets and giant archways rise over the Red City as you make your way around. Your senses warm, drawing endless energy from the townsfolk vying for your attention to sell their wares. As you pass, they offer delicious hot and cold canapés and beckon you further towards one of the bars stocked with ice-cold beers, fine wines and crisp spirits.

The cocktail bar, framed by rich fabrics and bejewelled in candlelight, tempts you closer to mixologists offering you colourful cocktails created to order. As the volume rises, so

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As the last spoonful of dessert is devoured, the lights cut to an explosion of light and sound that marks the beginning of a dazzling show. As it comes to a climactic end, the evening’s host is summoned. Showman Richard Salkeld, who shone so brightly in 2018 that he once more returns for 2019, introduces the main attraction – the RailStaff Awards – and leads the celebrations as heroic characters with traits of skill, judgment and goodwill are recognised.

Surrounded by friends, family and railway colleagues, category finalists around the room sit on the edge of their seats in anticipation. Acknowledged by fellow workers throughout the nomination process, these chosen few represent the very finest of the hundreds of thousands of contractors, customer service assistants, train drivers and training managers in the sector.

After the awards, the dance floor comes to life with a mixture of modern hits and party classics. The indoor fairground rides begin to whiz and whir, casino tables open and fairground stalls begin to ply their trade. As the music rises the dance floor beckons the disco bunnies with boundless energy and whose night is still young.

Although the evening draws to a close, memories of rail industry heroes crowned and good times remain as you reflect on what has been a truly spectacular night.

Enjoy your evening amongst the stars of our industry.

The RailStaff Awards Team

CONTENTS 02 WELCOME 03 CONTENTS 04 ITINERARY 05 MENU 06 THE FINALISTS 66 MEET OUR JUDGES 67 THANK YOU… 68 THE ROAD TO A RAILSTAFF AWARD

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ITINERARY WHAT TO EXPECT Across the Moroccan-themed room you’ll see a professional cocktail bar and a Moët and Chandon champagne bar as well as fairground rides, casino tables* and later, a live band, once the awards have been handed out.

Entertainment thoughtout the evening, includes world class Cirque de Soleil-style aerial and floor-based acts, acro-balance and high tempo dance routines.

18.30

GUESTS ARRIVE FOR THE DRINKS RECEPTION VIP DRINKS AND CANAPÉS

19.00

SEATED FOR DINNER

19.20

WELCOME TO THE SHOW WITH YOUR HOST RICHARD SALKELD (HEAD OF MEDIA, LNER)

19.30

THE THREE-COURSE DINNER IS SERVED

21.00 ENTERTAINMENT 21.10

THE RAILSTAFF AWARDS PRESENTATION – PART ONE

22.00 INTERVAL 22.15 ENTERTAINMENT 22.25

THE RAILSTAFF AWARDS PRESENTATION – PART TWO

23.00 RAFFLE ANNOUNCEMENT 23.00 OUR LIVE BAND, FULLY FUNKTIONAL AND FAIRGROUND RIDES OPEN 01:00 CARRIAGES

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*These items are optional and come with a small charge.

MENU STARTER Yuzu, ginger & shiso smoked salmon with an oriental rice noodle salad & micro leaf OR Freshly-roasted, vine-ripened tomato & basil soup with rustic toasted croutons (v)

MAIN COURSE Roasted chicken breast with a seasonal pork stuffing, fondant potato, honey & thyme roasted root vegetables, festive greens, French beans & pigs in blankets OR Lentil & bean dahl with sweet potato wedges, sun-blushed tomato polenta & wilted spinach (v)

DESSERT Warm Belgium chocolate fondant served with clotted Cornish ice cream (v)

COFFEE & CHOCOLATES Freshly-ground coffee, teas & chocolate truffles served from the coffee bar**

Order drinks from your phone by visiting www.nec-drinks.co.uk

**Coffee stations available around the hall.

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Apprentice of the Year This award, sponsored by Jacobs, is intended to recognise the outstanding contributions of individuals who are new to rail, or who have chosen to take a career change and become an apprentice. These individuals have shown an exceptional skill, tenacity and professional achievement.

Arabella Martin

Elliot Passmore

GTR

AECOM

Arabella possesses outstanding enthusiasm and willingness to getting the job done, ahead of time and to an exemplary standard, while pushing for more.

Elliot joined the rail industry as an enthusiastic and dedicated apprentice and showed an eye for detail when preparing a major bid for design work for the Wessex Alliance as part of a project management initiation. He progressed to track design, undertaking plain line design and gauge clearance assessments for IEP for platform extensions.

She has already secured a permanent position after just six months at GTR and has become a valuable and wellrespected member of the customer experience team in control at Three Bridges. She has the determination to succeed and a bright future ahead of her.

His ability to recognise challenging timescales led to a quality end product, on time and to budget.

Beth Chambers

Hashim Syed

Virgin Trains

Jacobs

“Star apprentice” and eager learner Beth has completed placements throughout the business whilst studying for her degree.Her biggest achievement to date is her work with stations teams to help create a safe space for customers with hidden disabilities.

Hashim joined Jacobs as an apprentice CAD technician in September 2015 and through his mature approach to learning and work, a collaborative attitude and by stepping up to all types of challenges, he became a key member of the rail civils design team, proving himself to be an essential member of the Western Rail Link to Heathrow project team.

She is said to consider all stakeholders in any task she completes, to be a great communicator and someone who takes great pride in her work.

Beth Flanagan

James Kindon G&W UK

Arup Beth, an experienced COSS, joined Arup’s Manchester office as a design apprentice in June 2017.

She demonstrated excellent safety skills and exhibited a high level of confidence and safety culture so, soon after joining, she became a rail safety advisor.

Beth has since gone from strength to strength, as well as academic success in engineering and safety, she recently became rail safety co-ordinator for Arup’s Liverpool and Manchester offices. Despite her age, she has continually demonstrated an ability and maturity to seize opportunities and handle complicated situations.

James joined Freightliner in 2015 as a level 3 engineering apprentice and, after completing his course a year ahead of schedule, has now progressed to level 4.

His hunger for knowledge, combined with a keen interest in understanding how things work, makes James a brilliant problem-solver.

This came to the fore earlier this year when James managed to resolve a reoccurring electrical fault with one of Freightliner’s locomotives, which was proving difficult for even some of our senior electricians to remedy – and was not the first time he has managed to wow colleagues.

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY

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Jonothan Neil

Magda Taranowicz

Jacobs

Jacobs

Jonothan is a hardworking, enthusiastic and determined young man who strives to improveand learn every day. He has fast become an important member of the team in Glasgow, quickly integrating through participation in team-building events.

Magdalena is said to encapsulate the passion for growth, learning and development each apprentice should have. Through her curiosity, wanting and eagerness to learn new things and get involved in every single aspect of her work on HS2, she has grown from a quiet, yet competent, individual to a key member of the team who does not shy away from getting her voice out there, challenging colleagues and delivering technical work.

Since joining in August 2017, Jonothan has studied towards – and this year achieved – an HNC in civil engineering as well as a SCQF Level 6 SVQ qualification in built environment and design. He has also overcome missing work after he broke his leg, which led to him missing seven weeks of college, so it is a great credit to him that he managed to catch up and pass the classes.

Jordan Morrison McGinley Support Services Jordan is a hardworking, enthusiastic and committed young man who strives to develop his skills and make the most of every day. From the outset, his enthusiasm for the industry and willingness to learn and develop his skillset has set him out from the rest.

Since joining McGinley in June 2018 as part of a 13-month railway engineering apprenticeship, Jordan has become an important member of the team demonstrating a high level of dedication. He hasn’t missed a shift and is always willing to listen and learn.

What if?

What if we showed you how we’re solving the world’s greatest challenges by transforming intangible ideas into intelligent solutions for a more connected, sustainable world?

At Jacobs, we think differently about the future.

#WhatIf jacobs.com/whatif Follow us @JacobsConnects

Katie Ratcliffe Transport for Wales Rail Services Katie began her apprenticeship with the customer relations team but shortly after the change in rail franchise in 2018, she transferred to train planning as a train planning and diagram specialist.

She now produces train crew diagrams to meet specifications, giving adequate notice of changes. The role is mentallychallenging and Katie, who is also an ambassador for the YRP, has demonstrated the ability to plan methodically yet think on her feet.

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY

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Maggie Luckhurst

Waseem Hussain

GTR

AECOM

Working within GTR’s marketing team, Maggie has gone beyond what has been expected of her as a design and content apprentice, especially when, in August, she designed the Pride-themed wrap for a Thameslink train for Brighton Pride as well as all other Pride-themed marketing collateral.

Since joining AECOM in 2017, Waseem has shown a maturity beyond his years. He has demonstrated a high level of dedication from day one and, through this, this year he received an ‘Outstanding Performance’ award from his apprentice training body, having successfully completed all elements of his apprenticeship in record time.

She has also gained lots of knowledge during her apprenticeship and has become a well-known and well-liked member of the team because of her passion for GTR and the rail industry.

Waseem shares his commitment and best practice ideas within his peer group and encourages them all to realise their own success.

Megan Rutter

Zoe Auld Virgin Trains

Network Rail Megan is an active ambassador for women in engineering and this year became one of Network Rail’s first women to pass the new Level 3 rail engineering technician apprenticeship standard.

She balanced her studies with assisting the apprenticeship training team in developing improvements and has also attended multiple industry events to encourage employers to promote apprenticeships to women. She has spoken publicly at many events, including to the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport and to the DfT’s permanent secretary Bernadette Kelly.

Zoe has been undertaking placements around the business as part of her higher-level degree apprenticeship.

Whilst learning the business, becoming the youngest qualified route controller in the organisation and getting top marks in her degree, she has supported the organisation to keep operations going in difficult times. During one of its biggest challenges, she volunteered to assist during industrial strike, learning a new skill of dispatching trains and putting herself on the frontline in a very busy Christmas period.

Shaun Jones Network Rail Shaun, aged 40, who works in Network Rail’s fleet and engineering team, was part of the first cohort to undertake a new traction, rolling stock and wheeled plant apprenticeship scheme in October 2018.

Studying full-time at York College encompassed a complete lifestyle change for Shaun, as his role as an assistant systems manager involves travelling around the UK with high output machines. Shaun started studying two months later than many of the other students but he quickly surpassed many of them, both academically and practically.

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY

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Award for Charity Category sponsor Land Sheriffs began its long 25-year history when its CEO faced the reality of an illegal encampment behind his own home. In the absence of effective support from local council or police, he was prompted to clear the land and move the encampment on, and so the Land Sheriffs was born. The company’s successes in the industry has seen it grow organically from a small SME to a medium SME, and importantly it continues to do so without diluting the service provided to clients.

90 Mile Charity Ride for Princes Trust Team GTR 22 employees from GTR, including former Princes Trust candidates, station staff and managers, the finance director and chief executive, embarked on a gruelling training programme to prepare for the Palace to Palace Charity Cycle ride for the Trust.

Chris Conway Network Rail Chris Conway works full time as a signaller but finds the time outside of work to look after the homeless. Last year, Chris started his own homeless organisation called United Blackpool. He goes out onto the streets every week, feeding homeless people, engaging with them and making them feel valued, and getting them off the street and into accommodation.

He also runs a soup kitchen and charity in Blackpool called Amazing Graze, which feeds over 15,000 people a year.

The ‘Ultra 90 Mile Route’ goes from Buckingham Palace to Windsor Castle, a 6-8 hour challenge. Despite a horrific day, full of rain, wind and cold, the team raised over £5,500 which the GTR has matched, for a total of £11,000 going to the Trust.

Amy Chapman Great Western Railway Amy Chapman has worked at Exeter St David’s as a customer ambassador since 2014. showing a passion for customer service.

Outside of her daily role, Amy has become involved in charity work. In 2015, she organised a team of nine managers and staff to take part in a skydive, raising over £10,000 for the Dame Hannah Rogers trust.

Having taught herself sign language, she now visits Exeter Deaf Academy to talk to deaf children about careers and rail safety.

Proud Sponsors of the

Award for Charity

Land Sheriffs are a dedicated professional security task force providing protection and safety of our client's employees, customers and their infrastructure.

landsheriffs.co. uk

�-

0845 257 4567

Depot Staff of the Year 2017

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY

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Daniel Burn

Eastbourne Ticket Office

Gatwick Express

GTR (Southern)

Gatwick Express station manager for London Victoria, Daniel is an “absolutely fearsome” advocate for disability rights. He has worked with many charities and support groups and hosted “try a train” events, working with local and national charities so that people in the local community living with disabilities can experience train travel in a controlled environment.

The team from Southern Railway’s Eastbourne station ticket office has put together an honesty book shelf from donations by friends, family, colleagues and passengers.

In total, their efforts have paid off and, so far, the initiative has raised over £2,000 for the Embrace charity, which supports special needs and disabled children, promoting inclusion and improving life skills and opportunities through clubs, outreach and advocacy and a sensory room.

Daniel recently supported a local autism support group, raising over £2,000 to help their work and giving up his day off to attend their fundraising day.

Danielle McGuinness

Jason Weetman Network Rail

CrossCountry Trains Danielle McGuinness, a train manager based at Bournemouth was unwell at the start of this year with Guillian-Barré syndrome, a rare virus that left her virtually paralysed, spending many months in hospital recovering.

Now thankfully recovered, Danielle is supporting CrossCountry Trains’ caterers with leaflets, information and charity items, to help them raise money for GAIN (Guillain-Barré & Associated Inflammatory Neuropathies). She has organised a charity race night and sold raffle tickets to raise money and awareness to help others affected by Guillian-Barre.

Danny Hawkins

Jason Weetman was approached to obtain some redundant materials that would help with the rehabilitation of inmates at Parc Prison in Bridgend, Wales, teaching them new skills to help them find jobs and prevent them re-offending after release.

Working with a team of colleagues, Jason arranged for the supply and transport of suitable materials. These have now been delivered to Parc Prison and the finished result is very impressive – the set-up of the track/sleepers/ballast is very realistic and perfect for training.

Katie Smith Virgin Trains

Network Rail High Speed Danny Hawkins continually looks for opportunities to bring both local community and stations together. He hosts local school visits with BTP to teach children about safety on the railway and invites them to sing each Christmas to raise money for charity.

He worked with the Gr@nd in Gravesend (a healthy living organisation) and Southeastern to initiate a Health and Wellbeing award scheme for stations and regularly conducts ‘back to the floor’ and ‘meet the manager’ days to discuss any concerns staff may have.

As the Community Champion for Carlisle, Katie Smith has been instrumental in the organisation of the following events – World Mental Health Day, Christmas/ Summer Community Rail Day, Charity Collections, Cumbria Thank You day for the British Legion Appeal, Student Work Exp Days, Rethink Awareness/fundraising, Rookies Days, Epilepsy Awareness Day and she has just begun exploring a community garden for Carlisle too. With the support of her colleagues, these days have raised funds/awareness of charities and the VT Brand.

Depot Staff of the Year 2017

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY

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Kayleigh Smith & Gemma Berry

Team KGX

GTR (Southern)

GTR (Great Northern)

Kay Smith and Gemma Berry held a cake sale on Brighton Concourse last June, selling home-made cakes to staff and passengers. All the staff from Brighton station came together to help and make this happen. They recruited all the staff from Brighton station together to help and make this happen and, after all their hard work, they raised £1,014.37 in memory of the daughter of a fellow member of staff who sadly lost her fight with breast cancer three years ago.

GTR Great Northern staff, family and friends undertook a 13-mile sponsored Night Walk through London to raise funds for MacMillan Cancer Support, Stroke Association and Dementia UK.

Paul McQuillan Fundraising Group Network Rail Paul McQuillan was a popular signalling project engineer based in Swindon who passed away suddenly in November 2017 after playing Rugby. In his memory, colleagues started fundraising for a defibrillator for a local Rugby Club, holding events such as bake sales, quiz nights and a tuck shop.

The group raised £2,248 between March and December last year, enough to buy two portable defibrillators. The team presented the one to Colerne Rugby Club in Wiltshire, where Paul played in his youth.

Southern Rowers

Reaching out to past and present colleagues, family and friends throughout the GTR network., they also arranged a number of garage sales and auctions as well as sales of novelties and railway-branded items. The result was a magnificent £5,964.28, with Gift Aid, raised for these fantastic causes.

The Crewe – All Change Project Team Virgin Trains A team of six organised an open day of Crewe depot to raise funds on behalf of the NET Patient Foundation, which provides support for those affected by Neuroendocrine Cancer.

James Dobson (Train Manager, VT), Jacqui Hemingway (Customer Service Assistant, VT), John Humphries (Operations Delivery Manager, LSL) and Steve Finn (Service Delivery Manager, LSL) worked with Chris Milner (The Railway Magazine) and Richard Stanton (Virgin Trains) to secure 42 exhibits that, on the day, attracted 5,000 visitors and helped the team raise £72,262 for their chosen charity.

Tony Brindley

GTR (Southern) Gary Harman, Richard Brown and Richard Quinn of Southern Railway completed a 24-hour row in January – ‘travelling’ the distance from London to Paris on static rowing machines on Brighton station concourse.

A last-minute recruit to the team, Gary Harman didn’t get as much training as the other two.

Nevertheless, with the support and commitment of his colleagues, the three of them together raised over £6000 for cancer research, a magnificent effort for this worthy cause.

MTR Elizabeth Line Tony Brindley raised over £3,500 on his own for MTRs charity of the year, Samaritans. He walked for three days from Reading to Shenfield, a total of over 88 miles! During this period, Tony updated the company and took selfies with colleagues across the route, making it an engaging journey.

More recently, Tony supported a colleague with raising money for Railway Children and has also supported with raising funds for Macmillan Cancer by dieing his beard green.

Depot Staff of the Year 2017

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY

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Digital Railway Person or Team Award Westermo Data Communications, sponsor of the Digital Railway Person or Team Award, designs and manufactures robust data communication devices for harsh environments, including those found alongside the world’s railways.

Abdul Rehman Savant

revenue – enabling TfL to invest further in improving their infrastructure to deliver a better service for passengers.

Amey Consulting

Co-located throughout the project, the team organised market engagement and engineering workshops, working together to develop a value-engineered solution.

Abdul Savant is constantly looking at bringing the railway into the 21st century, liaising with suppliers and manufactures to develop new technologies, smart solutions and innovative ideas to help improve the railway.

F2G Project Team

He organises lunchtime CPD events, to not only keep himself up to date with new digital technologies, but also to inform his fellow work colleagues from all disciplines and sectors within Amey, with whom he is always willing to share his technical knowledge of digital technologies.

Hitachi Rail STS, Arup, Rainford, Linbrooke and Network Rail IP Signalling

Dan Reilly Atkins, part of the SNC Lavalin Group Dan Reilly has worked with Atkins for five years as a system testing engineer. His commitment and willingness to embrace new and emerging technology alongside system testing practices, makes him an outstanding employee.

He has been heavily involved with the Atkins project, Feltham stage 0 (Shepperton), which involved the introduction of future signalling systems – one of Atkins most ambitious programmes, delivering a next generation, digital signalling interlocking system onto the UK’s mainline railway – the system that safeguards against train collision and derailments.

ExM P7 Team telent Technology Services Telent, in collaboration with TfL and Global, developed and installed the first-of-its-kind Digital Escalator Ribbon displays safely, on-time and significantly under budget. Creating a brand-new form of advertising, the introduction of the Digital Escalator Ribbon displays enhance passenger experience and generate long-term, non-fares

The challenge on the Ferriby to Gilberdyke (F2G) resignalling project was how to replace life expired signalling assets with a new signalling system in a safe, passenger efficient, reliable and sustainable way.

The team achieved a 75 per cent reduction in both concrete use and earthworks and eliminated the need for security fencing around the equipment. Improved equipment reliability with better passenger service came from developing a new, smaller, temperature-controlled location case (TCL) to reduce the number of REBs required.

GWML ETCS Project Team Alstom Transport UK GWML ETCS Project is the introduction of European Train Control System (ETCS) Level 2 overlay from Paddington Station to 12 miles along the Great Western Mainline, including the Heathrow Branch. This programme of works is the first ETCS deployment across a mainline railway and at a terminus station.

This project represents a series of significant milestones towards digitalising the railway to realise the significant safety, operational, maintenance, performance and efficiency benefits to the rail industry.

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY Signalling & Telecommunications Person or Team of the Year 2017

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Intelligent Infrastructure Track Team

Signalling Power Smart Cable Monitoring Team

Network Rail

Network Rail

Network Rail’s Intelligent Infrastructure (II) Track Team was tasked with creating a predictive single-interface tool that would tell engineers where, and most importantly when, a track fault was going to occur. The resulting digital tool will revolutionise the way track teams carry out maintenance work. For the first time, track teams in the routes will be able to access all the information they need, from one digital source, to carry out the right work, at the right time, in the right place.

The Signalling Power Smart Cable Monitoring Team has prepared new industry standards and developed new patented technology. Furthermore, the team has trialled and deployed the new Digital Smart Cable Monitoring Technology across three of the five regions in the UK Rail network. This helps to detect and pinpoint any emerging failure in signalling power cables and will help to significantly reduce disruption on the railway.

Northern City Line Project Team Network Rail This project involved re-locating the platform starting signals (tunnel signals) and a speed board at four stations. The cab design in the new class 717 alters the drivers view and perspective, resulting in the driver being unable to sight the platform starting signals, causing an operational and safety risk.

These works were completed ahead of time in only 14 weeks.

This success could not have been achieved without the commitment and enthusiasm of our project team lead by Dave Moore.

Reece Martin

Data from trials and experience drawn from maintenance engineers have informed the algorithms to identify emerging failures.

South Rail Systems Alliance Team Colas Rail Peter Hills has always encouraged his team to better themselves, with deeper learning or enabling them to come up with innovative ideas, and never to refuse to do something because “it is too difficult”.

As an example, at Bishopsgate Tunnel, the gauging team noticed that a shunt signal which fell just outside the renewal was foul of gauge. Working with a local fabrication company, a design was developed that removed the risk of the shunt signal being hit by a train.

Stephen Cox

Network Certification Body Reece Martin is an experienced lead assessor for NCB and routinely undertakes complex assessments on a wide range of projects and programmes including HS2 and the Redevelopment of Euston conventional station.

This year Reece has been awarded The Thorrowgood scholarship, which is awarded annually to assist the development of a young engineer employed in signalling and telecommunications. The interview panel said they found Reece to be well motivated and a keen advocate of the Institution of Railway Signal Engineers.

Alstom Transport UK Stephen Cox displays a determination to improve and revolutionise signalling design within the industry and thereby address the Digital Railway objective of “introducing digital solutions in areas that will deliver the best value for money.” He continuously demonstrates an obvious dedication to cutting down costs and time by creating, developing and implementing cutting edge software, both conceived and created by himself.

In this drive towards a Digital Railway he leads a young but exceptionally talented team, who have benefited from Stephen’s teaching and leadership.

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY Signalling & Telecommunications Person or Team of the Year 2017

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Stephen Holloway

Back on Track Project Team

Network Rail

Virgin Trains

Stephen Holloway is a train running controller, whose proactiveness and dedication to improving train running performance and contribution to autumn planning has had a significant and positive impact to keep trains running safely and smoothly.

Virgin Trains’ game changing App, Back on Track, helps connect operational control and frontline teams with data and up-to-the-minute information on service disruption.

He even put his family life on hold whilst taking the lead responsibility in reducing delays during autumn working.

Stephen’s continuous hard work and adaptable approach ensured a reliable and accurate plan of action which breed confidence in his colleagues and the teams around him.

Tom Walton

This ground-breaking software, which improves communication during periods of disruption, was built besoke for Virgin Trains on the innovative Service Now platform, to solve the issues raised by frontline teams.

Working with the technology provider, the project team was challenged to think outside of normal railway constraints, seeking ideas from stakeholders throughout an agile delivery plan.

Colas Rail Despite his relatively few years on the railway, Tom Walton is always willing to go above and beyond in order to support his colleagues and to solve problems.

Tom’s achievements in his three years on the railway – he joined Colas as a permanent way trainee in September 2016 – has been nothing short of incredible, he has instigated meaningful change in many areas of the business, supported other with innovation and change all whilst developing into a competent and respected signalling engineer.

Trevor Wheeler

Robust Industrial Data Communications –Made Easy

Reliable and Versatile Train Networks Proud sponsor of the RailStaff Awards 2019

telent Technology Services Described by colleagues as knowledgeable, supportive, honest, collaborative and well respected, Trevor Wheeler is one of the few telecoms PICOTs (Person in Charge Of Testing) in Rail. During his 20-year career, Trevor has introduced several initiatives which have led to new working practices, creating both cost and time efficiencies and mitigating train delays.

Trevor is passionate about his team, mentoring many individuals from apprentice through to fully licensed engineers, and is always thinking about the bigger picture and how any decision will affect the workforce.

… www.westermo.co.uk … Phone: 01489 580585 … sales@westermo.co.uk

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY Signalling & Telecommunications Person or Team of the Year 2017

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Depot Staff Award These are the amazing men, women and teams that repair and maintain the country’s fleet of trains, as well as the depots they are stabled in. Traffi, The Hand Protection Specialists, are this year’s sponsor of the Depot Staff Award.

Agata Jagosz

Anna Podolska

East Midlands Railway

CrossCountry Trains

Agata has to be the most efficient, competent, flexible manager at Neville Hill depot. She is articulate and very passionate about her role. Her records are always up to date and she is always looking for ways to improve her team’s morale and manage sickness effectively.

Anna Podolska, a cleaner based at Bournemouth, always remains cheerful, friendly and professional, no matter how long a day she has had or how dirty the trains have been. 11 turn-around trains a day arrive at Bournemouth every weekday, and Anna is often working alone, but, in between cleaning trains, she also makes a great job of cleaning the Bournemouth messrooms and offices. She often happily steps in to do extra cleaning, such as when weekend services are unable to run through to Bournemouth.

Although English is not Agata’s first language, her report writing and case building documents are always spot-on. The staff at the depot have great respect for her professionalism by being firm but very fair.

David Mitchell

Andy Pomroy

GTR (Southern)

South Western Railway Andy Pomroy is a handyman on South Western Railway’s Island line, working across the operations, stations and fleet departments to play his part in the running of the Isle of Wight’s railway.

His job title is deceptive as his range of skills includes being a qualified signaller, lookout and depot driver. He also holds a whole host of track competencies that help run South Western Railway’s Island Line with the relatively small number of staff on this part of the network.

Since David Mitchell set the depot up on Microsoft Teams, the level of communication and engagement between management and the team has increased tenfold. The staff now have all the information they require at their fingertips.

There has been a significant drop in calls and request for day-to-day information and also a huge increase in autonomy regarding shift swaps and annual leave. In addition, some technophobe colleagues now engage with their mobile devices and get the best possible out of them.

Glin Stanford Stagecoach Supertram Glin Stanford has worked at Stagecoach Supertram for 20 years. In that time, he has been tireless in his efforts to improve the service for the benefit of passengers and colleagues. His quiet and unassuming manner, that has been with him throughout his career, as well as his approachability and depth of knowledge, make him invaluable.

His current role has meant that multiple rail replacement projects have been able to be delivered in a timely manner and with the upmost professionalism.

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY

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Ian Morgan

John Deakin

Colas Rail

Merseyrail

Ian Morgan is constantly challenging established procedures and seeking to improve sustainability. He has been instrumental in the development of solar and battery-powered lighting at the Llanwern site, dubbed the ‘site of the future’, which has now achieved 97 per cent diesel-free operation.

He also recently won a Yoda award for trialling the Robel band saw, which is battery operated, and he is constantly seeking out alternatives to petroleum or diesel-powered tools.

John Deakin is the head of resource for Merseyrail, responsible for ensuring that there are drivers and guards available on each train. This has been a really difficult job over the past few years due to a long-standing IR dispute, but John and his team have worked with depot managers and union representatives to overcome these challenges and continued to provide a perfect train service each and every day – something that other operators in the industry have struggled with.

Ian Parr

Kevin Lawrence

Merseyrail

South Western Railway

Ian Parr has been depot manager of Southport TCD for just a year and a half. In that time, he has turned the depot from the worst performing one to the best. His sickness figures for the last twelve months are the lowest in the business and his engagement scores are now the highest.

While at work in Clapham Traincare depot, Kevin Lawrence noticed a person lying on the adjacent station platform with a woman knelt alongside, obviously in distress. Kevin left the depot and went to assist. When he arrived, he could clearly see the casualty was bleeding from a head injury but had nothing to stem the flow of blood. Kevin asked for a first aid kit to be sent over from the depot so he could stem the flow of blood.

In a short time, Ian has built up a great reputation with supervisors, trade union representatives, stations team and drivers and guards to ensure the depot runs smoothly.

Nigel Moody

Jason Fox

Network Rail

Northern Railway The district stores manager at Neville Hill depot, Leeds, Jason Fox has, over the last few years, had numerous things going on domestically, with both his mother and wife suffering with poor health. Despite this, Jason continues to come into work and leads by example. His knowledge of materials, systems and suppliers is incredible and he undertakes work outside of his normal working hours, at both nights and weekends, to support his team and reduce the work that has stopped for lack of materials.

Nigel Moody works for Peterborough DU E&P maintenance, where he and his colleagues have supported the King’s Cross re-modelling project over the last 9 months, undertaking complex E&P works as short notice to ensure the project hits major milestones.

To date, Nigel and his team have saved the project in the region of £0.5 million on £0.8 million of work – 60 per cent – with all works completed safely and to an extremely high standard, while Nigel’s improvements to the E&P works saved another £0.2 million.

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY

16

Northern Cleaners Team, Leeds

Vivienne Hoilett

Northern Railway

Southern

The team of cleaners based at Leeds do their utmost to ensure trains go back into service clean, tidy and looking their best. Many times, conductors have contacted maintenance as someone has vomited on an incoming service and, on arrival, whether it be day or night, the cleaners are there “like coiled springs”, ready to get the train cleaned and back into service with the minimum possible delay.

Described as a “breath of fresh air”, Vivienne is always smiling, whatever she is asked to do and whenever she is asked to do it. Nothing is ever too much trouble and she never appears disinterested, even though sometimes she is bogged down with assisting both conductor managers and driver manager teams, which is around 200 professionals who all want her attention.

“They are the unsung heroes of the railway.”

She also organises lots of other teams and is always smiling and lots of fun.

Lynne Lumb Northern Railway “One of the most selfless individuals you are ever likely to meet”, Lynne Lumb makes everyone feel welcome when they are new, as she is extremely helpful, friendly and shares her vast experience from her role openly. She also raises money for charity, including helping to arrange the production of a ‘Railway Rogues’ charity calendar, from which three separate charities benefitted.

Lynne is the first to help when a colleague is in need, drumming up support for them from colleagues.

Rebecca Mcmullan

Proud sponsors of Depot Staff Award 2019

Virgin Trains Rebecca McMullan has been the rock of Holyhead!

As a team organiser, she has steadied the depot in uncertain times, has seen a changeover of on-board managers whilst she was still relatively new at that time, and has been an on-board manager herself in all but name.

She is there to support the depot staff through good times and bad, and has conducted herself with grace and dignity throughout, whatever may have been thrown at her.

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY

17

Graduate or Newcomer Award This award, sponsored by GTR, the UK’s largest train operating company, recognises the outstanding contributions of individuals new to the rail industry who have gained early and exceptional professional or civic achievements.

Aisha Mughal

Cameron Dalziel

Colas Rail

AECOM

Aisha joined Colas Rail in 2018 as a commercial assistant working in one of the most dynamic areas of the S&C South Alliance – Euston enabling works.

Since joining AECOM over a year ago, Cameron has excelled in all he has done, from station upgrade design, to platform surveys, to assisting with AECOM’s successful bid for the design of the Beckton Depot upgrade and then working to deliver it.

Aisha worked closely with the commercial manager to develop her commercial, contractual and procurement understanding. Through this Aisha was able to bring her own logic, organisational skills and initiative to simplify timesheet approvals, invoice processes, application for payment, final accounting and supplier management.

Cameron is an all-rounder with a real appetite to learn.

As well as being on the path to ICE Chartership, Cameron has an active interest in rolling stock and has made valuable contributions to a number of projects.

Aisha has brought her bubbly personality to the team and this has included working at Christmas to assist with key on-site delivery.

Ben Flynn WSP UK Ben joined WSP in 2015 as an apprentice and is now an undergraduate engineer in the Overhead Line Electrification (OLE) team. His commitment to project delivery has enhanced WSP’s reputation with its client, Network Rail. Most recently he has been instrumental in the East Kilbride station project, taking on and excelling in clientfacing responsibilities. His rapidly developing expertise on OLE means he is often asked to contribute to other projects, which he does with great enthusiasm.

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY

18

Dale Jones

Lauren Clancy

Network Rail

Network Rail High Speed

Dale is a young graduate engineer working for Network Rail on the Northern Powerhouse Rail Programme in Manchester. Since joining the programme he has made a significant impact in the fields of engineering management and systems engineering well beyond that expected from someone of his age and experience. The programme has exposed Dale to numerous stakeholders, both internal and external to Network Rail, and he has been routinely recognised by them for his contributions and excellent behaviours.

Lauren started as general management graduate in September 2018 and has since become an integral part of the team which has developed the business strategy guiding Network Rail High Speed through the remainder of CP2 while preparing the business to successfully deliver its commitments for CP3.

David Chubb

Lauren represents the next generation of graduate managers and has raised the bar in terms of what is expected and what can be achieved in a short amount of time from someone who is new to the organisation.

Lily Cockerill

Network Rail

Unipart Rail

David throws himself into everything that is on offer – whether that be work, training in order to improve his knowledge, STEM events or other events put on by Network Rail.

For example, he won the Digital Innovation Competition with his idea around computer learning and the use of passenger trains to monitor and predict failures in order to aid with asset management, which was judged by many senior leaders.

Evie Barratt

Lily started her graduate scheme at Unipart Rail in June 2017 and from the outset she has been given the opportunity to develop knowledge, skills and confidence through a structured graduate training and development programme.

Following the conclusion of a two-year rotation on the scheme, she has recently been promoted to bid manager and will help facilitate process improvements, write compelling bids and ensure customers are getting the right solution.

Matt Prior

Jacobs

Jacobs

Evie joined Jacobs in 2015 from Leeds University having completed her master’s in engineering geology.

Her enthusiasm of geology and her willingness to apply her knowledge and experience to railway engineering schemes has made her a firm favourite with colleagues when working on notable UK projects such as the Transpennine Route Upgrade and West Ruislip Northolt Corridor.

Evie is presently an industry mentor for post-graduates on the engineering geology master’s at Leeds University, and is a TGE office champion, representing the interests of colleagues in the Leeds office.

Matthew is a very keen learner who is highly adaptable and always willing to take on new challenges.

Since he joined Jacobs 15 months ago, he has quickly been recognised as a key member of the team, proving to be ever helpful to colleagues and often working under pressure to achieve project deadlines. Aside from day-to-day electrification and plant design and project tasks, he has undertaken research and further learning to stretch his capabilities, including working within the Transpennine Route Upgrade systems team for a considerable period of time.

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY

19

Miraan Jothinath

Roy Brentnall

Network Rail

Network Rail

This year Miraan has immersed himself in two high-profile projects: DICE and Fast Trackers 2019.

Since Roy started as a stores controller within the Tottenham Delivery Unit in April 2018 he has had a hugely positive impact.

Miraan was the cofounder of the DICE Competition where he (and his partner) encouraged and supported graduates and apprentices to develop digital solutions to problems that they’d encountered while on their respective training schemes.

Roy has completely turned around the state of the stores.

Where stock checks were sitting at around 75 per cent accuracy they are now always within a few per cent of 100.

Miraan also chaired the steering group of the Fast Trackers 2019 programme, which encourages 16 to 19-year-old students to think about a career in engineering.

This has massively improved production and taken stress from the sections – they no longer have to worry if the parts they need are actually in stock!

Ross Barton

Syed Hussain

Gatwick Express /Southern Railway

Arup

Since starting with Gatwick Express and Southern, Ross has helped to transform certain processes.

He has created a new time-saving method for managers to assess on-board staff that also boosts engagement between staff and managers.

This new assessment process has been so well received by staff and managers that Ross is now developing similar models for the rest of the business.

Syed joined Arup as a graduate rail systems designer in August 2018. He impressed the company at the interview stage with his passion for the rail industry and has continued to do so ever since. establishing himself as a reliable, cheerful, flexible and conscientious member of the rail telecoms team.

Keen to understand the wider Arup business, Syed has arranged short secondments to other business areas and makes sure to keep up to date with internal training, including attending the bi-monthly rail safety briefings.

Ross has also transformed the way the company looks at visualisation reports, which are now created automatically.

Victor Tan

Roxana Lupascu

Siemens Mobility

South Rail Systems Alliance – Colas Rail As a graduate and newcomer to the railway family, Roxana has more than shown herself to be a highly competent, erudite and skilled manager.

A safety project she undertook as part of her graduate scheme made her stand out from the crowd for going above and beyond what was asked by reviewing close call data to find a solution to a safety issue.

Victor has been described an outstanding graduate well beyond his years of experience. He has delivered on a number of rail projects, including Crossrail, where he has embraced new technologies and processes.

He has supported other graduates and apprentices through coaching and mentoring and has developed and delivered training on software techniques for new starters and more supervisory staff. “He is one of the nicest people you could meet,” said a co-worker at Siemens.

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY

20

Marketing and Communications Team Award This category recognises good practice by marketing and communications professionals in the rail industry, whether that be through internal or external campaigns. The Connect4 Group is proud to sponsor this awards category.

Alice Attwood GTR Alice works tirelessly to promote the company with interesting and important stories from GTR employees.

Alice has a gift for seeking out the stories that really reach the heart of an issue. She will concentrate on important issues and the people who matter. Her friendly and professional approach puts everyone at ease which ensures they get the best out of themselves when doing a radio or print interview, or even a piece for television. She is passionate about her work but more importantly the subjects she chooses to promote.

Ebony has demonstrated a massive desire to help improve the face and operation of the rail sector, bringing people together to find the common ground to promote the sector in a positive way. She also has a natural ability to communicate complex subjects in a very engaging way that everybody can relate to.

Corporate Communications Team G&W UK / Europe Region

Communications Team

Since their respective arrivals, the G&W comms team has been transformed into a professional and dynamic department that supports and drives business performance, rather than being an ‘add-on’ function.

LNER LNER had less than 12 months before it was due to launch the first of 65 new Azuma trains into service on the route. A new in-house media team was appointed only three months before launch.

Not only did LNER need to establish the brand but also promote the new trains in an LNER livery, replacing the association with Virgin Trains.

The team’s approach created a real excitement not just about LNER but about rail travel. LNER gained positive endorsements from business, industry, political and civic leaders.

The positive changes have been considerable, raising awareness of the G&W corporate identity, including the structural changes that were implemented in 2018 to organise the business into three platforms(Rail, Road & Terminals) as well as the corporate brand alignment to US parent G&W.

Jaye Dry G&W UK / Europe Region Jaye Dry’s words have created the image of a company who care about their employees, their customers, their followers, and the industry as a whole. No matter what time of day or night, and despite going through a tough time herself, Jaye Dry responds with understanding, kindness and approachability.

Ebony Soltani James ESJ Smart Marketing Ebony has worked in the rail sector for many years delivering exceptional marketing and communication services for various companies from SME through to large organisations.

Colleagues say Jaye cares deeply about the company, the industry, and everyone within it.

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY

21

Lorraine Floyd

Marketing, Corporate Communications

AECOM

Network Rail

Lorraine leads AECOM’s strategic marketing team for Rail and Roads across Europe, Middle East, and Africa.

She has been with AECOM for over 19 years and has worked tirelessly to develop client-centric campaigns that drive bottom-line growth and add value to the AECOM brand.

Thanks to the relentless and extensive efforts of the Network Rail marketing team, hundreds of thousands of young children can now enjoy learning how to use the railway safely through Thomas Tank Engine books.

This past year, Lorraine has developed an exceptional strategy for rail that was strategically focused on building the brand value and positioning AECOM to secure some of its biggest wins in the sector to date.

Marketing Communications Team

Learning through play is how children build their early understanding of the world around them, so publishing a story book that captures their imagination and teaches them how to stay safe around the railway might seem like an obvious and simple thing to do, but there were many challenges that had to be overcome in order to make this a reality.

Communications Team Network Rail and GWR

Cubic Transportation Systems Krishna Desai has been in marketing communications for six years and is now the head of EMEA marketing for Cubic Transportation Systems. Whilst Krishna is part of a global team she has sole responsibility for the EMEA region having to do everything herself. She is enthusiastic, self-starting and always willing to help with whatever the task is in hand. She values everyone that she deals with and treats them with respect irrespective of their position in the hierarchy.

Marketing Team LB Foster Jen leads a small team of talented marketers who actively promote LB Foster in Europe. Although LB Foster is a US-based company, the whole European business, developed from a series of acquisitions in 2015, has had its fantastic brand expression designed and delivered from the ground up by Jen and her team.

From launch, the brand has been developed through brand guidelines, promotional campaigns, sales ready support, exhibitions and endless surge to showcase the LB Foster brand in new markets.

Over the last five years, the railway from London Paddington to Cardiff has been undergoing the biggest transformation since Brunel, with massive investment in infrastructure and the largest fleet upgrade in a generation.

To minimise the impact, the communications teams at Network Rail and GWR have worked collaboratively – an approach which has now become commonplace between the two teams. It has truly been a year of transformation for the railway and this Alliance comms team has delivered on every challenge set in front of it.

Network Rail Digital, Social Media and Film Team Network Rail Network Rail’s digital team has grown to become an elite in-house team of experts who strive to push boundaries and deliver exceptional customer experiences across each and every digital touch point.

The work the team delivers has been described as “quite remarkable” – from the technical prowess of rebuilding a website in-house, to creating head turning editorial, animated and filmic content.Two areas of its work that were highlighted were: the redesign of the Network Rail website, and a recent series of inspiring and educational pieces of content.

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY

22

Northern Marketing Team

News Team

Northern Railway

Virgin Trains

2018 saw the Northern brand battle a mix of unforgiving weather and timetable changes, ongoing strike action and over-running engineering works. Customer journeys were disrupted and Northern’s reputation was hit.

Over the last year, this media team has worked tirelessly to explain the positive role Virgin plays to a frequently hostile media, demonstrating how the company and its people prioritise customers, consistently innovate, support the economy and communities they serve, while providing thought-leadership in response to widespread calls for industry reform. The coverage it has achieved through proactive engagement with the media has helped to show UK rail in a much-needed positive light.

It needed to restore the public’s faith in the brand and renew its relationship with its customers.

Fast-forward a year and our very small marketing team has helped to navigate a remarkable turnaround in perception and results, laying the platform for even better growth in 2020.

RED & Right Track Editorial Board RSSB RED and Right Track reach staff from all grades in 80 organisations across the network, and have done for years: RED has been going since 2001, and its sister publication Right Track since 2012. The reach and longevity of these products are testament to their popularity and impact.

They are unique in that they are made by the whole of industry working together. There is just nothing else like RED and Right Track out there that looks at issues from a wholeindustry perspective and shares learning between different organisations.

Track Safety Alliance Team Network Rail The Track Safety Alliance is a group of like-minded organisations operating in the rail delivery market to improve health and safety for the rail workforce. Following a series of serious accidents, the group was formed in 2011 with just six core member organisations.

tel: 0300 456 2044 info@connect4comms.co.uk www.connect4comms.co.uk

CUTTING EDGE TECHNOLOGY WORLD CLASS SERVICE > TELEPHONE SYSTEMS > HOSTED VOICE SOLUTIONS > DATA CONNECTIVITY > BUSINESS MOBILES & TABLETS TELECOMS • MOBILES • CONNECTIVITY • ENERGY SOLUTIONS • CCTV

P R O U D

R S A

S P O N S O R

The alliance aims to effect change through sharing new initiatives, collaboratively developing new systems and processes to keep people safe across the rail network. It does this through short engaging films, a bespoke website and online forums.

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY

23

Customer Service Award G&W’s UK/Europe Region companies include Freightliner, the UK’s largest rail maritime intermodal operator and second-largest freight rail provider, and Pentalver, a leading UK container logistics services provider. Freightliner, with an extensive offering of bulk freight transportation services, as well as the 770,000 maritime containers moved per year by both road and rail, offers customers a wide range of safe, reliable and cost-effective solutions to provide the complete logistics package.

Aaron Koduah

Chris Edwards

Virgin Trains

Transport for Wales Rail Services

Aaron has been part of the Virgin family for a few years, originally at Stoke On Trent and now at at Crewe.

He epitomises the brand’s values and creates memorable customer experiences with his kind and friendly personality.

His motivational quote board has become well known up and down the country, with quite a few celebs posting on social media about it. This has led to him writing his own book and having it published.

A conductor with more than 15 years’ experience, Chris is described as being a true gentlemen and a born entertainer.

Known as the “singing conductor”, he has won a legion of fans through his singing announcements.

His versions of songs by Bowie, Queen and the Eagles regularly get customers smiling and talking when their heads would normally be buried in a smart phone.

Alex Lucas

Corina Caras

Greater Anglia

CrossCountry Trains

Alex is said to be polite and helpful at all times.

Colleagues say that nothing is too much for him and that If he does not know the answer to a query he will find out.

He works hard to keep the office and station at Elsenham looking beautiful and creates special decorations for occasions during the year, especially at Christmas. “He is our hero and someone we look up to,” said a nominator.

The epitome of great customer service.

Corina’s job title states that she works as a first class host for CrossCountry – and this title suits her down to the ground as everyone that she comes into contact with is given first class service.

Bonnie Raye Louis Chiltern Railways Bonnie has taken to her job with amazing verve and enthusiasm. By nature Bonnie is a happy, smiley person who ensures her customers are looked after and leaves a positive lasting impression of not only herself but of Chiltern Railways regardless of time of the day or day of the week.

Chiltern Railways describes Bonnie as the personification of what they look for in their train managers.

Her level of professionalism combined with a warm and friendly can do attitude is reflected in the quantity and quality of letters of praise received from not only the customers that she serves each day but also her colleagues.

Danielle Henshaw Virgin Trains Earlier this year Danielle was first on the scene when a man collapsed stepping off a train. It became apparent that he was in anaphylactic shock but didn’t have an Epi-pen. Remaining calm, she instructed a staff member to go to the nearest pharmacy and ask for an EpiPen and assisted the pharmacist to administer the medicine. The paramedics arrived and advised that had the man waited any longer, there could have been a totally different ending.

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY

24

Donna Taylor

Lindsay Clamp

Merseyrail

Chiltern Railways

Donna has become a vital member of the Moorfields station staff. The amount of progression she has made in the past six months has been nothing short of amazing. Anyone who speaks to her is always left with a great impression and admiration of her.

Lindsay has a bright and bubbly personality and always goes above and beyond to deliver excellent customer service. She is known within Chiltern as the company’s poet laureate and will delight customers with a carefully crafted poem at the end of each journey. As you can imagine, this has gone down well with our customers who look forward to being on one of her trains which is evidenced by the volume of social media feedback Chiltern receives.

She not only displays our core values in abundance but she takes massive pride in them. Each day she comes in to work, she gives 110 per cent.

Jamie Martin Southeastern “Jamie’s family should be extremely proud to have raised such an amazing, kind and thoughtful person.

People like Jamie make this world brighter and better.” Those were the words of a customer who wrote into Southeastern after Jamie organised a ‘dream trip’ to Slade Green depot for her autistic son and gave him a parting gift – a framed drawing of a Southeastern train – as a memento.

Lee Broadbent

Proudly sponsors the Customer Service Award

CrossCountry Trains A humble man with a positive and cheerful disposition, Lee shows his gratitude for the opportunity to work for CrossCountry with his work and attitude each day.

Co-workers also point to his natural ability with people, his great humour, cheery chat and determination to achieve that makes him an indispensable member of the team.

Lee’s efforts are not limited in any way by his work surroundings either, he is just as willing to help if he’s in a station or in a shop.

www.freightliner.co.uk

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY

25

Margaret Capps

Ruth Duck

Southeastern

West Midlands Trains

Maggie is always friendly, patient and willing to go the extra mile to make her customer’s journeys run as smoothly as possible. She recommends the best routes, best ticket prices and when things go wrong (which they often do) she deals with the situation with calmness, professionalism but above all with a can do attitude.

Ruth constantly looks for ways to improve the customer experience at Winsford station, the station environment and how West Midlands Trains can improve this for passengers. She is also very engaged with the local community rail partnerships to improve the facilities and incorporate history or the surrounding area into the station environment.

Maggie has brightened up Etchingham station building with various displays and clearly enjoys her role and looking after her customers.

Ruth is well known by the commuters at Winsford and she has a very genuine relationship with them. She is very proactive and vigilant and recently stopped a vulnerable young girl who had potentially intended to take her life.

Paul O’Brien

Wayne Cabey

GTR On July 22, Paul O’Brien was a first responder when an elderly passenger badly injured her leg stepping off a train at Gatwick Airport.

After assessing the damage, he called for the paramedics as the wounded lady needed urgent, surgical attention.

After the paramedics arrived – the lady was taken by a helicopter to hospital and attended a surgery. Due to Paul’s quick actions, his ability to make an on the spot decision and necessary medical knowledge – the lady’s leg was saved.

Pete White

Network Rail High Speed Wayne Cabey works out of St Pancras International where he has received excellent customer service feedback on numerous occasions.

In just one example, Wayne helped with an unbooked assistance for a man who had only been discharged from hospital that day and arrived at the station unexpectedly and requiring assistance.

Wayne greeted the man and his daughter and put them both at ease. The daughter commented that it would have been a difficult journey without Wayne being there to provide support.

Great Western Railway Pete joined GWR through its employability programme with The Prince’s Trust and has been on a rapid journey of outstanding performance and progress ever since.

Colleagues were quick to put his name forward for an award following his outstanding customer service when a train he was on became stranded due to the snow. Through regular communication, arranging for food and drink to be brought onboard and constant reassurance, he was able to support customers through the ordeal.

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY

26

Rail Project Manager of the Year PTM Design, sponsor of Rail Project Manager of the Year, has been delivering printed vinyls, graphics and signage projects for over 35 years, specialising in rail and fleet livery, vehicle wrapping, wayfinding information systems and interior installations.

Adam Phayer

Colin MacCombe

GTR

BAM Nuttall

Adam Phayer doesn’t just deliver a great number of projects on the GTR infrastructure, he also is “a fantastic mentor and a colleague”.

Colin MacCombe has exemplary stakeholder engagement skills. On a recent drainage project, part of the Brighton Main Line Improvement, Colin showed real commitment to its success, ensuring milestones were met and facing challenges with ease.

His approach and commitment, not just to what he does best but to people he works with, is simply outstanding. There is no such thing as “I can’t” or “maybe later” – he knows how important it is to be a great employee and a colleague. Adam instils confidence in his team and is always there for those who need his help and advice.

Alana Davoren Alstom Transport UK Alana Davoren has developed into an extremely accomplished project manager by ensuring that there is continual improvement in both her, and her team’s, performance of all project deliverables.

He briefed the local community when they came to site, he posted information on the works on noticeboards and attended many community meetings with Network Rail to discuss the detail of the project. “He is a credit to the project management world.”

Supporting Project Managers with graphics and signage projects for over 35 years.

Her 30-strong team is based in Derby, Birmingham, London and Charleroi, Belgium. Alana has an excellent ability to prioritise the issues across such a diverse team. Her leadership is positive and focussed yet, significantly, always able to anticipate and react swiftly to any issues that may disrupt project delivery.

Cate Lough Colas Rail Cate Lough started in the rail industry just over four years ago and has achieved an enormous amount in that time. She is currently in charge of the overhead line and HS2 Enabling Works within the South Rail Systems Alliance.

In the last 12 months alone, she was responsible for the safe, on-time and on-budget delivery of £27 million worth of multi-disciplinary work at Euston Station. This was a very complicated scheme, and Cate was key in pulling the Alliance all in the same direction.

PROUD TO SPONSOR

Rail Project Manager Award www.ptmdesign.co.uk

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY

27

Gavin Jones

Lauren Johnson

Colas Rail

Virgin Trains

Gavin Jones is always championing, not only his team, but also the business, and is always keen to lend a hand with causes he is passionate about. He plays a major role in supporting young talent within the business, being a mentor and taking on the role of mental health first aider.

Lauren Johnson has been successful in project managing the delivery of two new driver simulators, in extremely demanding timescales, from a company that had no previous experience of producing simulators for the UK market.

He champions gender diversity within the industry, supporting events to empower women in rail and promotes the philosophy that improving gender diversity should be a priority for everyone within the industry.

At the same time, Lauren was also project managing other initiatives including the introduction of two new driver-training apps.

Claire Woolford

Challenges were numerous but, with great determination and making sure the supplier was given the information they required, the required six-month timescale was met.

Matthew Day

Network Rail One of Claire Woodford’s biggest successes has been on the EuroBalise project, which has enabled the introduction of new bi-mode electric trains along the Great Western main line. The project has been hugely challenging, with several scope changes to deal with the evolving electrification staging programme.

However, Claire led the team proactively, ensuring designs were issued to the contractor to meet the tight deadlines so that all sites entered into service to programme and with no issues.

Lara Akers

Jacobs Matthew Day demonstrates a collaborative and inclusive management style which encompasses all his Jacobs team, Network Rail, and subcontractors. He is approachable at all times and has a very positive influence on all who are fortunate enough to work with him.

The Transpennine Route Upgrade is a complex programme and is often challenging. Jacobs staff are split across a number of offices, but Matthew ensures the involvement of all parties at meetings, motivating and encouraging others to take the lead.

Neil Workman

Amey Lara Akers is a dedicated, delivery focussed, collaborative and effective project manager. She consistently goes the extra mile, working tirelessly with Network Rail and the Amey team to ensure her projects are successful and delivered smoothly to client expectations, on time or ahead of schedule.

Working on the re-signalling of the Cambridge station area, Lara has led a challenging project to complete these works on time and under budget. As a result, Network Rail has awarded Lara’s team the next phase of the project.

Network Rail Neil Workman has worked in the railway his entire professional career having started as a British Rail graduate trainee in 1993 with the former Network South East division based out of Croydon. He is now managing a high-performing team of over 50 staff, delivering a portfolio of ÂŁ300 million.

As a manager, Neil is hands-on and not afraid to step in and do the work himself when required. leads by example and sets a very high standard for his team and the wider business.

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY

28

Rebecca Munro

Sae Ah Yoon

Network Rail

AECOM

Rebecca Munro led the fleet and engineering re-organisation. She retained a clear line of sight, resulting in successful delivery of this project, whilst learning and developing new skills to add to her existing portfolio.

Sae Ah Yoon is a well-respected project manager, experienced in managing multi-disciplinary rail projects for AECOM.

In order to meet the go-live date of the reorganisation, Rebecca dealt with many issues and challenges in a thorough and professional manner. She engaged with diverse stakeholders across the business calmly and collaboratively, not being afraid to challenge individuals and hold them to account when necessary.

Richard Vernon

Calm, composed and with great communication skills, Sae Ah is also a Chartered Engineer who has in-depth knowledge in engineering processes and delivery. She induces confidence in her ability to manage projects to schedule, cost and quality.

She has great people management skill and is always available to her team. She ensures that projects are delivered, even with stretched targets, with the commitment and support from her team.

Sean Malone

Hull Trains Richard Vernon joined Hull Trains as a graduate in February 2016. Over the last three years, he has worked tirelessly in order to bring Hull Trains’ £60 million investment in new rolling stock to life.

His committed, resilient and focused attitude, while working collaboratively with Hitachi Rail’s team, has resulted in the introduction of Hull Trains’ new fleet being one of the only rolling stock projects in the UK to be delivered to schedule and on time.

Ruth House

Network Rail As project manager for Works Delivery Scotland (Track), Sean Malone has worked tirelessly to grow, structure and promote the great works being carried out by six depots across the whole of Scotland, at the same time maintaining a high standard of safety for staff and the travelling public.

As a line manager, Sean always has time to listen to ideas, concerns and innovations raised by all the staff regardless of position and act upon them.

Network Rail Ruth House is a dedicated, experienced and successful project manager. She is also very much a people person, taking an active interest in the development of others whenever possible.

She has delivered a number of complex tunnel projects and successfully led the project to update all 53 tunnel management strategies in Wales. Her ability to motivate and engage people is proving to play a key part in the success of the project.

TheRailS ta

ffAwards

Rail Med

ia

@railstaff awards rail_med

ia

“A revelation and major asset to Network Rail and the team.”

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY

29

Recruitment Person or Team of the Year This award is for someone who works tirelessly to support their client or needs of the candidate, who takes on all those problems which come with organising labour in their stride. It is proudly sponsored by RailwayPeople.com

‘Big Plan’ Recruitment Project Team

Dan Jacobs

Network Rail

Samuel Knight International

The South East route HR team that worked on recruitment for the Thameslink Resilience Programme (the ‘Big Plan’) changed the way hiring is carried out, with a series of innovative measures that are still bearing fruit.

Dan has had a meteoric rise to seniority at Samuel Knight International. He joined the business as a safety critical manager in 2016 and then progressed to business development manager in January 2019, with responsibility for some of the biggest rail infrastructure projects in the UK.

Sarah Saliba, Lethea Booyens and Chloe Bertenshaw were tasked with working alongside the Thameslink programme team and unions to identify the additional headcount required, all whilst aligning to the strategic plans for the business.

Recruitment on this scale had never been done before.

As a natural leader and mentor for consultants at all levels of the business, Dan is committed to driving business growth and supporting internal talent to achieve their best.

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TH EL AR GE ST WE DEDI BS CAT ITE E IN T D RA HE IL C UK ARE ER S

Following successful consultation, 216 new maintenance posts were created across Kent and Sussex covering various roles.

Commercial Recruitment Team Network Rail Duo Victoria Hill-Stanford, head of profession (commercial), and Erika Diaz, former resourcing business partner for IP signalling, worked tirelessly together to understand the requirements of the commercial profession nationally and worked with the teams to help them recruit.

Erika and Vicky worked together to redesign the recruitment process for commercial professionals. They took a step back to consider how to tackle recruitment issues in a systematic manner, planning carefully and thinking creatively to produce some good end results.

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Proud to Support Recruitment Person or Team of the Year

Edward Murison

Karen Broad

Matchtech

Virgin Trains

Ed has gone above and beyond this year to deliver outstanding results for his clients in the rail industry. Both as a recruitment consultant and leader of a highly successful rail specialist team, Ed has not only delivered to many of Matchtech’s corporate customers, but he has also supported many growing SMEs within the rail industry supply chain, with their talent acquisition.

Karen received high-praise from colleagues who say she is overdue recognition for keeping on top of filling vacancies. Nothing is too much trouble for her and even if she’s faced with a tricky problem, she strives to find a solution.

Over the past year Ed and his team have supported 33 different organisations with their recruitment needs.

GWR Recruitment Team

One nomination read: “She must be a magician because she always finds an answer for people as if by magic.

Michael Schruyers Advance TRS Proactive, informative and honest, colleagues from the agency world speak highly of Michael Schruyers.

Great Western Railway GWR has undertaken huge generational change over the last few years but one achievement that stands out is the delivery of the driver recruitment programme by Keirran Slimmon and his recruitment team.

As an organisation, GWR looked to meet the huge challenge of recruiting more than 318 drivers within an 18 month period – not just with the aim of crewing increased services but to bring new blood into the industry. With constant professionalism and diligence Keirran and his team rose to the challenge and met the recruitment target.

He has extensive experience within the built environment sector, leading sales teams to drive business growth and team-wide success. Michael joined Advance TRS as a member of the senior management team with the responsibility for business development, building on a strong background in civils and construction recruitment and business development.

Michael Walker Amey

Jennifer Scott People Scout Jen is a great colleague to work with and has taken ownership of the delivery of staff for Transport for Wales.

PeopleScout and Jen have played a key part in recruiting over 100 starters in the last year and she puts a great amount of passion into her work which is recognised among colleagues and candidates alike.

Due to the success achieved by Amey Rail Consulting over the past two years, the recruitment necessity has been increasing exponentially. The introduction of Michael at Amey Consulting has been key to the growth of the rail business as a whole.

Michael’s professionalism and appreciation of the work have been a great support as he has sourced the most skilled people for the roles.

Michael has been very swift in his approach and has always done very well to attract the right personnel into the rail business.

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Monica Truta

Sari Kaipiainen

Merseyrail

Network Rail

Monica has been a “breath of fresh air” to Merseyrail by bringing in her knowledge and skills and also a different perspective on what it’s like inside and outside of Merseyrail.

Sari has been a hugely important part of the graduate recruitment process. She has been involved in designing the assessment and selection centre materials, coordinating hundreds of graduates and colleagues alike and delivering enormously successful assessment centre experiences for everyone involved.

She is responsible for providing assistance to the HR team and wider business for key reports and KPI data for the business.

This role is a vital link between the functions in supplying information and analysis when required and her knowledge and skills have helped the people team to become a far more effective unit.

Her dedication to task and professional focus when delivering under pressure never wavers, even when unexpected changes occur and threaten to cause disarray.

Simon Kishore

Recruitment Team

Resourcing Solutions

South Western Railway South Western Railway’s recruitment team constantly question themselves, their process and outputs.

They are not scared of developing new ways of working and strive to make improvements, so they can achieve what is best for the company’s candidates and new starters and set the highest standards across the industry. Doing so has allowed them to open doors to candidates who in the past may have struggled to achieve their goals. Their work makes South Western Railway a more inclusive and diverse place to work.

Sam Mayo

Simon has been providing an excellent recruitment service to his customers and the wider rail industry for over 20 years, priding his service on consultancy, high quality and partnership.

The last 18 months, however, have really seen Simon contribute on a large scale with amazing feedback from clients, candidates and colleagues. Over this period Simon has supported 35 different areas of the Network Rail business covering depots from Carlisle to Great Yarmouth and Newcastle to Eastleigh. He has placed hundreds of workers whilst ensuring 100% compliance and quality checks are maintained at all time.

Stephen Ducker

Resourcing Solutions Sam has been dedicated to the telecoms and mechanical and electrical market for 12 years with Resourcing Solutions.

In this period his contribution to his core sector has been unparalleled, making him the ‘go to’ person.

Sam’s contribution to the rail telecoms market goes far beyond just being a recruiter – his contribution to networking and bringing together talent in the industry on a regular basis, his knowledge of the industry and the workings of the telecoms network, and his ability to offer a genuine consultancy service puts him apart from the rest.

Vital Rail A model recruiter who has been described as diligent, honest, ethical and unbelievably approachable in all aspects of the job.

Combined with his great understanding of the rail industry make him a great asset to the Vital Rail team.

“I have grown to welcome his thoughts and judgement on all aspects of contracting and employment, and would gladly recommend him to anyone who needs some insight to the rail employment world,” said his nominator.

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Samaritans Lifesaver Award A category bursting full of real-life heroes, who have, in many cases, stepped out of their comfort zone to make a potentially life-saving intervention. This category is proudly sponsored by Samaritans.

Andrew Ford TransPennine Express In July this year, Andy was driving a train to Manchester Airport when the driver coming the other way waved him down to tell him there was a female on the track ahead. Andy spoke to the signaller and proceeded at caution until he could see the lady ahead.

He stopped, approach the woman, and spent some time talking to her, building rapport so that he could persuade her into boarding his train.

Andy spoke to the signaller and handed her over to BTP at the next station, not before having to wait some time for their arrival.

Arif Patel MTR Elizabeth Line On April 5, Arif was on the main gateline at Ilford station when a young man came staggering in with stab wounds. Arif reacted to the situation immediately by pressing the emergency plunger on the gateline and attending to the wounded man. He assisted the young man by laying him on the floor, grabbing a first aid box, applying pressure to the wounds and trying to keep him alert and reassured.

The ambulance arrived and took the young man to hospital.

Arif’s initiative to apply pressure to the wound saved that man’s life.

Davinder Hare Heathrow Rail Davinder brought to the attention of security a gentleman who was stood on the edge of a platform.

On talking to the person his mental health issues were quite severe and it was believed that this individual was a danger to himself. Davinder assisted the security patrollers by staying with them.

He directed passengers away from him, ensured that passenger wasn’t agitated, liaised with the emergency services and kept the security patrollers updated. When police, medics and paramedics were called for this individual, he directed them to the correct location.

Gary Campbell Virgin Trains In the last year Gary has twice got down onto the track to talk people out of taking their own lives.

In the first incident he climbed down after he saw a woman had walked into the path of an oncoming train. He stopped the train and managed to convince the woman to step back onto the platform with him.

As a result of this, Gary was selected to be one of the faces for a Virgin Trains Christmas campaign around encouraging customers on stations who were not feeling great due to mental health issues to seek support or guidance.

Jack Sherrington and Stuart Young GTR Revenue enforcement officers Jack and Stuart were faced with a harrowing situation earlier this year. They noticed a female had gone off the end of the platform and was bleeding. The officers tried to reason and coax the female back up but to no avail.

With a train approaching, Jack focused on the female whilst Stuart made manual warning signs to the approaching train.

It was at this point the female was was pulled to safety by Jack.

Both had minutes to make the decisions they did and showed great skill and bravery in saving the female.

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James Denby

Lee Scott

Network Rail

Greater Anglia

In the past calendar year James has personally prevented three separate suicide attempts. The first event was with a fellow team member who was struggling at the time, the second with a lady who almost jumped in front of a passing road-rail vehicle and the third a man who tried to electrocute himself.

Lee intervened and stopped a man from wanting to jump in front of a train. He managed to persuade him that there was no fast trains coming through the station and that all the trains had stopped and then carried on with his work after this despite being impacted emotionally.

James has always played these events down as “the right thing to do” but had he not taken the actions he did both events could have ended very differently

Lee works so hard at what he does and is very observant about what is happening around him. Colleagues know they can always go to him and talk to him about anything no matter what it is.

John Dawson and Rob Shannon

Lorenz Dougherty and Rakeem Harvey

Land Sheriffs

GTR / Ontrak Recruitment & Training

While on patrol the duo noticed a female who had been wandering around the station for a while and didn’t look to be boarding a train.

They approached her as she seemed to be upset, at first the female was reluctant to talk so John & Rob gave her some space before she approached them and admitted she was at the station with the intention of ending her life.

They stayed with her, keeping her away from platforms and crowds, until the emergency services arrived.

Julie Holland

On the afternoon of May 30, Rakeem was working when he spotted a young male sitting on an opposite platform with his legs dangling.

Rakeem called over to his colleague Lorenz, who was helping a passenger in a wheelchair. Seeing the young man in a vulnerable position, and knowing a train was due, Lorenz ran over to the visibly distressed young man. Lorenz tried to talk him away from the platform edge but he did not respond so Lorenz wrapped his arms around the man and dragged him away from the edge, missing a train by seconds.

Nathan Stockman

West Midlands Trains While on shift Julie was approached by police asking if she had seen a particular vulnerable male. She hadn’t, but overheard police control radio the officers with his location. As she knew where that was Julie went with the officers to speed up their search. She also informed the station supervisor of what was happening and left with the police. On arrival to the location, officers saw the male near to the line and talked him away. In the meantime the male’s family turned up so Julie kept them talking, away from the male, as to not agitate him.

Great Western Railway Nathan has been put forward for this category for the way he dealt with the terrible situation when a female passenger set herself on fire on board his train.

Nathan took a measured approach to the situation. He assisted fellow customers who had put the lady out, sat the lady down and ensured she was as comfortable as she could be and then check the welfare of each customer involved.

On the day of the incident he maintained a level head, supporting the lady who had burned herself as well as providing welfare and regular updates to the fellow customers on board.

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Paige Gosling

Yubaraj Limbu and Deep Rai

Virgin Trains In October 2018, a vulnerable male attended the station Paige was working at. He made his way to the platform and attempted to climb under a stationary train.

He was pulled from the tracks and helped by staff, including Paige, and security at which point he appeared to lose consciousness. First aid was administered, however, as another train approached, the individual attempted to throw himself into the path of that train. He was subsequently restrained by staff and security.

Rich Acres

Land Sheriffs Yubaraj and Deep were carrying out patrols when they were called to attend to a report of a vulnerable female at an over line road bridge in Ashford.

On their arrival they spotted the female standing on the side of the bridge looking down at the tracks. She was very distressed so they approached her using their Samaritans training and engaged in conversation to reassure and calm her down. They gained her trust and managed to talk her down from the bridge where they took her to a position of safety and continued to talk to her until BTP arrived.

G&W UK Drivers Rich Acres and Wayne Winfield were in training with instructor Graham Etheridge when Rich received a call on the radio informing him that a person was spotted lineside.

They found an elderly lady on the opposite side walking on the troughing with her trolley. Fearing this incident could turn tragic at any moment, Rich stopped the train and Graham spoke to the signaller to obtain a line blockage.

The men decided it was best to get the lady into the cab, which was a challenge given her limited mobility, and then gave her a lift to the station at Freshford and requested the next passenger train to pick her up.

Robert Kaul Jacobs On his way to work one day, Robert prevented a member of the public from attempting to commit suicide from Tower Bridge in London. He restrained, reassured and called for the appropriate emergency help, all whist taking control of a very stressful and upsetting situation.

Robert shared his experience through the company so employees from across the globe would be made aware of his experience to demonstrate that we can all make a difference.

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Rail Civils / Infrastructure Team Award Pulsar sponsors the Rail Civils / Infrastructure Team Award this year. Its High Performance Apparel business is built around quality, reliability and innovation, manufacturing certified, technologically advanced products so the people who wear them can be confident in the knowledge they are protected from all elements and potential workplace hazards.

Aberdeen to Inverness Blockade Team

Amaro Rail Project Team

G&W UK – Freightliner

Amaro

The Scottish Government-funded Aberdeen to Inverness Improvement project (A2I) includes a number of enhancements from improved signalling, platform extensions and even relocation of the station at Forres.

The Freightliner team has been instrumental in the logistical delivery of a number of these areas of the project, including haulage for the redoubling of the railway between Aberdeen and Inverurie, which was completed in two summer blockades in 2018 and 2019.

The Amaro Rail Project has not only successfully delivered many projects safely, efficiently, on time, to a high level of quality and to budget, but has managed to build upon this success with some fantastic new projects.

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One is the Minor Signalling Framework for Network Rail’s South East route for the next five years, which will allow the Amaro team to recruit local staff, apprentices and engineers, which would not have been achieved without the team’s hard work, dedication and teamwork.

Brighton Mainline Improvements Integrated Project Delivery Team Network Rail and GTR Teamwork was at the heart of this project to improve reliability on the Brighton main line as a collaborative approach between Network Rail and GTR ensured a successful focus on “delivering for the customer.”

Following proposals made to the Department for Transport to demonstrate the blockade was deliverable, three main pillars were set up to manage the programme, with both Network Rail and GTR jointly involved in developing detailed primary and contingency plans.

Later, a fourth pillar was added to manage the associated maintenance programme.

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Cornwall Capacity Enabling Scheme Team

John Kolchuck

Network Rail, Atkins & Amey Rail

Stagecoach Supertram

The Cornwall Capacity Enabling Scheme, completed by October 2018, provided an additional 10 signal sections (21 new signals and associated signalling equipment) and seven level crossing upgrades to enable funding partners the Department for Transport (DfT) and Cornwall Council to meet their aspiration to run an additional hourly train service from Plymouth to Penzance from May 2019.

John Kolchuck manages the maintenance team at Sheffield Supertram, which looks after everything from the drainage system on the network upwards. Colleagues praise him for being a solid and upstanding member of the team who always delivers, no matter the challenge. His ‘out of the box’ thinking and creative solutions are said to be the key factors that allows the maintenance team to keep on top of its operational requirements.

The project was delivered on time (within 26 months), for under £30 million, to quality specifications and with an exemplary safety record with no major accidents.

F2G Project Team Hitachi Rail STS, Arup, Rainford, Linbrooke and Network Rail IP Signalling

LNE IP Signalling Construction Team Network Rail

The challenge on the Ferriby to Gilberdyke (F2G) resignalling project was how to replace life expired signalling assets with a new signalling system in a safe, passenger efficient, reliable and sustainable way. The team achieved a 75 per cent reduction in both concrete use and earthworks and eliminated the need for security fencing around the equipment. Improved equipment reliability with better passenger service came from developing a new, smaller, temperature-controlled location case (TCL) to reduce the number of REBs required.

Great Western ASDO APCO Project Team

The five members of the LNE IP Signalling project construction team are innovating, persuasive, problem solvers.

They are also management and contractor interfacing, vastly experienced, partnership builders whose contribution often slips under the radar of successful project delivery. Let me illustrate this with a few examples.

The team regularly challenges task methodology, particularly for weekend works, and carries out site visits in all weathers from midnight to dawn with a focus on handback, which contributes hugely to right-time handback of weekend possessions.

LNW Possession Management Team

Network Rail The Great Western ASDO/APCO project is deploying eurobalises across Wales and the West of England to enable new rolling stock and the biggest timetable change in a generation, all whilst platforms are being extended and overhead line electrification is being delivered.

Network Rail’s Signalling Design Group has provided the signalling designs, and Alstom the eurobalises, which are installed in the four-foot and send a message to the train to enable Automatic Selective Door Opening (ASDO) and Automatic Power Change Over (APCO).

TES 2000 TES 2000 provides possession management to the rail industry. As there is often lengthy downtime before a possession is granted, this allows an opportunity for staff to witness behaviours that are ‘out of the norm’, such as someone standing on an overbridge looking anxious.

Over the last 12 months, TES 2000 staff across the LNW route have made numerous positive interventions that have most certainly saved lives and provided much-needed support to those suffering from mental health and emotional issues.

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Emergency Response Team

Three Bridges to Brighton Project Team

Murphy Group

Network Rail and GTR

Murphy’s 24/7 on-call emergency civils infrastructure team responds to Network Rail emergency remits for structures, earthworks and drainage. It has become exceptionally efficient in mobilising plant and equipment to re-open railway lines as soon as possible and minimise disruption to the travelling public.

The Brighton Main Line Improvement Project is an engineering programme to improve the reliability of the railway through four Victorian-era railway tunnels, Haywards Heath, Patcham, Balcombe and Clayton.

Recent examples include Parton in Cumbria, where a landslip was removed and the area made safe within eight hours of call, and demolishing an unstable retaining wall adjacent to the West Coast main line that prevented trains running into Euston station.

S&C South Alliance – Euston Team

Against a background of historic performance reliability issues on the southern part of the Brighton main line, Network Rail successfully undertook and completed an innovative nineday engineering blockade that used a school spring half-term week to deliver the works, which would otherwise have taken 79 weekends and over two years to deliver.

Tottenham Overhead Line Equipment Team

Colas Rail The S&C South Alliance Euston team delivered a crucial programme of civils-led multi-disciplinary HS2 enabling works ahead of the May 2019 timetable change.

This was a highly challenging programme of works, instructed in much shorter timescales than normal and the work was on the critical path to enable the construction of the new High Speed 2 terminus at Euston.

The successful delivery of this important milestone was only made possible through collaboration, commitment and teamwork by alliance partners Network Rail, Colas Rail and AECOM.

Systems Integration for Delivery Team

Network Rail Late one Thursday evening, a significant overhead line de-wirement occurred at Stamford Hill station. There was around 1km of damage, with most equipment beyond repair and laying on the floor. It included a particularly challenging arrangement, with overlaps and reverse curves, And the equipment type was of an obsolete design so parts were scarce.

However, due to the team’s efforts and assistance provided

by Romford delivery unit and the works delivery team, the railway was returned to full operation for the Monday morning peak.

Works Delivery Track Scotland

Network Rail

Network Rail

The Systems Integration for Delivery (SI4D) team recently launched an entirely new framework, focused around the delivery of systems integration on projects that enhance or deliver new Network Rail railway infrastructure.

Focused on six key components of System Safety, System Security (Cyber and Physical), Reliability, Operational readiness, Maintenance Readiness and Railway performance the SI4D framework facilitates a more cohesive, scalable and risk-based approach to the delivery of capital projects, ensuring all components of the railway system are working well and integrated together.

Works Delivery Track (WDT) carries out refurbishment work across Scotland to enable a safe and reliable timetable for passengers and freight users. This work is typically delivered on rural lines that traditionally would not fall within Network Rail renewals policy and subsequently are reliant on maintenance to maintain services.

Working within the constraints of refurbishment, WDT must propose and deliver the best engineering solutions that balance budget, time and sustainability, minimise the requirements for future maintenance interventions and are robust enough to last 10-15 years.

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Rail Manager of the Year In this category, we are looking for someone who is an outstanding manager and is a true professional, who shows outstanding leadership skills and goes beyond for their team. Great Western Railway values its people and knows the importance of good management and this year it supports the Rail Manager of the Year category.

Aoife Considine

Frankie Lynch

Heathrow Express

Southeastern

Aoife Considine stepped up into her first management role at the start of this year, as fleet engineering manager for Heathrow Express.

Frankie Lynch has been very involved with building the relationship between the revenue teams and the conductors. He attends meetings to discuss a known problem area and approaches things in his usual positive manner, but he is always honest about what is or isn’t possible. He also welcomes feedback.

Working in a very emotional and challenging environment, with the fleet and depot due to be decommissioned in the following year, Aoife has done an amazing job. She has rallied the combined Heathrow Express and Siemens team to create a trusting, collaborative culture resulting in an outstanding improvement of the quality of the trains’ turnout.

“Aoife is an all-round amazing and brilliant person!”

He has promoted the use of body-worn video for the safety of conductors and is always willing to do what he can to foster a good relationship between two grades that benefit from working closely together.

Karen Sherwin

Craig Simmonds

GTR (Great Northern)

Network Rail Craig Simmonds is Network Rail’s local operations manager at Carmarthen. He is a great manager, showing support and guidance but equally allowing individuals to grow and develop naturally in the best way for them. He is always there when needed and has a great wealth and depth of knowledge.

He is well respected by all members of the team and an inspirational dedicated manager with a wealth and depth of experience.

“I look forward to continue working with Craig as my manager.”

Karen Sherwin works hard to support her team at Finsbury Park and her hard work never goes unnoticed.

Her work ethic and her support have a massive impact on the people who work around her, especially on match days. It was only a few months ago that she saved a young girls life by sitting with her and speaking to her until the police came.

“Karen is a credit to GTR and her work needs to be recognised.”

Katrina Treacy MTR Elizabeth Line Katrina Treacy brings over two decades’ worth of experience to the Rail industry. She has always gone the extra mile to help customers and has nurtured, and raised as her own, the next generation of railway managers over the last several years.

She’s the most friendly, lovable and professional person around who will always pick people up when they are down, who sees the best in them and makes sure to give them the chance to grow as an individual at every single opportunity.

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Kevin Tarrier

Mo Uddin

Heathrow Rail

GTR

Kevin Tarrier has been instrumental in a whole restructure of the operations control role at Heathrow Rail.

He has faced many challenges, including the movement of the service controller role to GWR and the TUPE of staff, many of whom have worked there for a number of years.

As a manager, Mo Uddin consistently goes over and above for staff and customers without ever complaining.

He isn’t afraid, or too busy, to help and encourage staff within the four stations he is covering. Mo has taught his staff how to stick together, work as a team and believe in the opportunities of progressing within the company.

He has dealt with the situation in a manner that has gained great respect, even those who are moving out of the Heathrow Express business.

“Great manager, better man!”

Mo is “easily the hardest working manager on the line”. If needed, he will come back to work without a second thought to sort out a difficult issue.

Patryk Kurdziel

Lee Doye

GTR (Southern)

MTR Elizabeth Line Lee Doyle became station manager last year and has been professional, courteous, approachable, productive and helpful from day one. Staff find that going to work is easier knowing they have a manager that will listen, help where possible and act quickly to resolve any situation – be it in their favour or not.

Lee has a good rapport with his staff and peers and their greatest wish is to see him progress.

Patryk Kurdziel is customer experience delivery manager with GTR. A supportive manager and colleague who easily adapts himself to new and challenging environments, he always puts his staff and customers at the heart of everything he does.

He brings a fun positive energy to the team, as well as new ideas and a fresh approach to delivering an excellent customer experience. He is attentive to detail and gets things done.

“I can honestly say one of the best managers I have ever worked for.”

“Lee is simply one of the best managers.”

Marianna Busuttil

Ryan Massen

GTR Driver manager Marianna Busutill always has time for everyone and is always happy and smiling, which gives everyone a lift, early shifts or late. She is very approachable, has a great sense of humour and really makes her trainees feel valued and supported.

They always are saying in the mess rooms how she has helped them with not only their routes and driving instructors but also with personal problems.

“I would not be a train driver if it wasn’t for her.”

GTR (Southern) Ryan Massen is part of a five-person management team based at Brighton. When given a task to take charge of stations for Brighton Pride by his area manager, Ryan really excelled. Forming a team alongside his area manager and senior management, he devised a plan to ensure Pride went off as a success, obtaining support from station staff and emergency services the plan cover every aspect and ensured a smooth operation.

“He is the best manager I have ever had.”

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Simone Carter

Wayne Parker

West Midlands Trains

Great Western Railway

Simone Carter, station manager on the Stourbridge line, is consistently dedicated to her team (which includes a station cat!).

Wayne Parker started life on the railway as a revenue protection inspector, working endlessly to prove himself. Five years later, he is now the central area revenue protection manager.

Whether it’s planning for the football at The Hawthorns, opening a temporary ticket office at Kidderminster whilst the station is rebuilt, making arrangements for Flying Scotsman’s visit to Worcester or simply in her day-to-day engagement with our customers and colleagues, Simone’s passion for customers is plain to see. No challenge is too great!

He has built the central revenue department up from a mere 20 staff to the 70 that he is proud to call THE TEAM. It is the top performing team in GWR and has been for some years, something Wayne is extremely proud of.

“A true role-model, I feel truly honoured to call him ‘My Boss’.”

“Simone is quite simply a shining light!”

Wales Cheung AECOM Wales Cheung is currently the design programme manager for the South Rail Systems Alliance. In this demanding role, he always leads the team by example. He is result oriented, performance driven and a people’s manager.

He is very well regarded in Alliance and he is considered very responsible and a problem solver. Over the years, he has grown in stature and that is reflected in increase of responsibilities in the alliance structure.

“He always put his staff first no matter how under pressure he is.”

Wayne Harris GTR (Southern) Wayne Harris has always been a supportive manager that staff can rely on. He is never too busy to offer advice or guidance and is always available to speak to.

He has driven the revenue enforcement team to new heights this year and has plans in place to give more assistance to colleagues on the front line better but also improve productivity and results.

THE FAMOUS FIVE © 2018, Hodder & Stoughton Limited. All rights reserved. Advertising based on an increase of over 10% in train seats on long distance, intercity services in May 2019 compared to the same period in 2018. Correct as of 18 June 2019. Selected routes only. Visit GWR.com for full terms and conditions.

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“He has the ability to talk to staff of all levels – a great natural leader.”

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Safety Person or Team of the Year Sponsored by Bollé Safety, the Rail Safety Person or Team of the Year award recognises those who have improved the safety record of their business and those who promote a safe working culture.

HSQE Advisors Team

Apprentice Team Great Western Railway Our Apprenticeship Team truly are one of GWR’s “everyday hero’s” by working tirelessly to deliver a pipeline of talent into the business year after year. Whilst the team is only small, they collectively manage up to 65 apprentices, based at numerous locations across all functions. As part of the various programmes the team are responsible for delivering many community activities – including the Duke of Edinburgh Business Gold Award.

Community Safety Team

Kelly Rail As an integrated team, the Kelly Rail HSQE advisors and site engineers work together during both day and night shifts helping to understand one another’s challenges, share lessons learnt and implement best practice.

From tender stage through design, procurement, delivery, implementation and handover, the Kelly Rail HSQE advisors are proactively involved to identify any potential health, safety and environmental issues that need to be resolved before any of the teams are on site.

Network Rail Ali and Steve are community safety managers who have been working with passion and dedication to educate young people across the Great Western main line route on how they can keep themselves and others safe on the railway.

In just 3 years, Ali and Steve have reached an incredible 445,000 young people in more than 840 primary and secondary schools within 4,000m of the railway to deliver crucial safety awareness messages. They have been fantastic at informing young people about the project and how they can keep safe on the new electrified railway.

conseil

Dan Wilkes South Western Railway Dan is a guard based at London Waterloo and over the past year has been involved in two serious incidents.

The first incident he was involved in was a train derailment at Wimbledon. He assisted the train crew and ensured that South Western Railway’s customers and colleagues remained safe at all times. In another incident, Dan helped when the train he was working on caught fire at Surbiton. Dan immediately used his training to bring the service to a safe stand and isolated the traction current. All passengers were subsequently safely evacuated from the train.

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Jane Hepburn

Mark Neal

Vital Human Resources

G&W UK

Jane, Vital’s HSE advisor for the North of England, is passionate about spreading the safety message across the company. Her enthusiasm, drive and commitment to safety has a knock on effect to the workforce.

Mark, the health and safety rep at Freightliner’s Street Terminal, works hard to ensure all the staff in Birmingham are aware of the safety systems and procedures that are in place to keep them safe.

She is well respected by clients and her peers within the business and having been in the industry for some years, Jane’s safety approach is very hands-on. She is also comfortable dealing with senior safety professionals as well as the general workforce.

Sometimes, even the most dedicated safety rep will become disheartened when progress on a safety issue stalls, but not Mark. He is never put off and if he doesn’t succeed at first, he looks for alternative ways to achieve his objective.

Lorraine Pettitt Merseyrail

McGinley Safety Team McGinley Support Services

Lorraine has shown her professionalism and caring attitude towards members of the public and our passengers through her actions at Liverpool South Parkway station.

Her calmness and quick actions are exemplary and she is a great role model for her colleagues within the business.

She deals with challenging situations calmly and her actions demonstrate her commitment to the safety and wellbeing of Merseyrail’s customers.

Lorraine has the confidence from her training to deal with incidents as well as possessing the self-assurance to handle situations sensitively.

The McGinley Safety Team are a true example of collaboration within the industry. As one of the founding members of the Track Safety Alliance, they work tirelessly with peers for a safer railway environment, often going above and beyond to ensure that the workforce is safe at every turn.

They are also the driving force behind the new innovative mobile reporting ‘Safety at McGinley’ app – a bespoke multi-platform mobile reporting app designed to give users a ‘one-stop’ safety experience and knowledge base.

Paul Roper G&W UK

Lucy Marshall Network Rail High Speed Lucy is a fundamental part of the QHSE team and she is said to have transformed risk management at Network Rail High Speed in a relatively short period of time.

She relentlessly strives to improve at great pace, without compromising on quality or detail and colleagues say that her work has, and will continue to, improve the safety and reliability of our business moving forward.

Paul has worked in safety for over 10 years at Freightliner. He has an encyclopaedic knowledge of safety but is able to explain safety in a way that members of staff at all levels in the company can understand ad relate to.

He has over 20 years’ experience in total, so he can appreciate how safety is viewed by many people and his enthusiasm and commitment to the aim of Freightliner to have “Zero Accidents” means he can win over even the most sceptical person.

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Principal Designer Team

St Pancras Safer Station Team

Jacobs

Land Sheriffs

The Transpennine upgrade principal design team is made up of a knowledgeable, passionate and dedicated bunch of people, led by an experienced and highly regarded individual in the railway industry – Jeff Boden.

Over the last year this team has been dedicated to improving the safety of staff at St Pancras station. They have worked alongside the BTP and station staff to combat the issues they have been facing.

Since taking on the role of Principal Designer, the team have standardised the approach to construction, design and management to the whole programme, whilst putting people and passengers first by the safe by design culture, and health, safety and wellbeing principles.

Since being on site, assaults on staff have reduced drastically and they have assisted in implanting a zero tolerance policy with regards to rough sleepers in the station.

They are also on hand to assist commuters should they need it both as a security presence or customer service if they need help getting the right train.

Safety and Sustainability Team VolkerRail Behavioural Coaches Colas Rail The Colas Rail safety team really understand that to continue to operate safely and efficiently, continuous improvement and development is vital.

They drive forward initiatives that encourage and empower people within the business. An example of this is the award-winning ‘Safety and Sustainability Challenge’ which was developed to enable Colas staff to think outside the box and make a positive impact through the works they deliver.

VolkerRail The team was nominated in this category for their consistent efforts to engage VolkerRail colleagues with safety and to then measure the safety culture in the business.

To help everyone get home safe every day will always be the team’s main aim and it engages with all levels of employees, from directors to cleaners, to get there.

Southern Metro CDM Team GTR (Southern) The Metro CDM team have been working tirelessly in the last 12 months to drive down safety incidents across the Southern network.

Within GTR’s Zero Harm initiative, the team locally have worked to identify trends which could lead a driver to have an incident and work to drive these down. This data driven approach has already begun to see results, with a reduction already being seen.

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awards @railstaff ia

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HR, Diversity and Inclusion Person or Team Award This award’s sponsor, Intertrain (UK) Limited is an NSAR ‘Gold’ Railway Training and Assessment provider established in 1997, and is accredited by various bodies including City and Guilds, RISQS, Network Rail and Qualsafe.

Brighton and Hove Pride Steering Group GTR With a need for open recognition of its LGBT+ employees, a GTR LGBT+ group was established in early 2019 and quickly grew in members. The group planned and designed a parade float and iconic Trainbow to mark the UK’s largest Pride celebrations, Brighton & Hove Pride, for the first time.

Served by Southern, Gatwick Express and Thameslink, Brighton station is a key location on GTR’s network – and is one of the largest stations by passenger numbers – so there is a real focus on celebrating as part of the local community.

Dave Rees WSP UK Dave provides a highly visible, proactive strategic and operational HR service to the business. He has facilitated talent management, performance, succession, development and retention planning throughout the business. A champion for coaching and mentoring, Dave has trained and influenced the senior leadership team to see things from a people perspective, developing their leadership skills and ability to act as behavioural role models. He takes the lead on HR projects and improvement initiatives, including writing and presenting proposals to the leadership team.

Glen Willie South Western Railway

Craig McNally LNER Craig is a popular advocate of diversity and inclusion and has helped to organise major Pride events throughout the route, including York Pride & Newcastle Pride.

He’s also been instrumental in the launch of LNER’s inclusion pledge, with supporting pin badges and lanyards.

Craig’s openness and popularity play a big part in making all of these things a success and the positive impact is massive, not only with those directly impacted but by a much wider audience, who appreciate the positive, upbeat vibe these activities give out.

Over the last two years Glen has voluntarily co-led several activities supporting a more diverse industry. He is a fantastic male agent of change with exemplar behaviours and always leads by example – inspiring many in a collaborative way.

In partnership with others, Glen has voluntarily helped deliver over 15 professional development and networking events to support gender diversity in the rail sector. He has been instrumental in helping secure guest speakers, panellists, and coaches to deliver training for events targeted in the South of England.

Harry Levey Network Rail Harry joined Network Rail less than a year ago and opted to join its LGBT+ employee network Archway as their prides and sparkle officer.

In that time, Harry’s enthusiasm and diligence has delivered great results. He’s doubled the amount of prides that Network Rail supports, leading 14 Prides across the country from Edinburgh to Newquay and Cardiff to York. He also arranged Network Rail’s attendance at a Sparkle event in Manchester too.

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HR Capability Team

Liz McKortel

Network Rail

Virgin Trains

The HR team has been nominated for its early engagement and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) work to encourage young people to choose the right subjects at school and bring them into engineering careers.

Liz is part of Virgin Trains’ resource team based at Preston station. Staff contact Liz and her team to arrange annual leave, exchange shifts, request help for emergency leave and despite being bombarded with requests, she is constantly smiley, pleasant, helpful and unflustered.

With a tenacity for solving problems, nothing is too much or too hard for them to deliver.

For example, throughout the Year of Engineering, the team worked with RSSB to drive and lead an industry steering group, delivering social media campaigns, working together at the Big Bang science fair and working with Young Rail professionals to reach influencers of young people.

IP Track, TSA and Selectequip Team Network Rail, Track Safety Alliance and Selectequip For the first time, everyone working trackside has access to welfare facilities, including toilet and life-saving equipment, within two minutes of their worksite.

Despite investing more in the railways since the Victorian era, some worksite welfare facilities remained positively stone age; often inadequate and sometimes non-existent.

That was until Network Rail’s track team worked collaboratively with the Track Safety Alliance and Selectequip to develop, design and deploy a new inclusive welfare facility to address the root cause.

Jaye Dry G&W UK Jaye Dry’s words have created the image of a company who care about their employees, their customers, their followers, and the industry as a whole. No matter what time of day or night, and despite going through a tough time herself, Jaye Dry responds with understanding, kindness and approachability.

Liz isn’t a superhero in a fancy lycra costume who flies across the skies, she is just a lady who can make life a wee bit easier and can turn a problem into a solution.

Rebecca Bartlett Network Rail Beckie is a scheme project manager and, alongside her day job, is passionate about supporting colleagues with their mental health by helping them manage stress and achieve wellbeing at work.

With mental health-related absence at Network Rail on the rise, Beckie is now championing mindfulness and resilience across the business as a tool to help colleague’s combat stress. Beckie has recently qualified as a mental health first aider, meaning she’s equipped to support others struggling with their mental health

EDI – CIS Team Siemens Mobility Colleagues spoke with great pride of Siemens Mobility’s equality, diversity and inclusion team across two control and information sites: Ashby de la Zouch and York Holgate.

Throughout the year these teams have celebrated religious inclusion, diversity and equality through numerous events such as International Men’s & Women’s Day and Pride.

In a nomination, a colleague said: “They are a fantastic team of volunteers and put so much passion and effort into creating successful community events and spreading awareness.”

Colleagues say Jaye cares deeply about the company, the industry, and everyone within it.

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JAM (just a minute) card, which helps people with learning difficulties and autism, were developed.

The Up! Committee

Zoe Holland

Greater Anglia

Chiltern Railways

The Up! Committee is a first of its kind for Abellio – a group of women from across the business determined to change perceptions and encourage growth.

Zoe hasn’t worked for Chiltern Railways for a long time but she is extremely passionate about her role as learning and development manager.

The committee came together in the face of adversity, supporting each other through the challenging experience of becoming ‘Contingency Conductors’ during industrial action.

She has revolutionised training and learning for Chiltern Railways staff, ensuring they are informed of, and have access to, more learning and development than ever before. Not only this, she organises a casual pay day drinks event for anyone interested in going which is something that hasn’t been attempted at Chiltern for a long time. The level of inclusion and team spirit is inspiring.

With only 22 per cent female colleagues at GA, the group realised that UP! could be a way to work towards an equal and diverse workforce. There is still the issue of both attracting and retaining women in the rail industry. UP! is on the crusade to change that.

Tracey Barber G&W UK Tracey has a real passion for the railway, its people and inspiring young people to look at a career choice in rail. She founded the Rail Human Library, a not for profit engagement programme for young people. It’s a new concept but the pilot is going extremely well.

The project is an engagement piece for young people to sit face to face with industry workers and to talk, encourage and generally educate in the wide variety of job roles within the industry. Rail Human Library is still in its early stages of development but has so far reached hundreds of pupils in Manchester.

Victoria Whitehouse

RailStaff Awards 2019 City & Guilds Group and Intertrain Proud sponsors of the HR, Diversity and Inclusion award 2019

Virgin Trains Although recently appointed as the inclusion lead for Virgin Trains, Victoria has for a long while gone above and beyond to make sure employees and customers are in a safe, happy and stigma-free place.

cityandguildsgroup.com railway-training-courses.com

She recently set up various panels and working groups, including an inclusion panel that is open to customers who want to discuss improvements that could be made to their journey. From this panel ideas such as the introduction of the

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Station Staff of the Year Transport Benevolent Fund CIO, sponsor of the Station Staff of the Year category, is all about helping people in the public transport industry – helping to improve members’ work-life balance and reduce staff turnover for the employer.

Anyone engaged in the public transport industry in Great Britain is eligible to join the Transport Benevolent Fund CIO. Membership costs just £1 a week, deductible through the company payroll facility. There are no different levels of membership – the £1 a week is a flat-rate membership fee giving the member and their family access to the extensive range of benefits should hardship or distress arise.

Aaron Koduah

Ali Zakari

Virgin Trains

West Midlands Trains

Aaron has been part of the Virgin family for a few years, originally at Stoke On Trent and now at Crewe.

He epitomises the brand’s values and creates memorable customer experiences with his kind and friendly personality.

Ali’s understanding of his stations’ ever-changing personality is remarkable. He keeps a tight ship at the Hawthorns station for all of his customers and not just the football supporters – he is proud of his station and knows it inside out.

His motivational quote board has become well known up and down the country, with quite a few celebs posting on social media about it. This has led to him writing his own book and having it published.

Adele Bradley Virgin Trains Adele really lives and breathes Virgin’s values.

As well as delivering amazing customer service, she is always happy, smiling and has an attitude that nothing is too much for her.

On a daily basis she goes the extra mile for customers and also colleagues because of her caring nature.

The number of letters, e-mails and thank you cards Adele receives far outweighs those of other members of staff.

Everything, thanks to Ali, is spot on when there is a football match on to ensure nothing is missing or out of place to ensure a smooth passage of the thousands of fans that pass through – right down to post match information being on display in advance, toilets being cleaned regularly and ensuring mobility impaired supporters are boarded with no fuss.

Antonia Ugbaja South Western Railway Antonia is described as someone who is calm under pressure but who always rises to the occasion – a perfect fit for someone who works at the busiest station in Europe in terms of the daily through traffic of trains.

For anyone who has visited Clapham Junction during rush-hour, they will know how frantic it can be. That’s what makes Antonia’s personalised, caring, from the heart customer service so astounding.

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Erkan Turgut

Fraser Carter

Southeastern

Chiltern Railways

Erkan went to the aid of his colleague at St Mary Cray station on August 17 this year when they were being physically assaulted by two females who’d been asked to stop swearing. Putting concern for his own safety aside, Erkan intervened, receiving a slap and scratch in the process.

Fraser is responsible for providing services to passengers, and others, at Dorridge Station on the Leamington line.

Ferdinand Vendil

He is very patient and often assists passengers in making choices to enhance their journey by having knowledge gained by not only his service but by years of travelling himself.

Despite having had occasional health problems, he continues to provide consistent service that customers want in a friendly and professional manner and knows many of the passengers who pass through by name.

CrossCountry Trains ‘Ferdi’ is a fantastic ambassador for the company and has worked with us for 20 years.

Nothing is a problem for Ferdi, he cares for what he is doing, customers and his fellow team members. Ferdi thinks ahead, he is a great problem resolver and is passionate about customer service – for which he has consistently been a high performer.

John Lawless West Midlands Trains On May 4, John’s quick-thinking actions saved the lives of two people at Worcester Foregate Street station.

A group of five passengers were dancing around the platform yellow line.

After one, who appeared to be in a drunken state, lost his footing and barged into another, the pair fell onto the tracks.

Proud sponsors of the Station Staff Award, 2019 With the help of the TOCs, Network Rail and other employers throughout the industry, we now have nearly 63,500 members.

For just £1 a week, a wide range of health, welfare and financial benefits are available to you, your partner and dependent children if you work in the transport industry...

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John gave the emergency stop signal using hands and then a red light on his torch, causing the train to stop but half a carriage from the persons on the track.

Louise Drane Merseyrail Louise is a new member of station staff at Southport station but she has taken to the role with ease.

Southport station carries many passengers and they also have the added issues with train shunting, and a lot of VIP passengers, accidents, and potential travel safe issues. During recent industrial action Louise was verbally abused and spat at, however, she just took this in her stride.

She has faced a lot more challenges and difficulties than most new starters into the business and Merseyrail is very proud of her.

0300 333 2000 www.tbf.org.uk Transport Benevolent Fund CIO, known as TBF, is a registered charity in England and Wales, 1160901, and Scotland, SC047016.

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Mohammed Tohow

Scott Miles

Proactive Rail

West Midlands Trains

Mohammed has worked with Proactive for over four years on the London Overground with Lorol and Arriva.

He started his journey with Proactive doing gateline shifts, and after 18 months joined the supervisor team following his excellent customer service.

A helpful person who goes far beyond expectations, Scott has dealt with all manner of situations with a calm, confident and re-assuring manner.

He has been involved with White Hart Lane station upgrade works and played a key role with the station delivery manager and TfL management.

He’s found to be always busy looking after passengers and his colleagues, always professional – even under pressure, as displayed during an incident at Birmingham Snow Hill station this year when he performed CPR to save someone’s life.

Tahera Ahmed

Ryan Hooper

MTR Elizabeth Line

MTR Elizabeth Line A credit to his employer and a credit to the rail industry – that is how Ryan’s co-workers described the MTR Elizabeth line security operative.

They say he is very kind, reliable and a great team player and is always willing to help colleagues and customers.

Tahera is always smiling and positive whilst carrying out her duties. She is always optimistic about her role, delivers the best for passengers and never fails to make her fellow colleagues smile. Colleagues say if anyone deserves commendation it is her as she is fantastic at what she does. “Everyone loves having her around including customers” said one co-worker.

Sarah Knox

Wayne Cabey

Southeastern

Network Rail High Speed

Sarah was nominated by a colleague who has benefited from her support, day and night, to get through a difficult time at work.

After being diagnosed with PTSD following an incident whereby a suicidal person attempted to take their life as well, Sarah made sure she was there to support her colleague whenever she needed it.

“If I didn’t have the support of Sarah & my colleagues I can definitely say I would not be who I am today & still working on the railway,” said a colleague in a nomination.

Wayne Cabey works out of St Pancras International where he has received excellent customer service feedback on numerous occasions.

In just one example, Wayne helped with an unbooked assistance for a man who had only been discharged from hospital that day and arrived at the station unexpectedly and requiring assistance.

Wayne greeted the man and his daughter and put them both at ease. The daughter commented that it would have been a difficult journey without Wayne being there to provide support.

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Learning and Development Award Heathrow Express, the sponsor of the Learning and Development Award, is a non-franchised, non-subsidised private rail company which runs up to 150 services a day and operates the stations at Heathrow Airport.

Chris Thompson

Iain Thompson

Mott MacDonald

TXM Plant

Chris played a key part in developing Network Rail’s Fast Trackers engineering challenge but it was his personal commitment in supporting one of the programme’s students that led him to be nominated for an award.

Iain took on the role of business apprenticeship manager two years ago at a time when the business had nothing in place to fully support its rail apprentices and their learning development needs.

One programme element required a young student who had extreme anxiety to give a formal presentation – the thought of which terrified her. Chris helped her exploy coping strategies and helped her to control her anxiety and to give the presentation in front of a packed lecture theatre.

He promised TXM Plant would be recognised as having one of the top apprenticeship programmes in the sector within two years and through his passion, determination and work ethic, it’s a promise he has lived up to.

Kamaljeet Kaur Marwaha Network Rail Kamaljeet is a senior programme commercial manager who, over and above her demanding day job, has a passion for developing the skills and knowledge of her teams.

Ruby has instigated, developed, led and delivered a programme of ‘Lunch & Learn’ and CPD events for the IP Signalling Southern Team over the past two years. She has delivered approximately 35 sessions attended by more than 400 people across Network Rail. Ruby is responsible for the entire program from start to finish and takes time to identify the areas that the teams need training on.

Express Train

between Heathrow Central and London Paddington

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Heathrow Express is proud to sponsor the Learning and Development Award at the RailStaff Awards 2019.

Heathrow Central for Terminals 2 & 3 For full terms and conditions visit heathrowexpress.com

Marketing & Comms Person or Team

Learning and Development Team Network Rail Western Route’s Learning and Development Team have made shock waves throughout the route and beyond. Since evolving from the Teams Improving Maintenance project, they have designed and delivered – in collaboration with the HR team – the new Great People Manager Course to over 200 people and counting. This training has become not only the flagship leadership course for Western but has echoed to other routes.

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Mark Byatt

Motion Reality

telent Technology Services

Motion Reality

Mark has actively supported the use of graduate engineers and developed an excellent working environment to help progress and develop the engineers by allowing them to expand their experience with real-life engineering tasks and problems supported by the wider engineering team.

Used by more than 300,000 people since the beginning of 2018, Motion Rail created the virtual reality railway initially to educate office staff to have a greater awareness of the railway and the associated hazards so they could support the site teams more effectively and was developed further to help train lookouts and COSSs. Recognising the benefits, ‘Motion Reality’ was developed with Network Rail and has now helped educate hundreds of thousands of youngsters throughout the communities we work in.

This support is provided with full understanding of the additional constraints and potential impact associated with using short and medium term graduate placements as part of the engineering process.

Mary Donovan Heathrow Rail Mary has been an integral part of the Heathrow Rail team for over 20 years. She shares her knowledge and experience with new starters and existing colleagues on a daily basis and also in the classroom as part of the training team.

Her recent mentoring work focussed on emergency situations, which led to one of the station team leaders who took part carrying out one of the best fire evacuations conducted by Heathrow Rail.

Mike Mitchell Network Rail Mike’s commitment to sharing knowledge for the benefit of colleagues and customers is second to none. He is incredibly passionate about helping telecoms engineers, both new to the team or long-standing members, get the knowledge and skills they need to carry out their roles to the best of their abilities in today’s railway.

In May 2018, Network Rail’s telecoms practical training room in York was officially opened. This facility has been Mike’s vision and a real labour of love, he designed it and installed most if not all the equipment in it.

Network Operations People Development Team GTR The People Development Team work with vigour to allow all individuals that are part of Network Operations to find their feet working in this critically important area of the rail industry and as part of a team who push each other to exceed expectations and provide a high quality rail service day-by-day, whatever challenges they might face.

The People Development Team assist newstarters to learn and eventually play a part within the multidimensional sphere of Network Operations, and this in turn supports everyone in every location of GTR’s network to play a part in delivering one of the most complex passenger operations ever seen in this country.

Odis Palmer Great Western Railway Odis has a passion for developing others and the highlight this year has to be The Prince’s Trust programme.

He has worked tirelessly to totally transform the training element of the programme, working in close partnership with recruitment and GWR’s engagement manager, who oversees the Prince’s Trust programme management for GWR. Colleagues say Odis is “a totally selfless, energised, creative, positive and dedicated trainer” who goes above and beyond what is asked of him.

Marketing & Comms Person or Team

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Sara Hibberd

Susan Fishwick

MTR Elizabeth Line

South Western Railway

MTR Crossrail has redesigned and implemented a robust training plan that has seen seven new retail courses developed over the last 12 months. These courses are there to enhance employees’ knowledge and provide them with the necessary skills to meet customers’ needs.

Susan has been fundamental in the success of South Western Railway’s partnership with the Prince’s Trust.

Sara has been an integral part of this process delivering training packages to over 500 employees. Feedback from her peers has been very complimentary and Sara is seen as a key factor in the success that has seen National Rail Passenger Survey scores grow year on year.

Sophia Galligan

As the training lead for the programme, the candidates are put under Susan’s care for their first two weeks. It’s Susan’s role to put them at ease, help them grow in confidence and start to develop their skills. This is a role Susan performs with a great deal of passion and energy, ensuring the young people are ready for the next step of two weeks work experience at SWR’s stations.

Training Team Alstom Transport UK

Great Western Railway Sophia is often the first person that new colleagues meaningfully engage with when starting their first day at GWR as she more often than not hosts corporate inductions. At these, she takes great effort to inspire and empower from day one, passionately promoting and explaining GWR’s people-centric operating ethos.

Sophia has been in her current training role just a little over two years. Just 12 months into her role she was awarded two gold awards from the company’s internal recognition scheme for high performers in close succession.

Alstom’s training team has been instrumental in developing and implementing the Alstom System Approach to Training and it now produces industry and globally recognised training material, processes and procedures.

The teams produce and deliver courses for all Alstom’s technical staff – the first time that this has ever been achieved to this standard. The team now deliver first aid courses to a nationally recognised standard saving on time and resources as well.

Sue Gazzard Southeastern Sue is a RMT rep and a union learning rep and has worked hard to put Hastings and Tonbridge line on the map.

Colleagues say learning courses – from upskilling to languages and first aid – have gone from strength to strength under her guidance and she has become a great ambassador to all those who want to learn new skills within the railways.

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Marketing & Comms Person or Team

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Rail Engineer of the Year Colas Rail, sponsor of Rail Engineer of the Year, is looking to the future in the railway industry with continued enthusiasm and a commitment to improve everything they do.

Abdul Rehman Savant

Ben Taylor Network Rail

Amey Consulting Abdul Savant is constantly looking at bringing the railway into the 21st century, liaising with suppliers and manufacturers to develop new technologies, smart solutions and innovative ideas to help improve the railway.

He organises lunchtime CPD events, to not only keep himself up to date with new digital technologies, but also to inform his fellow work colleagues from all disciplines and sectors within Amey, with whom he is always willing to share his technical knowledge of digital technologies.

Ben Taylor has achieved much in three years whilst working for Network Rail. He has rapidly risen from project engineer to senior engineer due to his capability and willingness to both challenge and learn. Part of the delivery team for Derby Remodelling scheme, Ben was the lone E&P engineer supporting this undertaking, freely giving his time and knowledge for the betterment of the scheme.

He has also sponsored for two new items of technology, now fully approved and helping provide greater reliability of the infrastructure.

Claire Hulstone

Abhinav Sunny Chirayil

Network Rail

Bombardier Transportation UK Sunny Chirayil impresses with his in-depth engineering knowledge and experience. He is efficient, great with the customer and has the ability to explain and break down complex technical issues to make them clear and understandable to a wide range of stakeholders.

His most notable achievements include delivering highly reliable PIS solutions for the CrossRail and LoTrain projects and developing bespoke solutions for Greater Anglia customers. Leading cross-functional teams with global suppliers to deliver these products has been a difficult challenge that Sunny has managed admirably.

Claire Hulstone was the designated project engineer on the Liverpool Lime St project, which was successfully commissioned last year.

She provided exceptional leadership and guidance to her engineering and wider project team throughout the project and deserves the recognition she would never seek for herself.

Dan Reilly Atkins, part of the SNC Lavalin Group Dan Reilly has worked with Atkins for five years as a system testing engineer. He has been heavily involved with the Atkins project, Feltham stage 0 (Shepperton), which involved the introduction of future signalling systems.

An entirely new approach was needed on this project, and Dan was pivotal in pulling the telecoms, systems, and signalling teams together to form an integrated and converged technology delivery team, broadening Atkins collective knowledge on electronic systems and stepping up well above his day-to-day role.

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Mark Banham

Paul Hooper

Network Rail

Atkins, part of the SNC Lavalin Group

Mark Banham is an enterprising young civil engineer working within Network Rail Northern Programmes of Infrastructure Projects (IPNP). He has been on a mission to drive continuous improvement in his area of engineering – temporary works management and quality assurance management.

He has been exemplary in his behaviours, building collaborative relationships and always looks to constructively challenge when the opportunity exists, and has gone above and beyond his area of responsibility to support a complex programme of platform extensions in order to bring efficiencies.

Neil Andrews

Paul Hooper, technical director of Atkins, is well known as a railway electrification engineer, working across all regions in rail.

2019 has been an exemplary year for Paul and his wider career is impressive. His energy and dedication to projects, colleagues and clients is unwavering. He sits on several national industry committees and, following his promotion to technical director, the feedback noted he was able to lead the group away from challenging views to more pragmatic solutions, which mitigated risks without significant industry costs.

Robert Regan Network Rail

Amey Neil Andrews is an extremely hard working and dedicated engineer who has led the Amey Consulting track team in successfully delivering the permanent way and drainage designs for Kings Cross Remodelling Project while, at the same time, continuing in his position as engineering manager for the track teams across the North of England and Scotland.

Despite juggling two extremely demanding roles, Neil has always been supportive and approachable, giving Amey’s track engineers opportunities to train and develop in all aspects of permanent way design.

Paul Belle AECOM Paul Belle is a true ambassador of engineering.

He is passionate, with a drive to perfection and well respected by his team, peers and client.

He is well reasoned, pays great attention to detail and is not fazed by challenges. He has an in-depth knowledge of railways, renewals and, in particular, multi-disciplinary integration and coordination. Combining this ability with his direct communication skills, he is able to overcome concerns before they become issues and blockers.

Rob Regan is a Chartered Civil Engineer who has shown great professionalism on the Wigan Depot scheme, which is very complex in nature in terms of its layout, the amount of civils interventions and integration with other disciplines.

A natural team player, Rob always listens and contributes to the right level in any engineering discussion. Transitioning from a design organisation to a project environment was very smooth for Rob and he quickly gained the respect of fellow colleagues and was very popular within the team.

Simon Rhodes Network Rail Simon Rhodes is a senior engineer in the Infrastructure Project Signalling Southern West team. To say Simon is a ‘safe pair of hands’ is an understatement; he is a reliable, exceptionally diligent and a technically outstanding member of the team.

Over the last year, Simon’s work has focused on one of the team’s most high-profile projects, Cornwall Capacity Enabling Scheme. His system safety CSM-RA paperwork submission was identified as ‘best in class” for its quality, detail and robust safety assessment.

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Srinivasa Rao Mulakala

Trevor Wheeler

AECOM

telent Technology Services

Srinivasa is a valued member of South Rail Systems Alliance (formerly S&C Alliance South) E&P team and has been part of design delivery over CP5 and CP6 to date.

Described by colleagues as knowledgeable, supportive, honest, collaborative and well respected, Trevor Wheeler is one of the few telecoms PICOTs (Person in Charge Of Testing) in Rail. During his 20-year career, Trevor has introduced several initiatives which have led to new working practices, creating both cost and time efficiencies and mitigating train delays

In that time, he has proven to be very professional, diligent and efficient, incredibly hard-working and dedicated, but above all, very enthusiastic, driven and always willing to help others.

His delivery record is impressive and reflected by high regard and praise he receives from his Alliance Partners and peers.

Stephen Varley

Trevor is passionate about his team, mentoring many individuals from apprentice through to fully licensed engineers, and is always thinking about the bigger picture and how any decision will affect the workforce.

Network Rail Steve Varley is an exceptional engineer who has really impressed, particularly in the way he led the team on the recent Newark Flat Crossing renewal.

This was a first in type renewal and CSM (common safety method) significant project which required product acceptance for the eight double-star cast-manganese crossings mounted on synthetic-wood bearers.

Steve also gave mentorship and support to the two new designated project engineers who joined the team. He is very approachable and always steps up to any tasks thrown his way.

Tom Robinson

proud to sponsor Rail Engineer of the Year www.colasrail.co.uk

Network Rail Tom was the designated project engineer, leading the team of Network Rail and Atkins Engineers who introduced a new digital signalling system on the Shepperton branch. This was the first project on Network Rail using this new signalling and level crossing technology.

He was key to the success of the project, delivering excellent high quality of work and a great team spirit. He is organised, structured and always displays a confident and proactive approach to solving problems.

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY

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Lifetime Achievement Award This award is to recognise a single individual who has made significant and lasting contributions to the rail industry over the past 20 years. Leading technology company, telent, proudly sponsors the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Andrew Fairbank

Chris Hanson

South Western Railway

Jacobs

Andrew Fairbank started as a clerical officer in Bristol in July 1978 before enrolling onto the management training scheme in Swansea. He then progressed to become head of on-train services at South West Trains and then South Western Railway.

Chris Hanson began his career in the rail industry in 1970 at British Rail Research, where he initially conducted investigations in tribology, corrosion technology, lubrication, friction and wear and then moved on to the design, development, installation and commissioning of the prototype Radio Electronic Token Block signalling system.

He is not only the consummate railway professional, but a thoroughly nice guy who always seems to have a smile on his face and whose priority has always been his passengers rather than self-promotion. Today’s railway needs more Andrews!

Bob Dunn

In his latest role, he has led the Jacobs team that works collaboratively with Merseytravel, Merseyrail and Network Rail to procure new rolling stock provide upgrades to platforms and power supplies on the Merseyrail network.

David Lugsden

Virgin Trains Bob Dunn started his career in 1975 at Saltley as a traction trainee, learning 10 traction types in four years.

Transferring to Wolverhampton depot in 1990, he became an instructor driver in 1993 and soon had the reputation of the go to Instructor for any traction specific queries.

Since then, he has produced the driver traction manuals, bulletins and handbooks that have become essential reading for every Virgin Trains driver. Bob is also only a phone call away if anyone has a burning question on traction.

Chris Davis

Network Rail David Lugsden trained as a design engineer, before joining Balfour Beatty to take on more complex civil engineering work. He joined British Rail in February 1982, and steadily progressed up through the organisation.

More recently, David has applied his vast engineering experience and strong influence on high-profile schemes such as the iconic £17 million Leeds station southern entrance, the £82 million state-of-the-art Hitachi Rail Vehicle Manufacturing Facility in Newton Aycliffe and the nationally significant Trans-Pennine Route Upgrade programme, currently valued at £2.9 billion.

Network Rail Chris Davis, a passionate environmentalist, has been described as one of Network Rail’s greatest assets.

However, his strength isn’t merely what he has contributed to the railway over the years, or to sustainability (even though both contributions are enormous). It is what he has contributed to his colleagues and friends. His care for people’s well-being is unparalleled.

He has gone above and beyond in his commitment to the railway, the environment, and to people his entire career.

A true sustainability professional.

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY

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Doug Cave

Ged Mason

GTR

Morson Group

Doug Cave completed 50 years on the railway in October, spending the majority of his time in the old Southern Region, but also some time at EWS with a country-wide portfolio.

Ged Mason, who joined the Morson Group in 1986, became managing director in 1999 and CEO in 2005. He has embraced the family values with which the company was founded. As it nears £1billion Group turnover, Ged continues his father’s legacy in leading Morson, which is the UK’s largest, independently-owned recruitment business.

He is an acknowledged expert in the areas of train crew resourcing (both in diagramming and rostering) and manpower planning, having worked in these areas throughout his career. He always makes himself available to help, as he has a passion for the railway. It is more than ‘just a job’ for Doug.

In his drive toward global growth, Ged has accelerated the company’s integration of technology, setting the tone for Morson and the industry for years to come.

Gary Fairchild

Girish Jani

Network Rail

Virgin Trains

Gary Fairchild joined the railway in October 1979.

Starting as a traffic trainee, he has since had many roles, in operations and payroll, documenting goods traffic for sugar factories and brick works, working as a stations control assistant and then in a ticket office.

For the past 45 years, Girish Jani has devoted his life to the railway industry. Starting his career as a ‘second man’ at Stonebridge in 1974, he became a driver in 1977, and then a driver manager in 1998.

In 1998 he moved to London Victoria, where he is an excellent team leader who is highly respected by all. His dedication and leadership shine through with various exemplary contributions throughout his career.

He has been a pillar of the Euston driver management team for 21 years and has made an outstanding contribution to London Euston depot driver management team and his local community of Wembley, being known as the right person to contact that can resolve issues.

Gary Lobue

Gwynn Jones

Ganymede

GTR

Gary Lobue has worked in the rail industry for 40 years as a front-line worker, trainer and, most recently, as a health and safety manager. He works in a collaborative manner without ego or company agenda to manage the risks to his workforce.

Gwyn’s railway career has spanned over 51 years and, throughout that time, he has been involved in the major redevelopment of the railway across various routes.

He has been instrumental in embedding the culture of Safety First, Safety Always throughout Ganymede, always going the extra mile to make sure that the company is doing what it can to keep everyone safe.

Not only is he an expert in his field, but he is an extremely talented individual who has dedicated his entire career to rail, both through the good and tough times.

He has been a fantastic mentor for younger colleagues and continues to demonstrate his passion towards making the railway better each day.

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY

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Michele Ciniero

Stewart Marshall

Alstom Transport UK

CrossCountry Trains

Michele Ciniero – ‘Cini’ – joined British Rail as an apprentice signalling engineer at the age of 17. Throughout his 40 years’ service, he has seen many changes to the Railway Industry, from privatisation to significant changes in health & safety legislation.

Stewart Marshall is driver team manager at Birmingham New Street, with some 45 years in the industry.

Moved by tragic railway collisions such as Clapham and Ladbroke Grove, Cini has been a key advocator and supporter to changes in how signalling works are delivered. He is still passionate about improving conditions and championing improvements to on-site safety.

He began his career back in 1974 at Bescot and has remained in the Midlands all his railway career with spells throughout the depots. Always one for being out and about, even out of hours and at weekends, he has very much supported the business, working as one team, thinking outside the box and always doing the right thing to enhance the customer experience.

Robert Mooney G&W UK Crane engineering supervisor Bob Crane leads his team at Freightliner from the front with a ‘Do as I do’ style. He has a very high work ethic and cares a lot about the job and the company he has been with for over 40 years.

An indispensable member of the team, he has a vast knowledge about cranes and procedures that go with them.

Always there to lend an ear and give sound advice when needed, he will be sorely missed when he retires.

Roger Nicholas Colas Rail Roger Nicholas has competed his 50th year’s service within the rail industry and, though he is now much older and wiser, he is still passionate and feels privileged to work in the rail environment and, by his own admission, is still learning!

He has held many and varied positions throughout his career and he has left his mark wherever he has worked. He is respected throughout the industry in his field, which is track quality. Roger makes a difference whatever he does.

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY

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Rail Team of the Year This award is for teams whose concern for colleagues and customers has been outstanding or for those who have delivered a project whilst overcoming significant challenges. It is sponsored by on-track plant hire and rail specialists Total Rail Solutions.

Apprentice Team

Community Ambassadors

Great Western Railway GWR’s apprenticeship team works tirelessly, delivering a young pipeline of talent into the business year after year. Whilst the team is only small, they collectively manage up to 65 apprentices, based at numerous locations across all functions. As part of the various programmes, the team is responsible for delivering many community activities.

South Western Railway

The team also operates a 24/7 on-call service for the apprentices. Trained in all areas of safeguarding, the team is truly dedicated to the apprentices’ safety.

For example, ‘Try the Train’ experiences are aimed at individuals and groups who do not have the confidence to travel on the railway. Each trip is organised with one of the Ambassadors and includes a tour of SWR’s station facilities, a short train trip and any extra support participants need.

ON-TRACK PLANT | POS SERVICES | SUB-CONTRACTING LABOUR SOLUTIONS | PROJECT MANAGEMENT

SWR’s volunteer team of community ambassadors have spent the last 14 months bringing their passion for the railway to a whole new set of people, helping to break down barriers to train travel.

Fast Trackers Network Rail and Mott MacDonald Fast Trackers is an outreach programme, designed to inspire 16-19 year old students from areas with low uptake of higher education to pursue a career in engineering and to promote social mobility, diversity and inclusion, future skills readiness and professional skills development.

Ready for action whatever the challenge

Delivered in partnership with Mott MacDonald by graduates as part of Network Rail’s Year of Engineering, the programme has made huge steps this year following its extremely successful pilot last year, upscaling from 150 students from the North-West to over 400 across the country!

With over 80 RRVs, a highly experienced team and a superior safety record, we’re ready to support your next project - whether civils, electrification, infrastructure or permanent way.

T 01962 711642

E info@totalrailsolutions.co.uk W totalrailsolutions.co.uk

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY

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Freightliner CAF Project Team

Rail Care Team

G&W UK

Southeastern

Freightliner’s contract to undertake testing and commissioning of CAF’s new MK5a push-pull stock and Class 397 electric multiple units for TransPennine Express began in July 2018. With less than six weeks’ notice, drivers were trained to drive the new units at the Velim test track in the Czech Republic and then, back in the UK, the Class 68 locomotives that will haul the new stock.

The Southeastern rail care team is made up of dedicated individuals who always go out of the way to do the utmost for passengers and their families both during and post incident.

Throughout this challenging project the team has shown dedication and a willingness to ‘get stuck in’ to ensure success.

A caring and professional team, they can be called out at a moment’s notice to any emergency incident, such as a fatality that may have been witnessed by members of the public travelling on the railway. It’s a vital job which they carry out calmly and professionally.

Penrith Station Team

Sales and Customer Service Team

Virgin Trains

Intertrain

Every member of Virgin’s Penrith station team consistently goes that extra mile to create the best customer experience possible.

The professionalism shown by Intertrain’s sales and customer service team is second to none. All the staff are exceptionally approachable and knowledgeable regarding Sentinel competencies.

For example, the community garden project is a result of working with local people to have something “different” for customers when they use the station. The commitment and care that the team and the community gardeners put in was recognised recently at Cumbria in Bloom Awards where they received an “outstanding” certificate for the station.

The station is also spotless, a proud team keeping it that way!

They work collaboratively with clients to develop and deliver new courses as technology has changed so as to support railway staff in their personal development.

Their response time to enquiries cannot be beaten and the training provision is always of a very high standard. The feedback received from candidates is always positive.

Planning & Performance ScotRail in the Team Community Team Merseyrail

ScotRail

The Merseyrail planning and performance team delivered a PPM train punctuality of 95.37 per cent, defying national trends and exceeding target.

From Scotland’s most rural communities to its urban city estates, the work that the ‘ScotRail in the Community’ team delivers is integral to ensuring that the work Abellio ScotRail is doing in ‘building the Best Railway Scotland has ever had’ goes way beyond simply the operation of trains and stations.

The team also led the planning for major city events including Aintree races and the Giants Spectacular, both of which broke records for passengers carried and were huge successes commercially.

The team cares passionately about the railway and its reputation, regularly giving up evenings and weekends to ensure the network operated at peak performance.

Over the last year the team has delivered recognised success across a range of community rail, regeneration, transport integration, accessibility and charitable initiatives.

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY

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Southern Rail Enforcement Officers Team St Pancras GTR (Southern)

GTR (Thameslink)

With a team of only 30 across the whole Southern network, the rail enforcement team has achieved significant results over the last year.

Thameslink’s St Pancras station team works very closely to ensure it delivers an outstanding customer service, day in, day out. Everyone has a passion to deliver an excellent customer service.

BTP Operations designed to combat knife crime, vagrancy, theft, and violence against the person, cycle crime and the “county line” drug problem have all had REO support and assistance, with the team directly assisting the emergency services on 417 occasions and actively generating 122 arrests.

REOs have also located numerous missing persons and enabled their safe return home.

The team has a very positive attitude, resilience, passion and drive to deliver the best service all the time. During disruption, everyone in the team will always stay behind at the end of their shifts just so they can support each other and, more importantly, their customers.

The Revenue Protection team

Stafford Retail Team

MTR Elizabeth Line

Virgin Trains The retail team at Stafford has had a successful year. They’ve shown patience and determination when things have gone wrong and dealt with the challenges that have arisen with consistent positivity.

When MTR Crossrail took over the operation of the Liverpool Street to Shenfield line in May 2015 and the Paddington to Heathrow Section in May 2018, it is estimated that the ticketless-travel rate was somewhere above five per cent in both areas.

Alongside their professional achievements this year, several team members have spent time creating items such as knitted poppies for Remembrance Day to raise money for The British Legion and flowers for Rethink Mental Illness.

They have also raised money for a local girl who desperately needed surgery for a life limiting condition.

In the last quarter, the rate was 1.08 per cent in the east and 2.09 per cent in the west, a huge improvement.

Stourbridge Junction Station Team

Woking Revenue Protection Team

West Midlands Trains

South Western Railway

The Stourbridge Junction station team works exceptionally well together. From the supervisors who book everybody on and off, those looking after the line, compiling the rosters, stores ordering for the line, assisting the station manager, to the station team on the ticket office window.

The Woking Revenue Protection team plays a huge part in assisting the performance of South Western Railway through protecting otherwise-lost revenue.

The team constantly receives praise from customers who write into customer relations for the exceptional service they have received.

And then there is George, the station cat, who has his own face book page and is a wonderful ambassador for customer engagement.

The team also provides an invaluable resource during times of disruption and assists with management of the incidents and customer service.

With their passion and commitment, they are a consistently high-performing team, using their local knowledge and skill to assist deployment plans to protect as much revenue as possible during any given exercise. They are relentless and set themselves high standards during their day-to-day activities, including the production of accurate prosecutions reports for complex cases.

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY

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Rail Person of the Year Matchtech and Resourcing Solutions proudly encourage and celebrate the successes of exceptional people within the rail industry and are honoured to sponsor the Rail Person of the Year award at the 2019 RailStaff Awards.

Alexander Foster

Ian Stevenson

Alstom Transport UK

Great Western Railway

Alex Foster joined Alstom as a graduate design engineer in 2016 upon leaving Derby University. He has just completed a master’s degree in business management and is currently a scheme project manager, leading a complex project to deliver an AI signalling layer for automatic route setting to the NX panel at the Three Bridges ASC signalling centre.

The rail supervisor role is a very busy one, but Ian Stevenson always seeks to make it a pleasant one. He regularly supports customer ambassadors, passenger assist team and anyone that enters Bristol Temple Meads station.

Alex has also supported the tendering team in the preparation of multiple pre-qualifications and tenders, using his now-valuable technical expertise with signalling control systems and traffic management.

Ian never fails to assist passengers, so most shifts see him either carrying someone’s luggage, pushing a passenger in a wheelchair, guiding those who are partially sighted or providing anyone with travel information and support. However, he can also be firm with any customer not treating staff with respect.

Garry Taylor Intertrain Garry Taylor currently heads up quality and compliance for Intertrain, which is a large and complex task.

www.matchtech.com

Over the previous twelve months, he has focused his team on development of quality and, with backing from the board, has put in place an experienced and robust team.

He has forged partnerships with local and national colleges, governing bodies, other providers and local authorities, Garry has successfully integrated a quality management system that has passed audits by the likes of City & Guilds and Ofsted.

proud to sponsor Rail Person of the Year

www.resourcing-solutions.com

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY

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Neil Cockerton

Pete White

Network Rail

Great Western Railway

Neil Cockerton has led the development of Network Rail’s Anglia route’s approach to tackling the huge issues of mental health and wellbeing, in addition to excelling at his day to day duties as an area plant manager.

Pete White started with GWR after successfully completing one of the GWR/Prince’s Trust employability programmes. He is very positive, kind and driven by a strong desire to look after others. He is charming, warm and engaging and is able to create almost instant trust and rapport with anyone he meets.

There was no set structure for this programme and Neil battled to make big changes despite a lack of business support and resistance from colleagues. As a result, he was chosen by the route director as this year’s winner of the annual route director special award.

Paul Case

Following work as a ticket examiner and dispatcher, his energy and drive has now resulted in him securing a traineedriver position. No small achievement considering his relative newness to the railway.

Robert Mickleburgh

CPC Project Services In just six years, Paul Case has achieved exceptional results in his drive to promote the rail industry, to inspire and develop the careers of his peers and colleagues, and to give back to the industry in which he serves.

Whilst excelling in his career in project management, Paul has been fundamental to the development of multiple industry programmes and initiatives, which enhance the careers of young professionals, and support the development of the next generation of skilled leaders.

Paul Dennis

GTR (Southern) Robert Mickleburgh is an exemplary driving instructor and assessor that goes out of his way to assist drivers.

He takes his role seriously and, whether helping drivers to develop new skills or strengthen best practices, he does so with a personal touch. His professionality and attention to details place him among the very best instructors. He is always happy to answer any questions and very keen to teach students the best and the safest way of driving.

Scott Nickels

Southeastern Paul is a conductor/guard but also a local and company council union rep. As a rep, he goes way beyond what is expected. He is on call 24/7 for his members. He never refuses to help and always spends his own time researching, supporting and guiding any member who needs his help.

He works tirelessly to ensure members have the best support possible – not just when there are disciplinary issues but also when they need help due to illness or personal issues.

West Midlands Trains Scott Nickels will pro-actively think of passengers without having to be asked. On one occasion, in 2018 at London Euston Station, staff were requesting urgent assistance as a lady had collapsed on a train. Scott ran to the scene and immediately assessed the lady, recognising she was unresponsive and pulseless.

He ran around the platforms to collect the defibrillator and returned to the lady to begin CPR, continuing until she regained a pulse. By the time the paramedics had arrived, the lady had regained consciousness.

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY

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Steve Lewis

Wayne Addy

Southeastern

G&W UK

Steve Lewis has successfully taken on various roles.

Asked to take on management of a struggling roster team, he made some quick and efficient changes that improved the performance of the team and built a sturdy, cohesive unit.

Wayne Addy is a senior ground staff team member at Thamesport depot. He was involved from the very start in the setting up of the British Airways aviation fuel contract delivering jet fuel to Colnbrook (Heathrow).

Recently, he has implemented many new strategies, including the introduction of the competency manager. This role, which is to drive the team to ensure all competencies for the conductor and on-board manager are kept up to date and within the standards, has now become permanent.

He also leads from the front when it comes to taking on new aggregate flows in the South East, often being the first ground staff to visit new sites. Wayne is always helpful and willing to go the extra mile or two to complete the job safely and professionally.

Stuart Young

Yetunde Olugboyega

GTR (Great Northern) Stuart has been a conscientious, dedicated and motivated officer since joining the railway some three years ago. During this time, he has undertaken the mentoring programme, enabling him to guide and share knowledge with others.

GTR (Great Northern)

He is also a wellbeing champion and, along with his normal day to day duties, he has visited over thirty primary schools and delivered railway safety talks to over 1,500 school children.

She started in the rail industry with First Capital Connect ten years ago. Now with Great Northern after the change of franchise, Yetunde is still helping both colleagues and passengers, ensuring that their often-challenging job roles or their train journeys go as smoothly as possible.

Stuart is always approachable and will seek to help anyone.

He is a team player and always shows willing.

Tom Walton

Yetunde Olugboyega is a very personable lady.

She is conscientious with “can do” attitude and is a delight to work with – a valuable member of the team.

Zara Adams MTR Elizabeth Line

Colas Rail Joining Colas initially a permanent way trainee in September 2016, Tom Walton quickly identified a desire for electrical engineering and made the decision to join the signalling team as a trainee. Committing to his HNC at college (which he completed last year) was a key milestone in his development and one he achieved with flying colours.

Quickly settling into the signalling team, Tom was quick to begin challenging the norms, providing the spark for many improved processes Colas now adopts as standard in everyday business.

Zara Adams is always very friendly and helpful to customers and is a credit to the team at Romford. She goes out of her way to ensure customers have a great experience on their journey.

Always relaxed and never panicked, she was chosen to be a part of the incident care response team. She also has a great working knowledge of the TFL network and is always ready to help passengers and staff with any questions they may have.

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY

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OUR JUDGES Our panel is made up of a selection of industry experts and a representative from each category sponsor.

THE INDEPENDENT PANEL Anna Delvecchio

Mac Motraghi

Commercial Account Director Amey

Dyan Crowther CEO

Director of Global Business Development Hitachi

High Speed 1

Carolyn Griffiths Director Irish Rail, Board Member, Engineering Council, President at Institution of Mechanical Engineers David Shirres Editor

HR Mental Health Coordinator & Winner of Rail Person of the Year 2018 South Eastern Railway

Rail Engineer

Marc Johnson

Lee Woolcott-Ellis

Bid Writer – UK DB Engineering & Consulting Mark Lomas Head of equality, diversity and inclusion HS2 (High Speed 2)

CATEGORY SPONSOR JUDGES Ajmal Akram Head of Business Development PTM Design Alex Pond Director Intertrain Glynis Appelbe HR Director Freightliner Ian Walbeoff General Manager Bollé Safety John Downer Client Account Director Jacobs John Sheehy CEO Transport Benevolent Fund CIO

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Ruth Sutherland Mike Morgan-Batney Commercial Customer Experience Manager Heathrow Express Paul Bateman CEO Total Rail Solutions Phil Mounter Business Development Westermo Kenny Burton Director Matchtech & Resourcing Solutions Ruth Busby HR Director GWR

Chief Executive The Samaritans Stephen Pearce Telent Steve Lammin Engineering Director Govia Thameslink Railway Stuart Jukes Managing Director Pulsar Tyler LeMay Managing Director Land Sheriffs Will Bryant Operations Director Colas Rail

THANK YOU… …for joining us at the RailStaff Awards. It goes without saying that your support for this industry, and the people who work in it, is appreciated.

We work hard all year to make this the most fantastic evening possible, so we really do hope you have a great time!

SPECIAL THANKS GO TO… All of our category sponsors, without you the RailStaff Awards wouldn’t exist.

To Total Rail Solutions for sponsoring the evening’s VIP drinks reception.

For donating some wonderful raffle prizes we’d like to thank Bolle Safety, Freightliner Group Limited, Great Western Railway, Heathrow Express, McGinley Support Services, Morson Group, Pulsar UK, Total Rail Solutions, and Westermo with all proceeds going directly to the Transport Benevolent Fund CIO. Everyone who nominated or voted for colleagues. Our nominees will never forget your actions in recognising their hard work.

All members of the production crew who work tirelessly throughout the year to bring you an amazing night.

All of our entertainers – as always, fantastic!

Staff at the NEC for working tirelessly to help bring the awards to life.

Everyone at Rail Media who has helped out along the way – you know who you are and what you’ve done.

WORKING WITH US IN 2020 Each year the RailStaff Awards gets better and better and next year will be no exception.

Please call Asif Ahmed on 01530 816 443 or email asif@rail-media.com for more information about the sponsorship packages available and to get on the awards sponsorship waiting list.

PHOTOGRAPHS AND VIDEOS* Photographs and video of tonight’s event will be available for you to download from the gallery section of our website, www.railstaffawards.com

COMMENTS We try to give the RailStaff Awards a fun, party atmosphere and we try to improve it every year, so we always welcome your feedback, whether it’s good or bad, to help us make this event the best it can be. Please leave your comments on our website, railstaffawards.com Thank you, The Events Team *All media is ©RailMedia 2019. Images and video can be used for personal use only (Credit: RailMedia).

For any commercial use, please contact the Rail Media Team on 01530 816 444.

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T H E

R A I L S T A F F

A W A R D S

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RAIL HAS TALENT THE ROAD TO A RAILSTAFF AWARD

NOMINATIONS Nomination Process

Nominations open on 1st March 2019. People who work in the rail industry are nominated by colleagues and approval is sought from the nominee’s manager. Once approved, the nomination goes live on the website. 1,360 people or teams have been nominated this year.

Voting Process

VOTING

Voting is open for two weeks and this year 100,740 individual votes were received.

The top 15 people or teams with the most votes in each category become the shortlisted finalists.

This shortlist is sent to the judges, who do not get to see the number of votes for each nomination.

JUDGING

Judging Process There are three judges for each category and all mark the nominees on four criteria for each category. They do not meet or speak to each other, this is all done online. The judges’ panel is made up of seven independent and 20 sponsorship judges.

Once the judges assess everyone, the scores are calculated to give a winner and two highly commended finalists.

PRESENTATION The presentation and the awards The winners are presented with the prestigious RailStaff Awards trophy!

HEAD OFFICE Rail Media House Samson Road Coalville LE67 3FP

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Website: www.railstaffawards.com