RailStaff April 2014

RailStaff THE MOST POPULAR PUBLICATION IN THE UK RAIL INDUSTRY www.railstaff.co.uk

Issue 197 | April 2014

Rapid Ballast Replacement on Plain Lines and through Switches & Crossings

stobartrail.com

DAWLISH DYNAMIC UNITES RAIL INDUSTRY

The main rail portal to the west looks like carrying more passengers than before following news of its dramatic re-opening.

The two-month race against time to repair the historic railway along Dawlish sea front has captured the imagination of the public and the thanks of local people.

IN THIS ISSUE CBE FOR ANTON VALK

RAIL LIVE 2014

JOLENE JOINS RAIL MEDIA

Mr Valk receives Honour in the Hague Page 6

Set to be the largest outdoor UK rail event Page 30

New head of event sales Page 17

Rapid Ballast Replacement on Plain Lines and through Switches & Crossings Our brand new & purpose built fleet of Ballast Replacement machines and teams are now available to deliver Ballast Replacement Programmes and Track Lowering Schemes nationwide.

Whilst the machine is removing the ballast a team of road rail excavators and a permanent way team are working alongside to replace the ballast and to check the track geometry and tamp the ballast.

Old ballast is replaced with new without the need to remove track or sleepers.

If your ballast / track has been recently damaged by floods / water call us now to discuss hiring the machines and team.

Andrew Sumner Rail Contracts Manager t. 01228 882 300 e. andrew.sumner@stobartrail.com Gary Newton Estimating Manager t. 01228 882 300 e. gary.newton@stobartrail.com Dave Richardson Plant Manager t. 01228 882 300 e. david.richardson@stobartrail.com

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COMMENT

April 2014 | RailStaff | 3

RailStaff Contact us: Publisher:

Paul O’Connor

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Sadness strikes © SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

2014 is proving to be a year of anniversaries – ACoRP is 21 and the Channel Tunnel, 20. 1989 is the anniversary of the Settle and Carlisle railway reprieve – 25 years ago this month.

MAKING SENSE of Safety

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Over it all hangs the ominous anniversary of the start of the First World War in 1914. Incredibly one century on Europe stands close to war once again. Stalin once said one death is a tragedy, one million just a statistic. This trite nostrum from a mass murderer cuts little ice in the rail industry. Every life counts.

We remember with equal sadness the recent death of Crossrail tunnel worker, Rene Tkacik, 43 from Slovakia as we do the 100s of navigators and family members who lie buried, often in unmarked graves, near the Settle and Carlisle line.

Life is sacred and this universal truth should inform our counsels.

Death came too soon for Bob Crow and Alastair McPherson. War is wholly avoidable when people leave aside the misguided paranoias of the past.

This summer many people will be using the re-launched European Rail Timetable as they Inter-Rail past Alpine lakes, steppes and wheat fields.

Building rapport with those of different language and culture is the promise of a stable future. For who goes to war with a friend?

28th April 2014

MAKING SENSE of Safety

Royal College of Physicians Regent’s Park, London

Over the past few years there has been a significant push to improve the safety record within the rail industry. The Rail Safety Summit on the 28th of April gathers all the great safety minds of the industry to analyse safety.

Call Jolene on 01530 816 444 to find out more.

Life is sacred and this universal truth should inform our counsels...

Bob Crow once said he had more in common with a Chinese labourer than a British banker. Railway staff share a fraternity that rides the metals, transcending the lamentable prejudices of our time. Working people have the same priorities the world over, the health of the family, jobs that are safe and rewarding, a good place to live.

Forty years ago this month Nick Lowe wrote and recorded the song (What’s so wrong ‘bout) Peace, Love and Understanding – later made famous by Elvis Costello.

Beset by social problems and a falling birth rate Russia faces a future its leaders know it cannot control. The west should try and understand this.

In turn Russia will see that countries the size of Britain and Luxembourg find it hard to understand how a country covering thousands of miles can possibly feel threatened.

Bob Crow’s message of solidarity and hope lives on and finds a ready reflection this Easter alongside the eternal truths Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello so eloquently articulated.

18

28

Moving into CP5

ISSL Apprentice Scheme

April 2014 signalled the start of CP5.

Over the next five years Network Rail will spend £38 billion maintaining, renewing and enhancing the rail network.

Twenty new entrants have been enrolled on ISS Labour’s (ISSL) new National Rail Apprentice Scheme (NRAS).

www.railsafetysummit.com

NEWS

4 | RailStaff | April 2014

LOCAL PRAISE FOR ORANGE ARMY

Local people in Dawlish have taken rail’s Orange Army to heart – it’s official. As rail leaders and politicians headed west to Dawlish, local people congratulated over 300 rail heroes and vowed to make more use of the train in future.

Says Mark Carne, Network Rail’s new chief executive, following the reopening of the railway on 4 April, ‘Our army of engineers has done an amazing job of putting back together a railway that was ravaged by the elements. They have overcome every obstacle thrown at them, winning

many battles along the way to restore this critical piece of the network, ahead of schedule, and in time for the Easter holidays.’

The rail industry joined together and moved fast after February storms swept away the line. Rail engineers from Network Rail and principal contractor,

BAM Nuttall were joined by top performing teams from Amalgamated Construction, SISK group, Dyer & Butler and Tony Gee & Partners. Royal Engineers and Royal Marines based locally also helped out.

Despite atrocious conditions and surge tides, the Orange Army moved into action to protect exposed houses along the side of the line. With rip tides, high seas and continuing storms complicating recovery, railway staff assembled 11 ship containers to

protect the front. The ISO boxes were welded together and filled with rubble.

Fierce seas breached two of the boxes, but intrepid track workers fought back and secured the sea defence.

Staff worked 12-hour shifts seven days a week to push ahead with the project. A giant crater in the main line at Dawlish was filled in and concreted.

Over 30,000 tonnes of unstable rock and soil was removed as part of a controlled landslip cliff at nearby Teignmouth, a mile west of Dawlish.

The Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service, helped engineers by spraying thousands of litres of water on to the slip to wash away the earth and to encourage the spoil to complete its fall to the railway below. Cornwall’s china clay business helped out by supplying a new high-pressure water cannon. This proved very effective at turning earth into slurry and washing it into the sea.

New track was welded and bolted into place and signalling and telecoms staff also helped out on site making sure the railway was ready for traffic.

Passengers heading into Devon this summer will be travelling on what is now one of the most popular and photographed routes on the network.

The Orange Army could be called in once more – this time to help with crowd control.

NEWS

April 2014 | RailStaff | 5

Paonessa joins Network Rail as IP MD Francis Paonessa, current managing director of Bombardier’s UK operation, will join Network Rail this summer to take up the role of managing director, infrastructure projects.

Dr Paonessa will be replacing Simon Kirby, who is leaving to join HS2 as chief executive. He will lead Network Rail’s infrastructure projects division in its delivery of £25bn of infrastructure renewals and enhancements over the next five-year control period (CP5).

In announcing the appointment, Mark Carne, Network Rail chief executive, said, ‘The scale and complexity of Network Rail’s investment programme makes this one of the most challenging and exciting roles in Britain today.

Francis brings with him significant leadership experience from the rail industry, including a strong focus on both workforce and passenger

safety.’

Appointed to take charge of Bombardier’s rolling stock operation in 2010, Francis reorganised the Derby-based train builder - the culmination of which was the winning of a £1.3bn contract to supply trains for Crossrail.

Trained as a mechanical engineer, Dr Paonessa worked in the defence industry, specifically naval shipbuilding, before entering the rail sector. His flair for managing multi-billion pound operations will stand him in good stead as he steers Network Rail Infrastructure Projects through CP5.

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NEWS

6 | RailStaff | April 2014

Softly, softly

CBE for Anton Valk

A new tamper will soon be quietly at work on the Tyne and Wear Metro pressing ahead - and down – delivering its part of a £389m upgrade scheme.

Anton Valk, former chief executive of Abellio UK, was appointed CBE earlier this year. Mr Valk received the honour in the Hague from the Queen’s representative, Sir Geoffrey Adams, Her Majesty‘s ambassador to the Netherlands.

Says Nexus’ Head of Maintenance Delivery, Phil Kirkland, ‘We’re very much looking forward to getting this new vehicle into use on our very busy Metro maintenance and modernisation programme. There are a lot more systems on this new vehicle that make it more accurate, and more cost effective for us in the long term. We do the bulk of our major track works at night and with this machine being much smoother and quieter it means we can be better neighbours to the thousands of people who live close to the Metro lines.’

The tamper, which was manufactured in Linz, Austria, by Plasser and Theurer, has good staff facilities on board. These include a WC and rest room.

Staff training and commissioning is now underway.

The award recognises the powerful contribution made by Mr Valk to Anglo-Dutch relations and the good work of Abellio in Britain. Abellio UK employs upwards of 11,000 people and, in partnership, runs Merseyrail, Northern Rail and as a stand alone, Greater Anglia.

Anton Valk started Abellio, a subsidiary of Netherlands Railways, in 2001. When he retired from the company as its UK Chairman in April 2012, Abellio carried more then 1 million passengers a day. Valk is a great believer in the exchange of ideas and spread of best practice between the Netherlands and Britain. Politicians,

civil servants and industrial leaders have visited Holland at his invitation.

Anton served for many years on the ATOC board and was one of the co-founders of the Rail Delivery Group. Since stepping down he has remained active in the rail industry helping out with the rail advisory group of UKTI and as a member the British Transport Police Authority. He is on the advisory board of the National Railway museum.

Valk has a background in telecoms and railways. He has an engineering

degree from Delft University of Technology and an Executive MBA from Nijenrode University.

Says Anton Valk, ‘As CEO I have always felt very welcome in the UK and I was delighted to be able to contribute to the renaissance in public transport over the past 10 years. Both countries have much to offer to each other not only in business but also in culture and science and I look forward to continue my commitment to AngloDutch cooperation.’

Bridge bonus for Strathspey Railway The installation of a bridge over the River Dulnain will enable the historic Strathspey Railway to eventually extend its heritage line from Broomhill to Grantown-on-Spey.

Thanks to Colas Rail, who provided Strathspey Railway with the only crane capable of completing such a task, the bridge was lifted and installed over a two-day period.

Strathspey Railway staff and volunteers were on hand to complete some of the groundwork following the installation. The new bridge moves the ‘Rails to Grantown’ project closer to completion.

After the infamous Beeching cuts of the 1960s, the line between Aviemore and Grantown was abandoned

The first main beam of the bridge is raised by the crane and transported to the installation points at the bridge.

This is now linking Inverness-shire and Morayshire. and the track lifted. Since 1971 the Strathspey Railway has been working to restore the railway.

Says David Fraser, the chairman of the Strathspey Railway Charitable Trust, ‘By the time we reach Grantown we’ll be carrying 100,000 passengers per year. What that means to the Spey Valley Area is about £6 million income to the businesses here, and Grantown will get their share of that

when we arrive there and that’s very significant.’ The railway currently runs between Aviemore and Broomhill.

Added Mr Fraser, ‘We are indebted to a number of companies, both local and national, who have been able to help at reduced or no cost at all.

Colas Rail seriously discounted the cost of getting this crane transported all the way from Devon. With no road access, there was no other way of

doing it - this is the only crane that can do this job and it’s the biggest one in the UK. The sight of the bridge going in resoundingly confirms that the railway is on its way back to Grantown with just one more big hurdle, the A95, and we hope that Transport Scotland can make the tunnel and road re-alignment happen soon. Our local politicians are united in support for this project to succeed.’

PEOPLE

8 | RailStaff | April 2014

Frank Millar joins Spencer Group Frank Millar has joined Spencer Group as Group Chief Executive.

Mr Millar is currently a senior executive with FTSE-listed engineering company, Costain. Founder and Chief Executive, Charlie Spencer, moves up to become chairman. Says Mr Spencer, ‘Frank’s vast experience, particularly in the oil and gas industry, will be extremely useful to Spencer Group.’

Spencer Group has designed and built three control centres for Network Rail and is a principal infrastructure contractor for Network Rail,

operating nationally.

Mr Millar is Operations Director of Costain’s Natural Resources division which focuses on the oil and gas, nuclear process, water and waste industries.

Prior to joining Costain, Millar spent 10 years with AMEC managing projects in Russia, North America and Britain.

Frank Millar, 49, has a Masters Degree in chemical engineering from Imperial College London and an MSc in Project Management from the University of

Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST).

He is a Chartered Engineer, a Member of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers and holds a Diploma in Company Direction from the Institute of Directors.

His engineering career began in the British Army where he served as an officer with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. Millar was accountable for technical operations in a variety of locations, including two and a half years serving in Northern Ireland.

He lives at Bramham, near Wetherby, North Yorkshire, with his wife and three children and will be based at the company’s headquarters in Hull, East Yorkshire, from 7 April.

His recruitment is the latest in a series of appointments as Spencer Group boosts its management team ahead of ambitious expansion plans.

Recently David McLoughlin, Finance and Commercial Director of Network Rail’s Infrastructure Projects division, was appointed Chief Executive of Spencer Rail.

Rail rise for Daniel Taylor Recruitment specialist, Ford & Stanley, has promoted a pioneering rail manager, Daniel Taylor, to Associate Director.

Daniel Taylor was formerly Head of Practice - Rail at the Derby-based company, having joined in January 2012. After leaving school Daniel served with the Royal Artillery and studied Counter Terrorism at St Andrews University. On leaving the army he worked for Rolls Royce as a travel risk co-ordinator before becoming a recruitment consultant.

He joined Ford and Stanley in January 2012. Ford & Stanley ‘s Managing Director, Phillip Machell, congratulated Daniel, who, he said, ‘Continued to show dedication and commitment to the business by surpassing all financial targets, consistently exceeding clients expectations and continuing to bring new clients on board.’

Machell added, ‘He has successfully

grown the rail team over the past two years and has demonstrated excellent management skills of his recently expanded team, proving to be a valuable asset to the business as a whole.’

Mr Taylor’s outstanding performance was recently recognised by becoming a runner-up at the 2013 Rail Recruitment Person of the Year at the Railway People’s HR, Recruitment and Skills Awards. Says Ford & Stanley Managing Director, Phillip Machell, ‘Dan has well and truly earned his promotion within the business. Here at Ford & Stanley we are all about recognising talent and nurturing it, and we offer him our congratulations.’

Says Daniel Taylor, ‘I’m absolutely delighted. Ford & Stanley are truly committed to individual and

Half century for Bob Davies Bob Davies, who works for Abellio Greater Anglia, is celebrating 50 years of service to the railway.

Mr Davies joined the railway on 2 March, 1964, as a ticket office clerk in Braintree. Over the years he has worked in a number of customer service roles, including ticket office manager at Liverpool Street, retail manager in the Liverpool Street area and local Head of Customer Service. Says Bob, ‘What I enjoy most about working on the railway is the people and the friendships that have developed over the years. It is always interesting, there is never a dull day and no two days are the same.’

Bob has worked with every sort of passenger including the Royal Family.

Highlights from Bob’s career include meeting the Queen at the launch of the rebuilt Liverpool Street station in 1991.

He also met the Prince of Wales in Great Yarmouth in 2012.

In recognition of his long service and contribution to the rail industry, a surprise presentation was made to Bob this week. Says Andrew Goodrum, Abellio Greater Anglia’s Customer Service Director, ‘50 years service is a great achievement; and we’d like to thank Bob for his loyalty, dedication and the immense contribution he has made to the rail industry.’

Bob lives in Chelmsford. In his spare time he undertakes voluntary work for the Magistracy and Citizenship Foundation. He is also a keen gardener and follower of Essex County Cricket club.

© NICK BRITTEN

personal development. To become an Associate Director in my third year of joining as a Senior Recruitment Consultant is testament to the business and our Board of Directors. This achievement is a direct reflection of the team and our shared successes - long may it continue I look forward to a very exciting 2014.’

Photo: (Left to right) Andrew Goodrum Abellio Greater Anglia’s Customer Service Director making the presentation to Bob Davies, Project Manager Customer Service.

PEOPLE

April 2014 | RailStaff | 9

Top team change at Northern Rail Northern Rail is re-aligning its director team in a bid to boost performance. Natalie Loughborough joins the new team as Customer Service Director.

Former teacher Natalie Tilly read English at York University and took a teaching qualification at the University of Sunderland. After teaching at Hartlepool College of Further Education, she worked at the National Police Training Centre before joining ScotRail as Customer Services Director in 2005.

She then worked for the Criminal

Injuries Compensation Authority between 2007 and 2010. Moving to Transport for Greater Manchester, she went on to join FirstGroup in 2012, working on bids with the emphasis on customer service.

Alan Chaplin, formerly Chief Operating Officer, is now Service Delivery Director. Rob Warnes takes on a new role as Planning

© JOSELYN RANKIN

and Programmes Director. Richard Allan is responsible for revenue and communications as Commercial Director. Lee Wasnidge becomes Transition Director to oversee the move into the anticipated interim franchise for Northern Rail that is due to start on 1 April.

Says Alex Hynes, Managing Director of Northern Rail, ‘We’re giving a renewed and stronger focus to improve our customers’ experience; getting more trains running on time and focusing on delivering consistently

good service. We’re entering an exciting time for Northern as up to £1.5 billion is invested in the rail network in the North and now is the time to grasp the opportunity and deliver further improvements in our service and customer experience.’

British base for Hitachi Rail Japanese giant Hitachi has brought a further boost to the rail industry in Britain by appointing Alistair Dormer as chief executive of its global rail business.

Dormer, based in London, will effectively run Hitachi Rail from the UK. The move presages the opening of the new train assembly factory at Newton Aycliffe in County Durham.

Alistair Dormer described the

move as significant and said, ‘[The] announcement is a significant sign of intent by Hitachi to grow its business in the rail market. Both the UK and Japan remain important as markets for Hitachi Rail, and with our train factory

in the north-east of England now under construction, we will work to realise our export potential from the UK, expanding into Europe and emergent markets.’

Hitachi won a £1.2bn contract to build a new fleet of inter-city trains last year and is now building a new assembly plant in Co. Durham, which will employ 750 workers.

Severn Valley raising the Barr London Underground’s highly-respected Head of Heritage Operations, Andy Barr, is joining the Severn Valley Railway Holdings Board.

Mr Barr has been working with the SVR in a voluntary capacity since September 2013. He has worked in the rail industry for more than 47 years. A wide operational experience includes working with voluntary organisations and Heritage Railways. recruitment-lg_Layout 1 09/01/2014 In his voluntary role with the SVR, Andy

Barr has been working with General Manager Nick Ralls and Operations Manager Phil Brown carrying out a wide ranging review of current operations, practices and procedures.

The SVR plans to upgrade the Railway’s operational safety systems.

12:49 1 As HeadPage of Heritage Operations for

London Underground, Andy Barr was responsible for the safe operation of Met 1 and the LU Heritage Fleet on the London Underground during the 150th anniversary celebrations.

Previously Andy was Head of Emergency Management, Control and Event Management for the London Underground. Mr Barr was awarded an MBE for services to the rail industry in 2004.

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RAIL ALLIANCE

10 | RailStaff | April 2014

Join the Rail Alliance now Rail Alliance membership starts from just £500 per year

Inside Story - Rail Interiors

log on to www.railalliance.co.uk email info@railalliance.co.uk or call 01789 720026.

New Members Flotec Industrial Ltd (Manufacturer and supplier of hoses providing leak free solutions to coolant and turbo applications using EDPM and silicone hoses with uniquely designed clamping method.) www.floteconline.com Aegis Engineering Systems Ltd (An independent engineering consultancy formed in 1997. AEGIS is ISO9001:2008 accredited and we are Link Up accredited in numerous product codes including Safety Management System Review and have been accredited by Network Rail as Independent Safety Assessors since 2002.) www.aegisengineering.co.uk

Manufacturers, businesses and suppliers gathered at the first edition of the ‘Rail Interiors, The Insider Story’ conference on 6th March 2014 at Coventry University.

An impressive array of speakers from academia and industry included Laurence Al-Shaar, from Eurostar; Nick Clarke, from the Technology Strategy Board; David Clarke, from the Future Railway’s Enabling Innovation Team and Elaine Mackie from Coventry University.

The latest thinking and technology on all aspects of rail interiors, from design seating and accessibility, lightweight structure, washroom facilities to safety and security systems were explored during the event.

After an introduction by Colin Flack, CEO of the Rail Alliance, Adrian Shooter presented the views of Train Operating Companies, drawing on his time as Chairman of Chiltern Railways. Shooter emphasised how – above everything else – getting the passenger experience right from the outset is paramount.

The focus of the event was very much on the formation of a Rail

Interiors Cluster. Colin Flack, CEO of the Rail Alliance, says, ‘Above all, we wanted to ensure that people went away with a greater understanding of the benefits of being part of a bigger group by delivering practical advice about the concept of clustering. We know that companies were looking for a relevant platform where networking and collaboration is supported and facilitated.’

The conference also outlined how customers and suppliers can access funding programmes and presented plenty of opportunities for networking with key players in the sector. Colin Flack added, ‘We wanted to offer a unique opportunity for companies within the rail interiors sector, and those looking to break into it to network, to meet, share expertise and do business with each other.’

The event was attended by over 70 people from various SMEs from across the UK and was well received by the members of the audience. A large proportion stayed on to take part in the scheduled networking session at the end of the afternoon.

Later Dave Wright, Associate Pro Vice Chancellor for Major Initiatives, Coventry University, said, ‘The

feedback we have received today has been very positive. We are delighted with the number of attendees, the speakers and the amount and quality of the networking that has taken place.

I know that a couple of companies have already agreed to meet again to further discuss possible avenues of cooperation. I’m sure there is a great future in developing the Rail Interiors Cluster.’

A particularly well received presentation was that from the Coventry & Warwickshire Aerospace Forum (CWAF). Jason Aldridge, MD of Arrowsmith Engineering, gave a most compelling tour-de-force on why they formed such a cluster and the benefits that accrued.

A passionate advocate for clustering, Jason made it abundantly clear that considerable value could be achieved at relatively minor cost. Importantly, it made fronting up to the big players a realistic proposition if you have £100M cluster behind you, even if your business is but a fraction of that.

Dave Wright continues, ‘Smaller players sometimes have difficulty getting their voice heard or bringing their innovation to the market. The old adage of safety in numbers holds some

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truth, which is why we are encouraging companies to work together and become part of a rail interiors consortium.

Coventry University and the Rail Alliance are committed to work together and help them shape that cluster to ensure that the sector’s capabilities are brought forward and developed.’

If you have missed the event but want to find out how to become part of the Rail Interiors Cluster, contact the Rail Alliance at info@railalliance. co.uk to register your interest. The next annual Rail Interiors, the Insider Story will take place on the 12th March 2015, so save the date.

RAIL ALLIANCE

April 2014 | RailStaff | 11

Mentoring – The New Force Multiplier Robert Hopkin outlines the benefits of mentoring and the Rail Sector Mentor Challenge Fund.

As a mere craft apprentice trying to file a cube of mild steel down to a one inch square I wondered about how relevant all this would be when I was, eventually, let loose on the fitting benches.

As it happened, half way through my apprenticeship, with a glowing ONC in my pocket from my day-release at St Albans’ Tech, the fools in the training section decided that the ‘white collar’ route was a better use of my skills.

They sent me off to University, despite me protesting against their decision. As a mechanical engineering student apprentice, I appreciated all things mechanical and dynamic. We were, after all, building gas and steam turbines, volute pumps and diesel engines (big ones!).

I understood all things to do with mechanics, fluid dynamics, metallurgy, computation, mathematics, structures, dynamics. Sadly the mysteries of electrics and electronics remained unfathomable and, disillusioned, I did not complete my degree back then.

The problem with university life (for me at least) was the lack of mentoring, the absence of paternal figures to help you along.

Wherever I went in the factory from, say, the turbine fitting bench to the diesel fitting bench, I was always under the watchful eye of a trained, indentured fitter.

These men were unanimously good at what they did.

Not just technically, their approach to us young apprentices was avuncular at worst and fatherly at best.

This was imbued across the whole company. When you went out on location or ‘outdoor work’ as it was called – there was a handover from your mentor in the factory to the fitter in a dockyard. This was seamless and it all happened in the 1970s – the decade that style forgot!

Academia – a mentor free zone?

It was for me!

This all changed when I went to university and studied for a BEng in Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Production. Lectures five days a week and, sometimes, weekend laboratory sessions. Tough work but I am not complaining.

We were up there with the best of the other ‘proper degrees’ and realised we had to put in the hard yards. Unhappily, there was no-one there to help you, cajole you and, importantly, apply the ‘light touch’ that might have been all you needed at that time to survive, or possibly excel, in that environment.

I saw over 30 people from our entry of 100 bright young things leave that University after either the Christmas term or, as I did, at the end of the Summer term.

In short, I was worn down by trying to please too many subject heads within the faculty with little or no

feedback. In less than eight months away from my beloved fitting benches all my hopes had been dashed. Maybe it was never going to happen for me.

Maybe I should never have tried to reach that particular academic pinnacle at that time in my life.

Undoubtedly, I should have tried harder at school. The irony is that I could walk through such a degree now and enjoy it. Yes there were tutorial sessions as part of the timetable; but, frankly, they were bordering on useless as there was little by way of care or consideration as to where, or how, we might be struggling.

This was in spite of us trying to articulate it as best we could our concerns. Quite often it was 40 minutes of uncomfortable silence brokered by someone who patently and clearly did not want to be there.

The Rail Sector Mentoring Challenge Fund and how it can help you Fast forward 40 years and life is so much better – isn’t it? How many of you Business Development Officers (BDO) or Managers (BDM) feel that you have all the answers to your challenges at your fingertips and are enjoying life because you know that professionally you have optimised your performance and are high performing individuals?

Perhaps you have been assigned by your company’s Sales Director to: ‘Go after rail – if you do well it will be our success; if you do not, it will be your failure.’ There you are, propelled, railroaded perhaps, into the abyss, with little or no preparation, information or knowledge.

This is where the BIS-sponsored Rail Sector Mentor Challenge Fund (RSMCF) can help you. Starting in April and running throughout the financial year, this £305k programme will be looking to work with UKbased companies and individual BDOs and BDMs to help them understand the rail sector better.

The programme will provide actual help and assistance in the form of knowledge and encouragement to help you and your companies to better understand the rail sector, its opportunities and its pitfalls. The ultimate aim of the programme is to make more UK companies more competitive in the Rail Sector at home and abroad.

I can’t guarantee it will be like it was for me in the factory during my apprenticeship where there was someone on hand ‘24/7’ to watch over you. However that is the principle behind the RSMCF which can help you develop skills, knowledge and attitude.

One size does not fit all A good mentoring system is not just the idea painted above. In many ways it is much more than that. Mentoring becomes something that is

embedded within the culture of an organisation and contributes just as much to turnover and sales and - by association - profit, as pure sales effort alone.

Furthermore, we anticipate that by the end of the financial year companies that will have worked with us will have a mentoring system up and running and that it will be sustainable part of everyday life. For some companies, we will have administered a light touch series of interventions.

For others, the assistance may have gone deeper, using products such as Technology Radars to show, by means of diagnostic toolkits, where you are in the market, where your competitors are placed and indeed who your competitors are, and what your options are.

We also intend to have an on-line mentoring support toolkit that can underpin this activity and provide for those new to selling into the rail sector an information repository such that they are better placed at the end of the year than they were at the beginning of the programme to make the most of this vibrant and well-resourced sector.

Collaboration – Together We Stand, Divided We Fail A major feature of the programme will be the notion of collaboration. The Rail Alliance has already seen in excess of 70 people from more than 50 companies benefiting from our BS11000 Awareness Briefings.

As part of the RSMCF mentoring programme we will be taking this initiative forward and developing the individual stages of the standard (of which there are 8) to better prepare companies to achieve BS11000 Part 1 accreditation – the logical first step to achieving full BS11000 accreditation. Bear in mind that this standard will morph into an ISO standard by the end of 2016.

For more details about the Rail Sector Mentoring Challenge Fund Programme, get in touch with the Rail Alliance at info@railalliance.co.uk

Signals MainLine

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Freight LevelCrossing

Clocks BaggageCarts

SwitchGear Gates

Seating Software

Lighting ComputerTechnology

SafetyClothing Tools Drainage

RailMaintenance

Airconditioning Rail

Ventilation Scanners Whistle

Track Railway Station Platform

Cleaning Security Freight

WaitingRooms Scanners

Track Railway Station Platform Signage Tickets Stairs Cleaning Security Jucntions Signals

MainLine WaitingRooms Freight LevelCrossing Clocks BaggageCarts SwitchGear Gates Seating Software

SwitchGear Gates Seating Software Lighting ComputerTechnology Track Railway Station

Track Railway Station

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Platform Signage Tickets

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Stairs Cleaning

Security Jucntions Signals

Security Jucntions Signals

MainLine WaitingRooms

MainLine WaitingRooms

Freight LevelCrossing Clocks

Freight LevelCrossing Clocks

BaggageCarts

BaggageCarts

SwitchGear Gates Seating

SwitchGear Gates Seating

Software Lighting ComputerTechnology

Software Lighting ComputerTechnology

SafetyClothing Tools

SafetyClothing Tools

RailMaintenance Drainage

RailMaintenance Drainage

Airconditioning

Airconditioning

Ventilation Scanners Whistle

Ventilation Scanners Whistle

20 - 22 MAY 2014 | EARLS COURT 2, LONDON, UK

Track Railway Station Platform Signage Tickets Stairs Cleaning Security Jucntions Signals MainLine WaitingRooms Freight LevelCrossing Clocks BaggageCarts SwitchGear Gates Seating Software Lighting ComputerTechnology Track Railway Station Platform Signage Tickets Stairs Cleaning Security Jucntions Signals MainLine WaitingRooms Freight LevelCrossing Track Railway Station Platform

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Track Railway Station Platform

Signage Tickets Stairs Cleaning Security Jucntions Signals MainLine

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10th

Track Railway Station Platform

Signage Tickets Stairs

Cleaning Security Jucntions Signals MainLine

INTERNATIONAL RAILWAY INFRASTRUCTURE EXHIBITION

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Software Lighting

ComputerTechnology SafetyClothing Tools RailMaintenance

Drainage Airconditioning Ventilation Scanners Whistle

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NEWS

April 2014 | RailStaff | 13

Double value Infrarail Visitors to this year’s Infrarail will find the event sharing the hall at Earls Court with a new Mack Brooks show – the Civil Infrastructure & Technology Exhibition, or CITE 2014.

To register online for your visit to Infrarail follow the link on www.infrarail.com.

This takes you quickly through the simple registration process. Pre-registering for the exhibition speeds up entry and avoids a £20 charge payable for non-registered visitors.

Rail Media at Infrarail 2014 There will be something new on the Rail Media stand at Infrarail 2014.

As well as hosting the show’s technical seminar’s (A41), Rail Media will have two stands at the event in May. On the main stand (B50), visitors will be able to trial and download the first interactive iPad app editions of the The Rail Engineer and collect the latest print editions of the magazines.

The Rail Engineer is once again hosting its successful programme of industry seminars, which this year will include talks by senior figures at Amey, Balfour Beatty Rail, Siemens Rail Automation and

Many of the companies taking part in this new exhibition will be already well known to rail staff, infrastructure engineers and managers. Running the two events together means this will be the largest infrastructure exhibition held in the UK this year, with more than 220 suppliers providing a huge range of products and services taking part.

Anyone planning a visit to Infrarail may like to check out the CITE website www.cite-uk.com for the latest list of exhibitors, plus details of the event’s own programme of free seminars.

Registering for Infrarail provides access to all this, as well as to the rail show and its own features.

Both exhibitions take place at Earls Court in London from 20 to 22 May. As well as serving as a showcase for the

Signalling Solutions.

The Rail Media events team will be on the stand to chat about what’s coming up in 2014. In particular, they will be promoting The Rail Exec Club - a new programme of networking luncheons which will take place at various venues across London - the first being at Drapers’ Hall on 3 June. The sales and production team will also be on hand to answer any questions about upcoming issues.

This year will see the return of the careers and recruitment wall. Powered by railway jobs website RailwayPeople.com, exhibitors will be able to demo the site’s features and view current vacancies.

Says Paul O’Connor, Rail Media director, ‘Infrarail is such an important show in the rail industry calendar and Rail Media will have a big presence as always.

‘We’re excited to be able to show off the first of our interactive apps for The Rail Engineer and

MDA have a broad spectrum of rail industry capabilities:

latest in rail infrastructure technology and equipment, Infrarail has long been established as a forum for the exchange of ideas and an essential industry meeting place.

Adding value to a visit this year is an extensive programme of keynote speeches, industry seminars and updates on major rail projects, plus daily interactive discussion forums and other networking opportunities.

These will be open to all visitors free of charge. RailStaff’s sister magazine, the rail engineer, will be at Infrarail hosting an inspiring series of talks and meetings detailing the latest developments in railways.

The latest list of exhibitors plus details of all activities associated with Infrarail can be found on the show website www.infrarail.com

talk to delegates about our new series of exclusive networking events, The Rail Exec Club.

‘As well as showing what we do, we’ll be at the show to report and keep the industry updated on the latest innovations and project updates as they are announced.’

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NEWS

April 2014 | RailStaff | 15

Zoe Moore is IT Zoe Moore, 17, from Northampton has won the Could IT Be You? competition.

Ms Moore, from Sponne School in Northamptonshire, took first prize and will have her first year’s university fees paid for by Network Rail. Along with five runners up, she will also get a twoweek paid work placement with the Network Rail IT team this summer.

The competition was launched in October 2013 after Susan Cooklin, Network Rail’s chief information officer, voiced fears that not enough women were entering Britain’s burgeoning IT sector. In fact numbers are falling.

Says Sarah Jane Crawford, Network Rail IT project manager, ‘The IT industry is one of the most far-reaching and fast moving industries out there.

Every major company relies on technology to keep running, whether it’s Topshop which manages its supply chain, website and finances through IT, or Network Rail, which manages trains, assets and their corporate services.

‘Working in IT means that the types of companies you can work for is not limited and the experience you can gain is massive. It’s exciting, creative and fast paced and it’s an industry

that has thrived despite the economic challenges of recent years.

When I was 17, I didn’t imagine I would be working in the IT industry, but I kept my options open. I completed my studies in subjects I enjoyed and did my degree in Psychology and Philosophy at Leeds University. Once these were complete, I looked at every option and I couldn’t be happier with what I’ve ended up doing.’

Zoe, who is studying History, Maths, Economics and Product Design at A level, beat more than 250 other girls aged 16-18 to the prize. Each had to answer a quick-fire questionnaire and compile a short essay showing how they use technology. The authors of the top 80 entries were then invited to a networking day at the company’s Milton Keynes HQ. This included inspiring talks from top business women including Katie Bassett from CSC and Jane Hamilton, employment editor at The Sun. Zoe Moore’s essay proposed a type of intelligent scanner which would read your school book text

and then come up with suggested test questions to help you revise. She called on the media to get behind IT career opportunities for girls and, ‘stop portraying the industry as being for tech nerds sitting in their basements.’

Susan Cooklin is equally keen to push back the traditional beard-and-sandals view of IT and get more women involved in the industry.

‘Popular culture has helped create a perception amongst young women that a career in IT is all about writing code in basement offices. The reality couldn’t be further from the truth. I’ve been very pleased but not surprised at how engaged and excited about IT all the girls were that attended our networking day.

‘Zoe showed throughout that she had a keen interest and creative mind for solving problems and good communication, and these are the skills that business leaders are after.

I’m thrilled to award Zoe with the first prize and look forward to working with her and the runners up on the summer placements.’

Learning of her win, Zoe told Network Rail, ‘I’m so pleased to be the winner and very grateful for the opportunity. It means so much to me, it’s really going to motivate me to work hard and do well in my A-levels and I can’t describe the confidence this will give me. My aim is to get into one of the top universities and I aspire to be as successful as many of the people I met on the assessment day.’

Students gear up for Build A Loco challenge Students and apprentices are preparing for this year’s build-a-loco Railway Challenge organised by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in June.

Five teams will be competing to design and construct an efficient, quiet, small-scale locomotive. Says Philippa Oldham, Head of Transport and Manufacturing at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, ‘The Railway Challenge gives students, graduates and apprentices a fantastic opportunity to test their engineering skills and to get a taste of a real business experience.

The challenge is run along the lines of a real-life tendering process, and teams have to prepare a business case, finance, design, and build a locomotive from scratch.

‘It is exciting to see that our two

previous winning teams, Interfleet and Huddersfield, will be back to see if they can repeat their success, as well as hugely exciting to see two completely new teams, Sheffield and TfL, taking part. The new challenge, focusing on noise, is also going to present teams with a very demanding task.’

The locomotives that the teams will build must be powerful enough to transport a 600 kg load – including one of the Railway Challenge judges – on a 10¼ inch gauge railway line. The teams are comprised of students, apprentices and graduate engineers from Birmingham University, Huddersfield University,

Sheffield University, Derby’s Interfleet Technology Ltd and Transport for London.

The Institution of Mechanical Engineers’ Railway Challenge takes

place at the Stapleford Miniature Railway near Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, on June 27/28/29.

Steam hauled spectator trains will also be running on the railway.

FEATURE

16 | RailStaff | March 2014

Colchester Institute and TES2000 join forces Ten students from Colchester Institute have put their feet on the first rung of their career ladder.

They all started work after completing a pre-apprenticeship scheme called TRAX, which has been developed by TES2000 and the Faculty of Engineering Technologies at Colchester Institute. This news bucks the trend as the jobless rate among under-25s is now 3.74 times the adult rate and more than 950,000 young people are now unemployed, with almost a third having been looking for work for more than a year. (Source: The Institute for Public Policy Research, November 2013.)

Answering a rapid expansion of the rail network and an industry skills shortage, TRAX fills a much-needed gap and is one of just a few schemes operating in the country, which give people the initial training to work in the railway industry. The students spent four days a week studying for a Level 1 City & Guilds 2850 – 10 Certificate in Engineering and a further half day a week at TES2000 to get an understanding of the rail industry.

All gained their Level 1 qualification and, after an interview at TES2000, all were offered paid employment* as Rail Engineering Apprentices at TES2000. (One student declined as he has decided to take a degree.) Prior to taking up their studies seven of the students were registered unemployed, two were employed part-time, one

had just left the army and one was attending Sixth Form College.

Adam Ward, Director, Faculty of Engineering Technologies at Colchester Institute, said: “This is one of many successful initiatives that the Faculty has developed. We are committed to ensuring that our learners are well prepared for work within the engineering sector, not just in terms of technical skills but, more importantly, in terms of attitude towards work and their employer.”

At the end of the first year all the apprentices, who are aged 18 – 24, will be given the opportunity to specialise in different areas of the rail industry, for example Rail Track Maintenance, Overhead Line, Technical or Signalling.

Over the next ten years, rail in the UK will be subject to growth, as there is a huge amount of investment going to the networks. We can see we are losing skills and key people from the industry, so we are doing some succession planning and building the workforce for the future Tony Evans, Managing Director, TES2000, said: “Over the next ten years, rail in the UK will be subject to growth, as there is a huge amount of investment going to the networks. We can see we are losing skills and key people from the industry, so we are doing some succession planning and building the workforce for the future.

‘We have strong links with Colchester Institute and we want to find the right people with the right attitude, behaviour and work ethic, for these jobs. They will be working in a high-risk environment so they have to know what they are doing and they need to do it right and do it safely.”

For the next 12 months the apprentices will be learning and earning on the job. They will gain trackside experience, assisted by a

mentor within the Permanent Way Department, to receive grounding in the basics of the track. They will also return as Day Release students to study for specific Rail Engineering level 2 qualification at Colchester Institute.

Due to the success of the current cohort of apprentices, TES2000 and Colchester Institute will be looking for a further 30 apprentices within the Anglia Region, offering them permanent employment before the end of 2014. *Essex County Council has pledged to support local businesses in creating new or additional apprenticeship places by providing financial support through its wage subsidy programme.

Ten of the selected apprentices are eligible for this subsidy and are therefore being supported through the Essex Apprentice Scheme.

NEWS

April 2014 | RailStaff | 17

Rail Media appoints head of events sales Jolene Price has joined Rail Media as head of events sales.

Jolene has worked in event sales and operations for the past four years, having previously working as sales and operations director at Capital Corporate Solutions. This role involved putting together bespoke events packages for discerning clients, including after parties at the BRIT Awards, Baftas and the Oscars.

Her previous position also saw

Jolene arrange VIP experiences at the Monaco Grand Prix and Royal Ascot.

Says Paul O’Connor, ‘As we look to build and grow our programme of industry events, it’s important we invest in our team.

‘Jolene brings with her a depth of knowledge. She knows what it takes to organise and promote a quality event and we look forward to seeing how she can help us build on the success of events like the Rail Safety Summit and RailStaff Awards.’

YOUR STAY ON THE RIGHT TRACK

Sears crossing sign off A sign from the crossing where the Great Train Robbery took place failed to meet its reserve price at an auction in Shropshire.

The mystique of the robbery and assault on Jack Mills and his secondman David Whitby, appears to be fading. The sign was given to Leslie Bowler, the Inspector of Signals at British Railways, when the Sears Crossing signal box was decommissioned. It was kept by his family. Estimates that the sign would fetch over £7,000 proved wrong.

Auctioneers, Mullock’s, are now considering secondary offers.

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NEWS

18 | RailStaff | April 2014

Moving into CP5

Network Rail chief executive Mark Carne (Right)

April 2014 signalled the start of Control Period 5 (CP5). Over the next five years Network Rail will spend £38 billion maintaining, renewing and enhancing Britain’s rail network. So what can we expect to see by 2019.

Headline figures circulated by Network Rail include 170,000 extra peak-time seats for commuters, the renewal of over 4,000 miles of track and electrification of a further 850 miles.

As well as reduced journey times, passengers will see this mammoth investment in the completion of major station redevelopment projects at Birmingham New Street, London Bridge, Glasgow Queen Street and Manchester Victoria.

The £38 billion can be neatly cut into three segments. Around £13 billion will be spent on new infrastructure, £13 billion will go on maintenance and £12 billion will fund the replacement of tired, life-expired infrastructure.

By 2019, Network Rail expects to see the impact of this investment in punctuality levels, having set a new benchmark Public Performance Measure (PPM) of 92.5 per cent. All of this is to be delivered with a smaller public subsidy, reduced from £4 billion to £2 billion.

Issuing his first public statement as chief executive of Network Rail, Mark Carne set out the organisation’s central aims. Unsurprisingly, safety continues to feature heavily. By 2019, a further £100 million will be spent improving safety at level crossings.

Says Mark, ‘Passenger, public and workforce safety will be at the core of our plans. Good safety performance and good train and business performance go hand-in-hand and in both, we must strive for, and deliver, continuous improvement day by day.

‘Britain’s railways are a vital part of our national infrastructure. They connect homes and workplaces, businesses with London Bridge

markets, they create jobs, stimulate trade and support the growth of a balanced economy.

A significant chunk of money will be spent on electrification in the next five years. By 2016-17, the Great Western main line will be electrified from Paddington to Bristol, Oxford and Newbury, allowing Hitachi’s new fleet of inter-city trains to enter service.

The West Country will benefit further from the £700 million Western Hub programme, with track remodelling to be carried out at Bristol East junction, new platforms at Bristol Parkway and a revamp of Bristol Temple Meads.

By 2018, Thameslink will also be

completed. On 31 March, platforms 14 and 15 came back into service at London Bridge, offering a first glimpse of the work being carried out on the station rebuild.

‘We are good at delivering projects, both great and small, and at providing a safe and reliable railway but want to do even more for the people that rely on our railway network,’ Mark added. ‘This investment responds to the growth and demands being placed upon us by delivering bigger, better stations, more trains and seats, reopened railway lines and fewer level crossings.

‘We all want an improving, safer, successful and better value railway for everyone, and that is what we will do.’

Birmingham New Street station

NEWS

April 2014 | RailStaff | 19

Timeline

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

Edinburgh-Glasgow Improvement Programme completed Scottish Borders complete.

Edinburgh Waverley-Glasgow Queen Street electrification infrastructure works commissioned

Manchester Victoria station rebuild complete.

Trans-Pennine electrification completed

Birmingham New Street fully reopens.

Great Western main line electrified to Cardiff.

Midland main line electrification completed between Bedford to Kettering and Corby.

Main line electrified from Cardiff to Swansea Main line electrified from Cardiff to Swansea East-West Rail Link completed

Great Western main line electrified between Bristol and Paddington.

Thameslink completed Reading bottleneck removed and capacity increased.

NEWS

20 | RailStaff | April 2014

Chocolate train If you have given up chocolate for Lent then look away now…

Maltese chocolate artist Andrew Farrugia has entered the Guinness Book of Records with a train made entirely of chocolate.

His train is the longest chocolate structure in the world.

The sculpture, displayed at Brussels South station, is 34.05 metres long and weighs over 1250 kgs. The train took Andrew Farrugia over 700 hours to build.

Andrew came up with the idea after visiting the Belgian Chocolate Festival in Bruges. Mr Farrugia built the train at

home on Malta – which has no railway system.

The train was transported in special wooden crates to Brussels. Malta’s railway, which once linked Valletta and Mdina, closed in 1931. However, local children are reportedly delighted with the idea of train building with a difference returning to the island.

Assaults down says Northern Figures released by Northern Rail show a large reduction in the number of assaults on staff.

Physical assaults against railway staff were down 38% year-on-year in 2013.

Last year saw 95 reported incidents taking place, half the number there were in 2009, which saw 186 incidents reported.

Says Gary Stewart, Northern’s Safety and Assurance Director, ‘We have implemented a successful ‘Stay Safe’ conflict avoidance programme that trains our frontline teams on how to deal with potentially threatening

situations and provides them with the tools to diffuse them calmly. Our ‘Stay Safe’ roadshows run throughout the year to reach as many of our employees as possible around our network.’ Much of the success is down to targeting trouble spots – often where alcohol is involved – with police.

‘Alongside our industry partners the British Transport Police, we have also run operations to resolve issues on specific lines of routes where alcohol-related

problems have been prolific,’ says Gary.

‘We want to ensure our employees and customers feel safe and that others understand we will not tolerate antisocial behaviour or excessive alcohol consumption on-board our services.’

A special ‘Rail Response Team’ now patrols the network. ‘Any assault on a member of our staff is completely unacceptable and every one of them has the right to feel safe while they carry out their duties,’ adds Gary.

For the subway.

Subway notes The former lead singer with LCD Soundsytem, James Murphy, is designing a musical upgrade for the turnstiles on the New York City subway.

Northern’s Rail Response Team awaits the arrival of a service on the Real Ale Trail

Instead of issuing metallic beeps, James’ new sound system will enable each turnstile to play its own tune.

A unique set of notes will be written for each station.

‘Each turnstile emits its own beep, all of which are slightly out of tune with one another, creating a dissonant rubbingstyrofoam-on-glass squeak in stations all around New York City.

‘It’s kind of horrible,’ says James. ‘What I propose to do is to create a series of three to five note sequences, all unique, one for each station in the subway system. These sequences will be part of an intersecting larger piece of music, which would run from station to station.’

Music loving transit authority chiefs are said to be listening to the idea.

NEWS

April 2014 | RailStaff | 21

High flyers The Ffestiniog Railway in North Wales reckons it has scored a first for the rail industry.

Dave and Emily High have become the first father and daughter team to drive and fire a steam locomotive on the Ffestiniog Railway in North Wales – and possibly anywhere in the UK. Civil engineer Dave has been volunteering on the railway for 35 years.

Dave qualified as a driver 25 years ago when he moved to the area from Surrey.

His daughter, Emily, 18, has just qualified as a fireman. Emily is studying for her A-levels at Coleg Meirion Dwyfor in Dolgellau. Dave and Emily are pictured in charge of Linda, built in Leeds in 1893.

Poirot power for Orient Express Not to be outdone by Eurostar’s trail blazing expansion across Europe – see front page of last month’s RailStaff – the Orient Express has decided to run services to and from Brussels.

From May, the Venice SimplonOrient-Express is adding Brussels to its list of destinations served. Departures to and from Brussels are now available from Venice, Vienna and Budapest.

This move marks a welcome return to Belgium, birthplace of the iconic express train.

Agatha Christie’s fastidious,

chocolate- drinking, detective, Hercule Poirot, was born in Belgium. More important still the Belgian-born Georges Nagelmackers changed the face of railway travel across Europe by creating the fabled and original ‘Orient Express’ train service in 1883. Originally the express train ran from Paris to Vienna and later on to Constantinople.

ScotRail apprentices graduate A second tranche of hard-working ScotRail Modern Apprentices in Customer Service has graduated under a pioneering initiative to develop young talent.

Around 70 guests — including Angela Constance, Minister for Youth Employment - gathered at Glasgow’s Grand Central hotel for the graduation ceremony. The 18-month-long scheme saw 13 apprentices, aged between 18 and 25, work towards achieving a Level 2 Scottish Vocational Qualification in Customer Service as well as a the Duke of Edinburgh’s Gold Award. The apprentices worked with front line railway staff in booking offices, on trains and station concourses.

Says Steve Montgomery, ScotRail’s managing director, ‘We are extremely

proud of our apprentices. They have put in a great deal of work over the last year and a half and overcome a number of challenges, as well as getting the most out of the experience.’

Two of the apprentices have already secured full-time positions at Glasgow Queen Street station; one as conductor and the other as a welcome host.

The others are applying for full-time roles with ScotRail. Meanwhile the programme will continue with a new intake of 15 apprentices starting in the near future.

FEATURE

22 | RailStaff | April 2014

Return to the Settle and Carlisle Report by Andy Milne

The Settle and Carlisle line stands today as an enduring testimony to railway engineering and perseverance, ingenuity and determination.

This April marks the 25th anniversary of the saving of the railway that runs over the roof of Britain. The Settle and Carlisle line was slated for closure in the 1980s by a BR board desperate to save cash. However, this was no mere branch line but an integral part of the railway network.

After a long, hard fought, six year battle, the line was saved for posterity by government order. The reprieve was issued on 11 April 1989 and signed by Michael Portillo, a transport minister at the time.

The line had always been controversial. The Midland Railway set about building it in the 1870s determined to provide an alternative high speed railway to Scotland.

Charting hills, moors and chasms, the Midland Railway company quickly

came to the conclusion it was soaking up too much money and tried to stop the project.

Pressured by Scottish railway companies, the government of the day refused permission and the Midland had to keep going. In a bizarre echo of railway history it was BR’s London Midland Region that issued closure notices over a century later.

Steam loco No.60163 “Tornado” approaching Ribblehead Station on the Settle & Carlisle Railway with a train from Hellifield to Carlisle, 10th October 2009.

Smallpox epidemic Work started in 1869 and at one time the line had 6,000 navvies working on it – many of them from Ireland. The navigators lived in huge, badly serviced camps. A smallpox epidemic killed 80 of them. Many more died of disease as the seven year project progressed.

Whole families died in the camps and are buried in country churchyards – often in unmarked graves.

The 72 mile line remains a marvel of graceful, Victorian railway engineering.

The track contours moors and fells and is trestled across valleys deep with myth and mystery.

Far above the normal preserve of railways the line rides over the Pennines utilising a 1/100 gradient for 16 miles – the maximum allowed for the safe passage of an express train.

At its highest point it rises to 1,169 feet (356 m) at Ais Gill – north of Garsdale.

The line crosses 20 viaducts and sweeps through 14 tunnels.

No one should forget the suffering

FEATURE

April 2014 | RailStaff | 23

An EWS freight service crosses Ribblehead viaduct.

of the ill-equipped railway navigators who built the line. That it should be so lightly tossed aside a mere century later did British Rail and its treasury masters little credit. As the line was being built, critics derided the length of time the project was taking and the burgeoning costs involved.

In the drenching rain Even then it caught the imagination and respect of the press. A London newspaper correspondent bluntly slapped down the armchair whingers: ‘Let them go over it in the drenching rain of October, or let those who complain of its slowness in the making wade through the mire, clay and water and see the slurry slipping away from the metals and, add to those difficulties, the cuttings through boulder clay and rocks of excessive hardness, the roving habits of the workmen and the wild inhospitable district through which it passes – and then the wonder will

not be that the works are incomplete but at the possibility of completing them at all.’

Eventually the line was finished and the Midland Railway had its own route to and from Scotland via Carlisle. The Midland Railway had a reputation for excellence which served it well. However the First World War hit the company badly. Thousands of railwaymen joined up and many, in the Midland’s case, never returned.

After the war, in 1923, the various railway companies were amalgamated into four. The Midland Railway became part of the London Midland and Scottish Railway, reluctantly wedding its long term competitor, the London and North Western Railway. One result of this was that the competitive route between Settle and Carlisle was no longer needed as a commercial alternative. Nevertheless the S and C continued to function and was an integral part of the isolated communities it served.

Footbridge view at Settle station on the Settle to Carlisle line.

Pressure to drive down costs The remorseless pressure to drive down costs after nationalisation in 1948 spelled doom for the Settle and Carlisle.

Although the line survived the Beeching cuts, by the 1970s BR had come to the same conclusion as the Midland Railway a hundred years before.

The line was too expensive to keep going and should be closed. To make the process easier most of the stations

were shut and the service reduced. Cut down a service drastically enough and the passengers switch out altogether.

Maintenance faltered.

In December 1983 BR’s London Midland Region put out posters announcing the discontinuation of passenger services. Although long expected the announcement came as a shock. It seemed there was little time left to do much about it.

FEATURE

24 | RailStaff | April 2014

Cumbrian Mountain Express. No.46229 Duchess of Hamilton Great Ormside en route from Carlisle to Skipton. 07.01.1984.

Thatcher. Knowing there was still little financial basis for retaining the line, the transport minister slipped across Westminster Square one dark evening.

With a courage doubtless inspired by the navigators on the line itself, Portillo approached the Iron Lady in her office.

Strength of purpose

No. 60027 crossing Ais Gill viaduct with an EWS Falkland Yard Ayr to High Marnham MGR train, May 1998.

passenger levels climbed steadily.

People wanted to travel on the Settle and Carlisle while they still could. A bemused BR had to lay on extra trains.

Paw print signature

Public outcry.

Then sharp-eyed supporters spotted errors in the legal closure posters.

The meaning, they submitted, was unclear. Cheerful north country lawyers agreed which meant the posters had to be pulped and reprinted. The delay enabled supporters to harness the public outcry. The Friends of the Settle-Carlisle Line had been set up two years before. Seizing the initiative, a full scale campaign was launched to save the line.

The press, a long term supporter by this time, caught on to the campaign and was happy to reproduce pictures of what must rank as one of the most photogenic railways in Europe. Claims that the cost of repair and upkeep were ruinously high were disputed, not least by railway staff themselves.

BR Midland Region’s chief engineer,

Tony Freschini, set about examining Ribblehead Viaduct. Initial estimates had put the cost of repair at around £9 million pounds. Freschini believed he could get the job done for a third of the estimate. Even £3 million seemed excessive but by now the whole project had a dynamism of its own.

Grants were available from English Heritage, Railway Heritage Trust, Rural Development Commission and The Settle and Carlisle Railway Trust. Popular support continued to grow. With inspired marketing, a little commitment from local leaders and the rail industry, revenue on the line could be increased and additional sources of funding pressed into service to keep open what many now regarded as a valid and inspiring example of Britain’s industrial heritage.

One unlooked-for result was that

Thousands signed a petition.

Even Graham Nuttall’s border collie, Ruswarp, signed it – a valid paw print signature as he too had to buy a ticket . The press loved it. In a sad postscript to the campaign Graham Nuttall died out walking in Wales in January 1990.

Searchers could not find his body. The dog disappeared too. Then 11 weeks later a walker discovered his body and the severely emaciated dog, Ruswarp, still alive, standing guard beside his master. A statue of Ruswarp stands at Garsdale Station.

If the myth and legends surrounding the line caught the imagination of the public, the flint eyed men of Whitehall were harder to convince. Conventional arguments were neatly encapsulated

by Treasury Secretary, Nicholas Ridley, who opined that the regular users of the line could be safely accommodated in a mini bus.

Down in London at the DfT in Marsham Street, Michael Portillo had become convinced by the arguments for retaining the line. Says Portillo, ‘I felt emotional about it – a line that was so important to our heritage.’

Portillo now faced the daunting task of trying to convince his boss, Margaret

It is perhaps ignoble to imagine the late baroness fixing the junior transport minister with a glare that could freeze paint at thirty feet.

Nevertheless Thatcher heard him out in silence. Portillo did not waste time burbling about increased passenger volumes or the need for a diversionary rail route. Instead he described the line as a symbol of British durability, engineering excellence and strength of purpose. It symbolised all that had made Britain great, he argued.

Thatcher, by 1989, knew the defining achievement of her political career was winning the war in the South Atlantic.

Securing a further testament to British grit and determination across the North Pennines seemed only right. ‘I thought Thatcher would understand because I knew she cared about British heritage,’ says Portillo recalling the meeting. Happily he was right and revelling in her barely perceptible nod of approval, returned to the ministry rejoicing.

British Rail set about repairing the tunnels, viaducts and bridges. Tony Perschini and his teams got to work on Ribblehead Viaduct. Supporters at the urging of Portillo redoubled their efforts to attract more passengers to the line. New trains were laid on and stations spruced up.

A quarter of a century later the Settle and Carlisle is once again an integral part of the network used to relieve the heavily trafficked West Coast Main Line and a huge success with local people, tourists and walkers alike. Over 1.2 million passengers now travel on England’s most scenic railway every year. Importantly, on a railway network desperate for extra capacity, the line has proved a real bonus and it is fair to say operators on the WCML would struggle without it. 40 freight trains a day now use it regularly. Businesses have sprung up along the line.

Says Richard Morris, Chairman of the Friends of the Settle-Carlisle Line, ‘Even

FEATURE

the most optimistic in 1989 could not have imagined how successful the line would be.’

Line capacity doubled Extra signalling equipment has almost doubled the line’s capacity and millions of pounds have been invested in new tracks. All in all, there are more passengers and freight than ever before in the line’s history. With its wide horizons and graceful buildings the Settle-Carlisle is recognised as one of the World’s Greatest Railway Journeys.

Highlight of the journey Most of the intermediate stations have re-opened and the beautiful Victorian stations renovated – most are now looked after by an army of volunteers. The iconic Ribblehead Viaduct, once condemned, has been restored and is the highlight of the journey for many. The industry itself is right behind the Settle and Carlisle.

Says Dyan Crowther of Network Rail, ‘The line is one of the most beautiful in Britain and will continue to be an

April 2014 | RailStaff | 25

important part of the railway in the north of England.’

Recently Michael Portillo returned to the line making a generous documentary on Britain’s railways. The one time transport minister greeted campaigners like old friends. Portillo likes to describe his part in saving the line as his greatest achievement in politics. Few on the Settle and Carlisle would argue.

Portillo made a point of talking to rail staff on the train he travelled on whilst filming and shaking hands with the driver of the steam engine used that day. He also visited the graves of some of the many railway people and their families who perished in the building of the railway. The graves are tended by local people – some of whom are descendants of the original navvies who came to the area over 100 years ago. The railway their forebears struggled to build is now an important part of the national railway network. Their great work and their sacrifice has not been forgotten after all.

The beautifully restored station at Ribblehead on the Settle to Carlisle line.

The rugged beauty of Ribblehead Viaduct on the Settle to Carlisle line.

Passing Ais Gill on the Settle to Carlisle line in snow conditions a Virgin ‘Voyager’ with a diverted train.

NEWS

26 | RailStaff | April 2014

Higgins seeks speedier delivery of high-speed rail

HS2 chairman David Higgins

In his first public turn as HS2 chairman, Sir David Higgins has said he wants to see HS2 taken to Crewe six years earlier than planned.

Although the hybrid bill governing HS2 has still to clear parliament, rail chiefs are pushing ahead with the project in a bid to stabilise costs. Under Sir David’s proposals, the Manchester leg of the new railway as far as Crewe will transfer to Phase One of the project and be built at the same time as the initial LondonBirmingham link by 2027.

Patrick McLoughlin, Secretary of State for Transport, has given official backing to the Higgins plans and endorsed the HS2 Growth Taskforce recommendations.

Crewe, which once saw over 1,000 trains a day in the 1890s, now looks set to regain its historic significance.

High-speed trains will connect with the conventional network at a new transport hub at Crewe, creating connections to Liverpool, Stoke, North Wales and South Wales.

Euston station will be redeveloped and expanded using significant private sector investment. However, a £700 million direct rail link between HS1 and HS2 has been shelved. The

idea of an HS1-HS2 link line will be re-examined later and is still on the agenda as Britain seeks to maximise the advantages of its emerging high speed rail network.

Presenting the HS2 PLUS report, Sir David Higgins said that new stations at Crewe and Euston should be complemented by a major interchange at Old Oak Common.

Stability and assured support is now key to keeping costs down and delivering the new railway, says Sir David. ‘The simple truth at the heart of this, as any, project is that there is a direct connection between certainty, time and cost. The more certainty there is about the timescale, the more possible it is to control cost through economies of scale.’

Responding with equal enthusiasm to Lord Deighton’s HS2 Growth Taskforce report, Patrick McLoughlin said, ‘We need HS2 and we need to act now to squeeze the most from it in terms of jobs, skills and growth.

The taskforce’s recommendations are plain common sense.’ He urged local leaders and businesses to start working together now on regeneration, planning and skills training to take full advantage of the

high-speed network.

It is a message being echoed right round the industry as efforts to increase skills and staff levels ramp up. ‘It is up to all of us in the government, local authorities, HS2 Ltd and UK businesses to make the most of this unique opportunity,’ says Lord Deighton, former chief executive of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games.

Network Rail welcomed the Higgins report. Says Paul Plummer, Network Rail group strategy director, ‘HS2 will sit at the heart of Britain’s transport network, allowing us to reshape the railway in a way that incremental improvements simply cannot.

That’s why we welcome the report’s recommendations and its call for an integrated approach to planning and operating the railway.

‘We can deliver the biggest benefit for passengers, communities and freight if we plan for the high speed and existing lines to operate seamlessly together. This will also ensure we build upon investments we are making today, such as the Northern Hub, to improve connectivity between major towns and cities.’

Shinkansen expertise to guide HS2 The operator of Japan’s high-speed Shinkansen network, JR-East, has been awarded a consultancy role on HS2.

JR-East has also announced that it is to set up a London office as it looks to further branch out across the UK and Europe. The new office, which will open on 15 April, is to play a part in both the construction and operation of the new high-speed network, drawing on its 50 years of experience designing, building and running high-speed railways.

Japan’s Shinkansen network is not only the oldest high-speed network in the world, it is also the safest, with zero passenger fatalities since the launch of the very first line in 1964.

The Shinkansen network, unlike European high-speed rail systems, is completely separate from the conventional network, which is one of the reasons for its high reliability and punctuality levels.

Says Masaki Ogata, vice chairman of JR-East, ‘We anticipate a fantastic future for high speed rail both in the UK and throughout Europe.

‘Opening our new London office at this exciting time is the right thing for JR-East and means we can more easily support our clients, partners and suppliers.

‘We look forward to helping HS2 and to contributing to the success of highspeed rail in the UK. JR-East has the experience, expertise and enthusiasm to contribute greatly to the smooth and successful implementation of the HS2 project.’

Last month, Hitachi announced that it would be moving its headquarters from Tokyo to London, a move designed to develop its operations in the UK and Europe.

Says professor Andrew McNaughton, technical director of HS2 Ltd, ‘HS2 is an enormous undertaking. It is the largest and most complex infrastructure project ever in the UK. So, it is essential we explore the best ways in which we can learn from international experience.

‘JR-East is respected across the world, having been part of a highspeed rail transport system connecting Japan’s biggest cities that has run to the highest degrees of comfort, reliability and safety for 50 years. We are very pleased to be working with one of the world’s great experts.’

© VACCLAV / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

NEWS

April 2014 | RailStaff | 27

Unveiling Nottingham The first phase of a £50 million restoration of Nottingham’s Grade 2-listed station has been revealed.

The station’s booking hall and newly-pedestrianised porte-cochere, which formerly served as the taxi rank, returned to service on 31 March.

In just a few weeks time, the southern concourse will also be open, completing the station’s makeover as part of the £150

million Nottingham Hub project. The final element will be the new tram stop which is scheduled to open in October.

Says Justin Page, Network Rail area director, ‘It’s really been about retaining as much of the old character but bringing in new materials to reflect and

enhance what was there.’

As well as the station works, project partners Network Rail, East Midlands Trains, Taylor Woodrow and Nottingham City Council have delivered a major resignalling and track renewals programme around the station.

Over the course of the project, £500,000 has been provided to the station project by the Railway Heritage Trust - a body set up by British Rail in 1985 to support the preservation of heritage railway buildings and structures on the modern network.

Crossrail to Reading Crossrail trains will run to Reading from 2019 as the route is extended west beyond Maidenhead.

There will be two services an hour from Reading under new plans announced by Crossrail, allowing passengers to travel into the capital without changing at Paddington station.

The addition of Reading and Twyford takes the total number of stations served by the route to 40.

The additional services are also good

news for Bombardier. TfL will need to purchase an extra train, on top of the 65 already on order, to meet the extra demand.

Speaking to RailStaff, Howard Smith, Crossrail operations director, said that extending Crossrail to Reading would also benefit the project’s delivery.

‘It actually reduces the amount of

infrastructure work because you don’t have to put quite such elaborate turnback facilities at Maidenhead so in work terms, it’s less civil engineering, one extra train we have to buy.’

Says Rail Minister Stephen Hammond, ‘Crossrail reaching Reading is further proof of our commitment to deliver a transport network fit for the 21st

century. It will improve connectivity and deliver greater choice and convenience for passengers travelling into London.

It will also make better use of the already congested Great Western main line, freeing up capacity for further improvements including potential direct services from Reading to Heathrow as part of the Western Access Scheme.’

NEWS

28 | RailStaff | April 2014

ISSL Apprentice Scheme

Twenty new entrants have been enrolled on ISS Labour’s (ISSL) new National Rail Apprentice Scheme (NRAS).

Launched at the end of 2013, the scheme delivers comprehensive specialist rail training in partnership with Intertrain, providing successful apprentices with an NVQ L2 Diploma in Railway Engineering.

ISSL, a major supplier of resource to the rail industry, is helping to identify, train and employ the next generation of railway workers.

As well as training the apprentices,

ISSL guarantees local employment at the end of the programme.

Applicants are able to attend interactive Information, advice and guidance sessions which tell them about working within the rail sector and what rewards pursuing a qualification in the sector can bring.

Class of 2014 The first 20 apprentices joined the

scheme in January 2014.

Says ISSL apprentice Paul Smith, ‘Starting the Railway Engineering Apprenticeship with ISS has opened up doors for me. I have been taught so much and taken part in so many practical activities and I am always learning. I look forward to climbing the ranks in the industry as I see it as a job for life with the investment in the infrastructure.’

Says Gary Beeston, managing director of ISSL, ‘We have committed to our new National Rail Apprentice

Scheme, and I am delighted that our first two groups who started in January are progressing well.

‘We are already looking for our next intake and we will continue with the scheme and with working collaboratively with our industry partners to invest in the future and to bring new people onto the railway.’

Training ISSL apprentices are trained in PTS, TIC and DCCR and in addition receive, Manual Handling, IOSH Working Safely, First Aid at Work and the full complement of rail small tools.

Training is undertaken against a range of composite tasks that are routinely performed within both renewals and maintenance.

As well as PTS/TIC/DCCR and small tools competencies, ISSL Apprentices gain a VRQ L2 Certificate in Railway Underpinning Knowledge, an NVQ L2 Diploma in Railway Engineering and L1 Functional Skills in English & Maths.

In November 2013, Driver Hire Group became the majority shareholder of the business.

Driver Hire UK is a specialist transport and logistics recruitment company, which operates from 102 offices nationwide and has yearly sales approaching £100m.

If you would like to find out more about the NRAS, please contact Nicki Sunderland on 0800 7833382

NEWS

April 2014 | RailStaff | 29

Rail college for Gateshead

Risk reduction at level crossings

Newcastle College is to build a new railway academy in Gateshead. Planning permission for the £5 million scheme has been granted.

Following publication of the Transport Committee’s ‘Safety at Level Crossings’ report, the RSSB has put together safety performance data to help staff understand the nature of the risk.

Britain’s level crossings are among the safest in Europe, second only to Luxembourg which has a rail network of 274 km and 142 level crossings, compared to 32,000 km in Britain and over 6,300 level crossings. The level crossings on the national mainline rail network see over 60 billion train kilometres every year, and in the current financial year to the end of March 2014 (so far) there have been

seven accidental fatalities at crossings, and 12 collisions between road vehicles and trains at crossings. Nine people (four pedestrians and five road

vehicle occupants) died in accidents at level crossings in 2012/13. There is evidence of long-term reductions in risk at level crossings.

Once Bittern

The academy will be built near Heworth Metro station and should be open in September. As well as classrooms and lecture theatres the school will include a full-scale mock up railway. The railway training sector continues to grow as the industry ramps up efforts to make good the skills gap. Hitachi Rail plans a similar college at Newton Aycliffe.

Says Robin Ghurbhurun, deputy principal at Newcastle College, ‘The Government has committed to spending billions to upgrade the rail network in the next 20 to 30 years, creating thousands of job opportunities, so it is critical that the industry has access to the very best training and higher level skills.’ There are a number of heritage rail sites in close proximity to the college which would provide ideal opportunities for students to gain further valuable experience out on track.

Rail staff thanked First Great Western has launched a publicity campaign to point out the professionalism and dedication of its staff last winter.

The North Yorkshire Moors Railway is bringing Class A4 Pacific 4464 ‘Bittern’ to its Spring Steam Gala 2014.

Says Philip Benham, NYMR general manager, ‘We are delighted to welcome ‘Bittern’ back to the railway two years after its last visit. The engine is a firm favourite on The Moors, and we are excited that it will be joining our Spring Steam Gala line-up after its

winter exploits, and participation in the Mallard 75.’

The Spring Steam Gala, staged over two weekends – end of April and beginning of May, will include the NYMR’s newest edition to its home fleet, LMS Class 5MT Locomotive 44806.

There will be trade stands at NYMR stations. Scarborough and District Railway Modellers will be displaying a model railway in the Learning Centre at Pickering Station. Steam trains will run along the Esk Valley line from Whitby and Grosmont to Battersby Station.

Highlighting the impact of storms and flooding the campaign shows how staff worked flat out to maintain services and look after passengers.

The £2.2 million campaign uses individual members of staff to provide an insight into the measures the rail operator is taking to keep people moving into and out of Devon and Cornwall.

FEATURE

30 | RailStaff | March 2014

Rail Live 2014

Last year Network Rail, the Rail Alliance and Rail Media Group, hosted the first National Track Plant Exhibition at Long Marston. Hailed as a great success, over 220 companies from the supply chain exhibited products and services to 3,700 attendees. The show raised nearly £30,000 for the Railway Children and Action for Children.

Following encouraging feedback from exhibitors and attendees, the 2014 show will now include the whole rail offering demonstrating innovation within Track, Electrification, Asset Management Services, Signalling and Telecoms. The event has been re-named ‘Rail Live 2014’ and looks like becoming the largest outdoor rail event in the UK. Rail Live 2014 will be held at Long Marston, near Stratford-upon-Avon, on 18 and 19 June. The expanded show will include: • A rail and road connected exhibition area demonstrating rail infrastructure • Live demonstrations of innovative working methods • Practical demonstrations of equipment • Opportunity to meet your customers and suppliers face to face • An educational experience to all visitors Registration to exhibit and visit the show is free and must be done via the designated website www.raillive2014. com which is now live. Already, over 130 companies have signed up to exhibit.

Says Steve Featherstone, Programme Director Track, Infrastructure Projects, Network Rail, ‘Feedback from those

who attended last year’s event was fantastic. This year’s event will be even bigger and even better. The event is all about showcasing solutions to the challenges we face on the railway.

Hopefully over 5,000 railway colleagues will attend and take away solutions to problems that they have. If everybody

just takes away one new idea we will have added a lot of value to the railway.’

Mark Southwell, Signalling Programme Director, Infrastructure Projects agrees. ‘Events like this is what it is all about for me. It’s a true reflection of collaboration with the industry that we are proud to be a part of. For me, having a hands-on look at what innovation is out there can only spark stimulating discussion, whilst encouraging continuous improvement. It is a great opportunity

for every company involved to network and meet people face to face. This is absolutely the way forward and I urge people to get involved.’

As the site will operate as a live railway environment, all exhibitors and visitors must attend wearing full PPE (personal protection equipment).

Admittance to Rail Live 2014 will not be allowed without boots, safety glasses, high-visibility trousers and jackets/ vests, gloves and hard hats... so if you are planning to attend, don’t forget them and your ticket.

RAILLive RAIL

2014

18-19 June 2014 Long Marston Warwickshire

The Largest Outdoor Rail Event in the UK Network Rail, in association with The Rail Alliance, the rail engineer and Macrail, is proud to present Rail Live 2014: a showcase for railway infrastructure.

2014, which marks the start of Control Period 5 (CP5), will see the whole rail industry continue to embark on one of the longest sustained periods of investment the railway has seen since Victorian tim es. Network Rail will be continuing its focus on safety and delivering value for money through working more closely with suppliers.

www.raillive2014.com

In partnership with

NEWS

32 | RailStaff | April 2014

ScotRail goes for gold

Info win for telent

ScotRail, which employs more than 4,700 people, has been accredited with Investors in People (IIP) Gold status. Staff numbers have increased by 35% since FirstGroup took over the franchise.

telent Technology Services Ltd has been chosen to provide a further three years support and maintenance for the station Customer Information Systems (CIS) for South West Trains.

Scotland’s transport minister, Keith Brown, praised ScotRail staff as he welcomed the news. ‘I am delighted that ScotRail has been further recognised by Investors in People and would like to congratulate the organisation and its staff on their commitment to continuous improvement,’ said Mr Brown.

‘A modern, efficient and passengerfocused railway is key if we want to increase the number of people travelling by train, and the staff working in rail services are an essential part of this ambition. I am pleased that it is ScotRail customers who will benefit from this achievement.’

IIP Gold is only achieved by the top 3% of IIP organisations and just 81 in Scotland. ScotRail is now the largest IIP Gold accredited company in Britain measured by the number of people employed. Says Tim O’Toole, chief executive of FirstGroup, which has successfully developed Scotland’s award-winning railway, ‘In any business, there is an obvious connection between engaging and investing in people, and better customer service and performance.

At FirstGroup, we are proud of the achievements of our ScotRail team, and its sharp focus on improving services and making passengers’ journeys better every day.’

ScotRail was awarded IIP Silver

status in 2012 and has invested further in staff training and development to achieve the Gold award. Says Steve Montgomery, managing director of ScotRail, ‘Our people are at the forefront of our ongoing efforts to improve customers’ experience on Scotland’s railways – and this tremendous achievement is testament to their hard work and dedication.’

Since 2004, FirstGroup’s ScotRail has regularly recorded service punctuality of more than 90%, despite a dramatic upturn in the number of train services in the same period. Today, 20 million more passengers use Scotland’s railways than in 2004, with more than 83 million people taking the train every year.

Spencer Group appoints CDI AndersElite as recruitment partner

In addition to the original contract to maintain the current CIS, PA and Help Points, telent will now also provide support and maintenance for CCTV throughout the South West Trains rail network. telent has been supporting SWT station CIS systems since 2007.

Says Steve Pears, Managing Director for telent Rail, ‘We’re thrilled to be continuing our work for South West Trains for another three years, particularly with the addition of CCTV maintenance to the contract. This project really demonstrates how remote monitoring adds great value to maintenance contracts.’

David Mcloughlin, CEO, Spencer Rail with Jonathan Cockerton, MSP Account Manager from AndersElite.

Spencer Group, one of the UK’s leading specialist engineering businesses, has announced the appointment of CDI AndersElite to manage all of its permanent and contract recruitment, nationally, through a Managed Staffing Programme (MSP).

Gary Thornton, chief operating officer of Spencer Group, said: “Our partnership with Anders allows us to concentrate on our core business, safe in the knowledge that we are working closely with a respected industry leader to acquire and retain the best people to support our growth.”

“We are very excited to partner with Spencer Group and support their ambitious growth plans,” said Simon Trippick, managing director of CDI AndersElite. “Working closely with the management team at Spencer Group the clear objective of this programme is to deliver significantly enhanced levels of service, value and quality to the hiring managers. In addition we will be deploying some of our in-house technology to help streamline the whole recruitment process including; video

interviewing, automated on-boarding and pay rate benchmarking tools.”

David McLoughlin, Spencer Rail’s Chief Executive, said: “We are currently delivering around £100m of multidisciplinary rail work a year. Station, track, signalling and other key rail industry disciplines are very competitive markets from a recruitment and selection perspective. By joining forces with AndersElite we hope to find the very best that the

industry has to offer. Our aim is to deliver the best service possible for our customers and the travelling public. AndersElite will play a key role in helping us to achieve this important objective.”

CDI AndersElite is the European subsidiary of CDI Corporation and has been providing recruitment services for over 30 years, supporting clients across the construction, engineering, rail, IT, oil & gas and aerospace sectors.

MAKING SENSE

of Safety

SESSION 1 SETTING THE SCENE Ÿ Problems What are the issues? Ÿ Case studies Looking back at recent incidents and a look at the ORR Health and Safety Report SESSION 2 Ÿ Behaviour Ÿ Interfaces Ÿ Systems

Over the past few years there has been a significant push to improve the safety record within the rail industry. This has often meant significant change both in design and process.

Ÿ Design

SESSION 3: All areas of the industry felt that this often caused confusion due to the amount of change that happened at one time:

Ÿ Staff welfare Ÿ Fatigue

CONTROLLING SAFETY RISKS Keeping passengers and staff safe The many tiers of contractor safety Benefits and burdens of the LUCAS / Sentinel Integration Building safety into a new railway OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH Scheme implementation and monitoring Designing better shift rosters and including travel to work time

• Which policy to implement?

SESSION 4:

LEARNING LESSONS Learning lessons from the top Ÿ Root causes Finding root causes: looking at Tripod Beta Ÿ Models The Rail Management Maturity Model, Real world usage Ÿ Lessons

• Have I missed anything?

• Which part applies to my organisation?

Over the coming year, we will see more change as the industry streamlines processes through collaboration in a bid to cut through red tape and ultimately make sense of safety.

OUTCOMES FROM THE DAY, Q&A WITH THE ADVISORY BOARD

Making sense of safety is a key challenge in 2014 for the industry, whether that be through learning from other industries, through product and process design or through industry collaboration.

SAFETY SUMMIT ADVISORY BOARD Anson Jack

Deputy Chief Executive

RSSB

Bill Free

Head of Business Development, Rail

Carillion Rail

Darren Selman

H&S Manager Assurance

Crossrail

David Shirres

Engineering Writer

Rail Media

Dr Ian Gaskin

Head of Management Systems, Health, Safety and Environment,

TfL

Ian Prosser

HM Chief Inspector of Railways and Director of Railway Safety

ORR

Paul Clyndes

Health & Safety Officer

RMT

Peter Sheppard

Senior Safety Engineer and Validator

Bombardier Transportation

Pino de Rosa

Managing Director

Bridgeway Consulting

Roan Willmore

Safety & Sustainability Development Director Network Rail

Seamus Scallon

Safety Director UK Rail

FirstGroup

28th April 2014 Royal College of Physicians Regent’s Park, London

REGISTER ONLINE

www.railsafetysummit.com

TRACK SAFETY

34 | RailStaff | April 2014

A SECOND FATALITY IN 2014, A BROKEN LEG, AND FIRE DUE TO AN ISOLATION MISTAKE Plus Network Rail’s plans to improve safety and performance All good reasons for you to attend the Safety Summit in London SAFETY Colin Wheeler colin@rail-media.com

I

t is with the deepest regret that I have to begin a second article this year with a fatal accident to a track worker whilst working on the railway.

My thoughts and prayers are for his family, friends and work colleagues at this most difficult time. In the early hours of Sunday, 2 March he was working as a Banksman on the twin-tracking site at Pudding Mill Lane, Docklands Light Railway, when he was struck by the arm of a mechanical excavator and fatally injured.

The Safety Alert from Transport for London stresses the importance of site briefings, setting up worksites properly, checking method statements and safe systems of work.

Fire In an undated Safety Bulletin, Network Rail reports the circumstances that led to a fire breaking out during an isolation at Betley Road on a High Output Track Renewals Train (TRS4) site.

Two red bonds had been removed but the transformer with which they were associated was still being fed from the Down Fast line which was live. When the red bonds were disconnected it was wrongly assumed, that bonding arrangements would mirror the feeding arrangements on the isolation diagram.

No site visit to check and confirm this had been carried out. The bulletin specifies two immediate actions.

A review of all locations to confirm transformer to structure bonding, identify to which return rails the bonding is connected and check this matches the details on the bonding diagram.

Secondly, but equally importantly, ensure that site visits before work begins include the identification of bonding and feeding arrangements on each site.

A broken leg Babcock issued an Alert Code Amber number 2014-10 on 24 February. It is a timely reminder of the importance of heeding safety briefings and not being tempted to take short cuts.

The flights of steep metal steps at an access point, and the need for equipment to be carried up and down led those planning the work to decide that an alternative access would be sensible. The multi-step access would be locked out of use.

The report says that although staff were briefed on this, an agency employee used the steep access steps and whilst doing so slipped and fell.

He suffered a fracture to his lower leg and will require surgery as a result.

The significance of his being an agency employee is lost on me. Surely he was working under supervision?

Mark Carne’s commitment I have seen a statement on safety signed by Network Rail’s new Chief Executive Mark Carne dated March 2014. It is a statement of their vision, belief and his personal commitment which must be welcomed by all who work in the industry.

But actions are now needed if the industry is to improve its recent record average of two Network Rail track fatalities every year. 2006/7 was the last time the industry achieved a fatality free year!

They are now working on a Ten Point Workforce Safety Plan focussing on roles, responsibilities, the control of work, safe contractors, front line supervisors, a fair culture and safe teams.

It sounds right, although the order of priorities should begin with safe teams and front line supervisors as they are the real key to the achievement of a fatality free year in 2015. Describing the proposals as aimed at “Control of Work” also gives the wrong message, “Motivating to Work Safely” would be better.

The importance of ensuring that site and signalling staff always understand each other, especially when things start to go awry, cannot be overemphasised.

There is no suggestion that there will be any changes to the way in which isolations are organised and carried out. Target date for implementation is September.

Safe Work Supervisors

Management to support work teams

The number of track-worker safety titles we have is astonishing- PICOP, ES, PC COSS etc. Network Rail is looking to simplify things, which is a step in the right direction.

The idea is to merge all the roles into one, and use the name Safe Work Supervisor (SWS). In principle, I welcome it. The intention is to make one person responsible for the site management, clarify responsibilities and make management appropriate for the job in hand.

I am not so convinced by the idea that site staff, presumably including the SWS, would use the term “Worksite” whilst signallers and their new “Agents” would still refer to “Possessions”.

In the details I have seen planning through to the carrying out of the works is shown as a top down process.

For safety’s sake, we need to think and present this simplification the other way around. Show the work teams who do the work at the top supported by the supervisors, planners and line management with the relevant senior managers and directors at the bottom in their supporting role.

The new arrangements are planned for introduction “all in one go” in September. The most important of the specified steps in the planning of works is the involvement of the appointed Safe Work Supervisor in planning from the start.

TRACK SAFETY

April 2014 | RailStaff | 35

© FOUR BY THREE

He or she must be involved through to the last shift.

The proposal recommends that those undertaking SWS work should be employed by either Network Rail or a Principle Contractor with their Line Manager being responsible overall. My belief is that the skills and commitment of the individual matter more than the identity of the employer.

Flexible Train Arrival Point I look forward to seeing this simplified system introduced. I believe it has the potential to improve safety by reducing risk and simplifying the way work is planned and carried out. Indeed provided appointed SWSs know their work teams and listen to them, the jobs should be completed not only safely but more efficiently and at a reduced cost as well.

Equally I welcome the current trials of FTAP [Flexible Train Arrival Point]. This does away with the need for High Output Trains stopping at preceding signals by permitting them to travel straight to their work sites where possession will be taken around them.

This will save time, be simpler, safer and increase productive working time by around 20 minutes per shift. It makes good sense.

Re-arranged to suit the wedding Years ago, I recall whilst in Manchester and Newcastle introducing new relaying methods with some success.

In both cases technical staff and senior supervisors led

the detailed planning.

After each shift the teams had feedback and improvement sessions and their ideas on how to do the job more safely and easily were listened to and most times adopted. Not only did this process result in safer working, it also strengthened the team’s resolve to work together and make sure the job was done well.

When planning a particularly difficult track relaying job I recall the senior supervisor telling me (with profuse apologies) a few months before the job was to be done, that his daughter’s wedding had been re-

arranged so he could not work that weekend. There was only one thing to do of course; we re-arranged the work for a later date!

The Rail Media Safety Summit takes place at the Royal College of Physicians on Monday, 28 April. Be there please. Our speakers will have read this article, I feel sure. The need to keep people and plant apart, eliminate track staff fatalities, and reduce major injury accidents will all be addressed.

I remain convinced that the most important factor of all is still the motivation, commitment and focus of those who do the work.

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NEWS

36 | RailStaff | April 2014

Soccer boost for Aberdeen staff Still rejoicing at Aberdeen’s win over Inverness in the Scottish League Cup staff at FirstGroup HQ gathered at Aberdeen’s Pittodrie Stadium to kick off their ‘Run A Mile’ fundraising event in support of Sport Relief.

The challenge saw employees walk, jog and run the mile in various forms of fancy dress led by the HR Director, John Evans, and Finance Director Chris Surch. The 30 strong group began its journey outside Pittodrie with Aberdeen Football Club players Mark Reynolds and Calvin Zola on hand to start the challenge.

Says Aberdeen player Mark Reynolds, ‘It was Relief of a different kind at Pittodrie today after the relief of the Cup win on Sunday. It was great to see the runners of all ages and shapes from FirstGroup take to the streets for Sports Relief. The fitness levels are a bit different to Sunday but the commitment and determination

is the same. It was a brilliant effort by FirstGroup employees and all for a worthwhile cause.’

Aberdeen beat Inverness 4-2 in a penalty shoot out in Glasgow to win the Scottish League Cup. Says Karen Smith, an Office Manager at FirstGroup who helped organise the event, ‘We were very excited to have the support of Mark Reynolds and Calvin Zola to officially start our run.

Sunday’s cup win has been the talk of the office so there was no better place than Pittodrie to begin the challenge.

We have raised more than £1,000 already today for Sport Relief which is a great result, with more donations to come.’

Orange army marches on Network Rail drafted in a second battalion of what it terms the ‘orange army’ to tackle a huge landslip that is threatening the Great Western Main Line about a mile west of Dawlish.

Engineers realised at the beginning of March that 20,000 tonnes of a cliff face near Teignmouth, had sheared away and slumped 20 metres onto the toe of the railway, which sits at the bottom of the cliff at this point. With the help of Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service, engineers have been spraying thousands of litres of water every minute onto the slip to wash away the earth and to encourage the slip to complete its fall to the railway below.

Recent consultations with Cornwall’s china clay business has seen a new high pressure water cannon brought onto site that is proving very effective at turning the red earth of the slip into slurry that’s running off into the sea at a tremendous rate. Says Patrick Hallgate, Network Rail’s Western Route

Director, ‘With our work at Dawlish nearing completion ahead of schedule, the Teignmouth site has become the orange army’s new frontline.’

(left to right) Charlie Spencer, Chairman of Spencer Group, Craig Purcell, MD of Chase Meadow Signalling and Raj Sinha, MD of Spencer Rail.

Spencer Groups leads the field Spencer Group has acquired a majority share in Chase Meadow.

Based in Stratford upon Avon the rail industry signalling experts, Chase Meadow Signalling, was set up in 2004 by chief executive, Craig Purcell. Chase Meadow now delivers signalling design and level crossing technology.

The new partnership offers a comprehensive design, installation and testing & commissioning service.

Chase Meadow Signalling plans

to create a unique 10,000 square foot training centre for in-house apprentices. The facility will help further develop signalling designers, installers, testers and commissioning specialists.

Says Charlie Spencer, chairman of Spencer Group, ‘This is a great opportunity for Chase Meadow Signalling. Craig has done a brilliant job

growing the business from scratch and he is now looking to take the next step, working with us to offer something quite unique in today’s rail industry.

Our aim is to be the supplier of choice for rail industry infrastructure services and this arrangement will certainly create greater capacity to help us achieve that objective.’

Charlie Spencer is keen to attract new blood to the rail industry by training up engineers and professionals from other sectors.

‘Training new engineers and the chance to give those who have lost work in other sectors the opportunity to ply their trade in the rail industry, is something that really appeals to me,’ says Charlie Spencer.

‘The Midlands is an area rich in engineering, manufacturing and electronic experience and expertise.

Signalling specialists are essential to any rail provider to ensure services run safely and smoothly. CMS will now also be able to offer tailored training to ensure this profession remains

strong for many years to come.’

Since the privatisation of British Rail in the 1990s, specialised signalling engineers have dwindled in number with services being provided by a small number of private companies. Craig Purcell is right behind the Spencer vision of boosting the rail industry’s skills base.

‘Railway signalling is a very complex component of the rail industry and one that requires highly-skilled engineers to carry out the work. It is vitally important that we continue to train and retrain engineers to work on the UK’s rail network in the future. I was delighted to have the opportunity to forge a new partnership with Spencer and create a dynamic structure that will develop my business to achieve shared goals and opportunities in the industry. The partnership will allow us to increase the scope of our business while maintaining the same high standards of service that we have delivered on since 2004.’

NEWS

April 2014 | RailStaff | 37

© RUPERT BRENNAN BROWN BE

Rutnam visits Derby Philip Rutnam, permanent secretary at the DfT, recently enjoyed a cab ride from London to Derby.

Mr Rutnam was in Derby to support the railway industry as a guest of the Derby and Derbyshire Rail Forum (DDRF). As well as visiting East Midlands Trains’ T&RS depot at Etches Park and Porterbrook, Philip Rutnam also checked out local firm, Railway Vehicle Engineering Limited where he met RVEL Production Director Andy Houghton. The Derby and Derbyshire Rail Forum celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. The DDRF now

represents over 100 businesses across the East Midlands, employing over 25,000 people and contributing £2.6 billion to the local economy. (left to right) Andy Houghton, RVEL Production Director, explaining an engineering project to Philip Rutnam, DfT Permanent Secretary, at the company’s RTC workshops in Derby.

Third column for Crossrail Crossrail Ltd is managing to fill over a third of its jobs with women compared to just one in five in the rest of the construction industry.

Says Ailie MacAdam, Central Section Delivery Director, ‘Crossrail is being built by some of the UK’s best construction and tunnelling engineers. Over the next 10 years, as an industry, we need to double the number of people with engineering qualifications to meet the demand for skills. To achieve that, more must be done to attract and retain

young women to what is a fabulous and rewarding career.

Crossrail and its contractors regularly visit London schools to run engineering workshops and to inspire the next generation of construction workers and engineers.

But a joint effort is needed between schools, parents, government and

industry to encourage more young people, including women to pursue a construction and engineering career.’

Just 8.5% of engineers in the UK are women – the lowest representation of women in the field across all of the European Union according to the Cologne’s Institut der deutschen Wirtschaft.

Men of Harlech work with heart unfailing

Rail engineers have been working round the clock, seven days a week, to make good the sea defences and rebuild the railway between Barmouth and Harlech.

Network Rail says it is close to completing the massive £10m programme of storm repairs two weeks ahead of schedule. The Welsh coastal railway should be reopening on first May. One of the worst affected sites was at Llanaber, north of Barmouth.

Forty tonnes of debris have been removed and 6,000 pieces of ‘rock armour’ that form the sea protection have been replaced or repaired. In order to re-open the line, the team has also been replacing more than 1,000 sleepers, 2,500 tonnes of ballast and 1,400 metres of track.

NEWS

38 | RailStaff | April 2014

Sunshine launch for water tower Brilliant sunshine greeted ACoRP supporters in Huddersfield for the official opening of its new offices at a restored Water Tower.

ACoRP’s new environmentally friendly HQ is just outside the neoclassical station designed by James Pigott Pritchett. ‘It’s not just an office – it’s a demonstration of how historical structures can be renovated and refurbished by using alternative, lowcarbon materials and energy-saving technology,’ says Neil Buxton, general manager of ACoRP. ‘By showing what’s possible, we hope to encourage others to look seriously at the opportunities to be had by bringing listed buildings back into use by applying green techniques and materials.’

The rail industry gathered to congratulate ACoRP on clocking up 21 years of forging community rail partnerships and winning thousands of people back to rail. The building was formally opened by former train driver and ACoRP founder, Dr Paul Salveson with Mayor of Huddersfield, Martyn

Bolt. The building, owned by Network Rail, has been leased to ACoRP at a peppercorn rent through First TransPennine Express, using ACoRP’s innovative tri-partite lease. The project is part of a larger scheme funded by the EU’s European Interreg IVb programme.

Says Neil, ‘I think that those who suggest we need to leave the EU might consider the huge level of support and funding that we’ve had from them through the Interreg IVb programme.

It’s also an object lesson in how the railway industry can work together, despite popular mythology.’

The project has already won recognition for the conversion and renovation of the Grade 1-listed water tower from the National Railway Heritage Awards and Huddersfield Civic Society.

The newly-renovated water tower now acts as office headquarters for

Heat exchange and photovoltaic technology hidden within the water tank.

ACoRP. Although retaining its external appearance it sports air-source heat pumps, photo-voltaic cells located within the water tank itself, and an air-exchange system that removes the need for air conditioning.

ACoRP continues to go from strength to strength. Rail Media, which published RailStaff, is backing the Community Rail Awards 2014 and is sponsoring the Best Marketing Campaign Award. Says RailStaff editor, Andy Milne, ‘ACoRP is a quiet but

increasingly important success story in the emerging rail industry. The DfT now wants to see greater community commitment by new rail franchises.

‘This is great news. Rail can demonstrate it is not only a greener way to travel but an environmental and socially responsible industry.

Once more ACoRP is lighting the way ahead and enjoying excellent support from Network Rail and its landlord at Huddersfield, First TransPennine Express.’

Once upon a line in the west A special rail taskforce has been created to work out how to protect the rail link between Devon and Cornwall against extreme weather.

The taskforce will also examine five potential alternative rail routes into the South West. Led by Network Rail, the study group combines expertise from the Department for Transport, the Environment Agency, train companies and local authorities. The group will steer the strategic review on the viability of three long-term options – retaining the coastal route; building a second line and re-routing the main line.

Says Paul Harwood, strategy and planning director for Network Rail, ‘The railway in the South West has been helping move people and products for more than 175 years. We are taking action today to safeguard the railway for the next 175 years and beyond. The catastrophic destruction

of the Dawlish sea wall by the storm in February has made clear the need to re-think the long-term strategy around changing climate and extreme weather.

‘A robust railway is integral to national resilience and we are committed to keep passengers moving, every day and in every situation. We need to review what viable alternatives exist – otherwise there will be severe implications for local and national economies, mobility and connectivity across the region and the wider UK.’ Forecast sea level rises, passenger demand, the impact on communities and environmental, social and economic factors will be considered as part of the process, as well as examining engineering options to strengthen the sea wall.

NEWS

April 2014 | RailStaff | 39

Inter Rail manual saved The Inter-Rail bible, the Thomas Cook European Rail Timetable, has been saved by quick-thinking compiler, John Potter.

Thomas Cook, which published the European railways network timetable for 140 years, ceased publication of the book last year. However, John worked out that the timetable itself could make money. Now he’s been proved right and the first print run of John’s ‘European Rail Timetable’ has sold out and another copy is being rushed off the presses in April to meet demand.

It’s another rail industry success story and good news for thousands of rail travellers – many of whom use the month-long Inter-Rail ticket pass.

John spent his redundancy money and remortgaged his house to fund start up costs. Happily the European Rail Timetable is far more popular than analysts understand. Although much of the info is now available on various websites, trying to make

sense of it all whilst sitting on a train or station is difficult.

Says former BR and DfT manager, Mark Smith, who runs the awardwinning rail travel website seat61.com, ‘The internet is great but the trouble is that you have to make repeated enquiries - each for specific dates. It is like looking at a large-scale map through the wrong end of a telescope.

You really need to have it all laid out in front of you in printed form.’

Smith cited various examples including the Paris-Moscow express. ‘It runs three times a week in winter, but five times a week in summer. Pretty easy to find in the book, but if you enquired online and picked the wrong day, you might not find it at all.’

John Potter admits he took a risk, but he loves his job and did not want

to stop. The timetable is laid out by hand. Anyone in railway planning will understand the huge labour involved in cataloguing over 50,000 rail journeys.

‘Although Thomas Cook’s guidebooks were loss-making, the timetables themselves seemed to be making enough of a return for me to make a go of it,’ says John. ‘I just said to the other chaps, ‘Do you want to carry on?’ Most said ‘Yes’, so they have come on board either full or part time.’

Says erstwhile Inter-Railer, Andy Milne, ‘Generations of us have used the

European Rail Timetable puzzling over the columns and qualifications in station cafés and slow moving local trains across Europe from Istanbul Sirkeci to Poznan Glowny. It is a great conversation starter with other rail staff – even when you have no common language – the guard will identify what you should be doing from the page of the timetable concerned. It is whimsical I know, but I think John’s book is up there with Jack Kerouac’s On The Road and Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance I’m glad I took the train.’

Piccadilly project for school safety reps Children from St Michael’s Church of England Primary School in Flixton in Manchester are spearheading a new safety development backed by Network Rail.

Six of the students have become rail safety reps charged with spreading best practice among their colleagues. The safety reps visited Manchester Piccadilly station for a behind-the-scenes look at

how the how the station operates.

Says teacher, Cathy Prole, ‘The six rail safety reps from Year 5 and 6 were thrilled to have the opportunity to take a tour of Piccadilly station and were treated like VIPs.’ The children travelled to the station on the train as guests of Northern Rail.

Says Janet Clark, community safety manager for Network Rail, ‘The railway safety reps programme is a great way of working with young people to educate them about how to stay safe on the railway. The safety reps will learn about railway safety and then pass their knowledge on to their friends in assemblies, the classroom and through a safety notice board which they update themselves. The children have been really interested in the project, and I am sure they will spread these vital safety messages far and wide.’

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NEWS

40 | RailStaff | April 2014

Supertram celebrates 20th year March 21st marks the 20th anniversary of the return of the tram to Sheffield with the opening of the first section of the new system in 1994.

Initially trams operated between Fitzalan Square and Meadowhall with the next section, Fitzalan Square and Spring Lane, opening in August. The Supertram system has increased in popularity and now accounts for over 15 million journeys a year. Trams in Sheffield first started running in 1873.

The last trams ran between Leopold

Street and Beauchief on 8 October 1960. Three trams were subsequently preserved at the National Tramway Museum in Crich. Now the new system has proved a great success and has helped rejuvenate the city centre. The tram network is to be extended via the tram-train concept to nearby Rotherham.

Owl service A young Scottish tawny owl is adapting to life in rural Warwickshire after surviving a 325-mile rail journey perched on the front of a Stobart Rail freight service from Mossend in Glasgow.

Quick-thinking railway staff at the Stobart’s freight terminal in Daventry spotted the shaken bird of prey and called the Nuneaton and Warwickshire Wildlife Sanctuary. Staff named the owl, Lucky. Puzzled train crew and wildlife experts think he spent the whole journey clamped to the front of the Class 66.

Says Geoff Grewcock of the Nuneaton and Warwickshire Wildlife Sanctuary, ‘He’s got slight wing damage and a bit of concussion but he’s a very, very lucky owl. When I received a phone call saying there was an owl clinging onto one of the pipes on the front of the train, I thought it was going to be really seriously injured.

‘Because of the distance he’s come and by clinging on the front I thought his wings were going to be snapped all the way back. He must have good grip.’

In fact Lucky has now been checked out by a vet. Says Rosie, who works at the sanctuary, ‘The slight wing damage is in fact from an old injury, so he’s basically OK. We plan to pair him off with another tawny owl.’ Asked if he would be OK so far from the land of his birth Rosie said, ‘Owl’s are not particularly territorial so yeah he should be fine.’

All aboard mail rail © RICHARD POPE

Islington Borough Council in London has approved plans to open the London Post Office Railway - known as Mail Rail - as a tourist attraction.

Phew that was close! Lucky the Owl considers his next move after arriving at Daventry.

At its peak Mail Rail carried 12 million letters and parcels a day along the miniature line which linked sorting centres at Whitechapel and Paddington. 220 rail staff worked on the railway. Says British Postal Museum and Archive director, Adrian Steel, ‘It is a fantastic opportunity that Islington borough council has given us - the green light to open up these unique tunnels to the public and reveal the captivating story of Mail Rail.’

Eventually visitors to the new Postal Museum, which opens in central London in 2016, will be able to explore the hidden world of the post office railway under Mount Pleasant and ride the trains along a mile of track.

NEWS

April 2014 | RailStaff | 41

Outstanding teamwork at Porthmadog The completely rebuilt Porthmadog Harbour Station is back in service.

Trains on the Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railways started using the station once again on 22 March. The three-year, £1.3 million project was completed on schedule by volunteers, local contractors and railway staff, many of whom were on hand to see the fruits of their labours. The 1010 FR service for Blaenau Ffestiniog was the first to leave, followed shortly afterwards by a Welsh Highland train for Caernarfon.

Says F and WHR chairman, John Prideaux, ‘Rebuilding and resignalling Harbour has been an ambitious project. It involved a huge number of volunteers, excellent local contractors and staff and called on skills more usually associated with the national

network than with a heritage railway.

The quality is outstanding and much remarked on by outside observers.

‘It has also been a great example of teamwork, an exemplar of cooperation - staff with volunteers, Ffestiniog loyalists and Welsh Highland supporters and teams from departments who would not usually be working on an infrastructure project.

It has been carried out over three winters, and in some terrible weather including 100 mph gales. Completing such a complicated project on time and despite adverse conditions reflects huge credit on all the volunteers and staff who have been involved.’

The official opening ceremony will take place on 22 May.

© DAVID SHIRRES

Welsh move for Ukrainian rail town In a bold bid to secure peace on Ukraine’s troubled eastern frontier several local residents of Donetsk are mounting a campaign to join the United Kingdom.

Vladimir Yakunin.

Yakunin sanction Genial Russian railways boss, Vladimir Yakunin, has been put on the USA’s sanction list because of his high-profile job and close ties to Vladimir Putin.

Mr Yakunin was appointed chairman of Russian Railways in 2005. He has done much to restructure and reform the huge railway network and was closely involved in infrastructure preparations for the Sochi Winter Olympics.

Says RailStaff writer and Russian rail expert, David Shirres, who has met Yakunin several times, ‘I was sad

to hear that Vladimir Yakunin has been sanctioned but guess it’s an inevitable part of a bigger picture. It would be unfortunate if the sanction affected his work as Chairman of UIC (International Railway Union).

There is no doubt that he has led the transformation of Russian Railways from a Soviet bureaucracy to an outward looking business.’

The town was founded by railway and steel pioneer, John Hughes from Merthyr Tydfil in Wales in 1869. Back then the city Hughes built was called Yuzovka (Hughesovka) and boasted a sizable Welsh population.

John Hughes had been chartered by the Russian imperial government to create a coal and steel industry to forge steel for a new navy and to build the Russian national railways among other projects. Hughes, a respected Welsh entrepreneur, arrived in Ukraine with several hundred Welsh foundrymen and steel workers. More joined including the men’s families.

By his death 20 years later, Hughes headed a sizable emigrant community of Welsh speaking miners, metallurgists and railway engineers. The Welsh city survived until the Bolshevik revolution when most of the Welshmen and their

families left. Some stayed on and their descendants think it high time Yuzovka reasserts its Welshness as part of the UK – already implicit in the host nation’s name.

In 1924 the town was renamed Stalino – after the word ‘steel’ and Joseph Stalin – never popular with Welsh or Ukrainians as he was from Georgia. The name Donetsk was adopted in 1961.

Hughes is widely credited with bringing soccer to the region and founded football club Shaktar Donetsk – three of whose British players are understood to have died in the First World War fighting for Russia. An internet poll shows 61 per cent of respondents in favour of the idea. The local variant of the ‘Better Together Campaign’ is understood to have startled officials in Moscow, Kiev and Cardiff.

NEWS

42 | RailStaff | April 2014

Life begins at 40

Air ambulance donation

London Midland driver, Rick Hedgecombe, 40, is putting the finishing touches to his training for the London Marathon.

Grateful staff at First Great Western have presented the Wales Air Ambulance with a cheque for more than £350 with the promise of another £300 on the way. The Wales Air Ambulance is a favourite with staff based in Cardiff and Swansea.

The Uttoxeter driver has come a long way since injuries effectively finished his running career 20 years ago. Mr Hedgecombe suffered a serious knee cap injury when he was in his twenties.

I won’t be doing it in a spectacular time, but when I went for physiotherapy a few years back and was told I’d be lucky to be walking by my 40th birthday. I started running marathons to prove that theory wrong...

He ran his first marathon aged 18. In his thirties Rick tried to get back to running but knee problems kept him off the road. He was told he would never run again and that he risked becoming permanently disabled by the time he was 40.

Says Rick, ‘I won’t be doing it in a spectacular time, but when I went for physiotherapy a few years back and was told I’d be lucky to be walking by my 40th birthday. I started running marathons to prove that theory wrong.’

Not only is Rick running the London Marathon, he plans to run three other marathons at Brighton, Liverpool and Milton Keynes. Rick is raising money for the St John Ambulance after a good friend suffered a heart attack at a football match and was saved by first aiders from the charity.

To donate go to: www.justgiving.com/BigRicks4in14

Says Customer Service Manager Dave Bailey, from Swansea, ‘They’re a wonderful charity and they do so much for people in our region. I’m not surprised they were a popular choice with the staff, and I’m thrilled

we presented them with a cheque today.’ The money was raised after FGW decided to donate £1 to charity for every member of staff who completed an annual staff survey. £3,726 was raised in total, to be split between eight charities.

© JAMES AT FGW

Rail funding for Red Balloon First Capital Connect has named one of two refurbished Class 365 trains ‘Red Balloon’ in recognition of the Cambridge organisation’s pioneering work with bullied children.

From left to right, Dr Pixie McKenna, Dr Carrie Herbert MBE of Red Balloon and David Statham.

Two Great Northern trains have been transformed as part of a £31m refresh programme. All 40 ‘Class 365’ trains which operate on the Peterborough, Cambridge and King’s Lynn routes to London King’s Cross are being updated

by Bombardier Transportation. At the naming, attended by Red Balloon ambassador Dr Pixie McKenna, FCC joined Network Rail, Bombardier and Eversholt Rail to agree funding for research into the financial cost to society of not helping bullied children.

FCC then treated Red Balloon students to a return ride to London and free tickets to Madame Tussauds waxworks museum.

Says FCC Managing Director, David Statham, ‘We have been proud to

give our support to Red Balloon and are honoured to give this worthy organisation the added exposure that naming the train will provide. In addition it is a privilege to be part of their ground-breaking research by making a substantial donation to help fund it.’

Red Balloon provides full-time education for children aged between nine and 18 who are unable to go to school because they have been severely bullied or who have suffered trauma, such as the death of a parent, abuse, rape or some other experience that makes them particularly vulnerable. At least half of the students have attempted or seriously considered suicide.

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CHARITY

44 | RailStaff | April 2014

Sport Relief team to tug train

Run for your money Laura Lamelle, Francis Mills and Harry Harkness, who all work for Abellio Greater Anglia’s Finance Department in Colchester, are running three separate marathons.

A team from Network Rail’s Derby depot managed to drag a 27-tonne train, ‘Iris the Railcar’ at the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway raising money for Sport Relief.

The fundraising challenge was the brainchild of Michael Nicoll from Derby who is a member of Network Rail’s Rapid Response Team. Michael came up with the idea when he first saw a group of airport workers pulling a plane for Red Nose Day. Says Michael, ‘If they can pull a plane we could pull a train.’ Michael then went about recruiting volunteers from

Network Rail’s Derby Delivery Unit. Iris the Railcar was built at the British Rail Derby Works and celebrates her 60th birthday this year.

Says Tom Tait, EVR’s commercial manager, ‘We were very happy to host this special event and congratulate the Network Rail team in successfully completing the train pull which took a tremendous effort.’

All are training hard. Laura is running the London Marathon, whilst Francis takes on the Brighton Marathon and Harry travels to France for the Paris Marathon in April. All three have recently completed a half marathon in preparation and they have stepped up their training schedule to include 20-mile runs.

Says Crystal Wright, Abellio Greater Anglia’s Financial Controller, ‘We really admire Laura, Francis and Harry for the dedication with which they are preparing for this task, and we wish them every success in meeting this challenge.’

As well as training hard the trio are fundraising for causes close to their hearts. Harry is raising funds for children recovering from brain tumours, through Brainbow, a group of charities working with Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge. This is a cause which is particularly important to Harry, as he is also receiving treatment

for a brain tumour, overseen by the team at Addenbrookes. To support him please visit: www.mydonate.bt.com/ fundraisers/harryharkness Laura is raising funds for the Multiple Sclerosis Society, to support her efforts please visit: www.justgiving.com/Laura-Lamelle2 Francis is running on behalf of Debra UK the national charity working on behalf of people with the genetic skin blistering condition Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB). To support his fundraising please visit: www.justgiving.com/francis-mills4

Laura Lamelle, Francis Mills and Harry Harkness.

© SAM LANE

Cycle team in Samaritans fundraiser A team of railway cyclists spent10 hours recently peddling more than 600 miles on stationary bikes at London St Pancras station, raising vital funds for Samaritans.

Passengers and rail staff were greeted by the cyclists and volunteers who collected donations from 9am-7pm.

The exercise raised £2,337.92. Rail staff on the team came from East Midlands Trains, South West Trains, London Midland, the British Transport Police, First Capital Connect, First Great Western and Network Rail.

The Samaritans answer more than five million calls for help each year. Rail staff and charity responders are keen to raise awareness of the helpline charity‘s award-winning partnership with Network Rail, which aims to reduce suicides on the railways. Since the partnership began in 2010, Samaritans

has delivered training for approximately 6,000 rail industry staff. The specialised training helps railway staff develop the skills and confidence to recognise and approach individuals who may be experiencing suicidal feelings.

Says Darren Ward, Head of Operations Strategy at East Midlands Trains, who took part in the event, ‘We’ve been working closely with Samaritans for almost five years now.

The training and support they deliver to rail staff is second to none, and we are proud to fundraise for them. The cycle event was a great challenge, and I ‘d like to thank everyone who made a donation to this worthy cause.’

Driver Paul Trigwell from East Midlands Trains collecting funds whilst colleagues cycle a total of 610 miles on static bikes in the background.

Darren added, ‘It was a really special day for everybody involved and we got some great support from passengers travelling through St Pancras. The team of volunteers were fantastic and with their support, we managed to raise far more money than expected and

help to raise awareness of the great work of Samaritans. I’m really proud to have been involved in such a worthy event, and credit must been given to all the volunteers from right across our industry who made the day such a success.

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I am a UK taxpayer and I would like Railway Children to treat all donations that I have made, as well as future donations as Gift Aid until I notify otherwise. (Please tick) Signature Date I confirm that I have paid income/ capital gains tax, at least equal to the amounts of gifts made to all charities and Amateur Sports Clubs in the same tax year as the donation has been made.

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We’ll never share your details with other organisations We’d like to let you know from time to time what we’re achieving with your money, and about other aspects of our work. You can always tell us, at any point, if you’d like us to stop, or only get in touch at certain times. If you do not wish to receive updates from us, please call us on 01270 757 596 Please return this form with your donation to: Freepost Plus RRHJ-ESZK-EYCG Railway Children, 1 The Commons, Sandbach, CW11 1EG Telephone: 01270 757 596. Email: hello@railwaychildren.org.uk www.railwaychildren.org.uk/rescue Reg charity number 1058991

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FEATURE

46 | RailStaff | April 2014

Chris Godbold takes a bow was adopted, forming the Transport Benevolent Fund. The TBF was now able to recruit public transport employees through Great Britain.

Chris Godbold’s outstanding achievements in this role have helped the Fund grow considerably over the years. In turn this has helped an enormous number of public transport employees and their dependants.

TBF is a registered charity and goes back to 1923 when the Underground Group (predecessors of London Transport) set up a voluntary contribution scheme to help families of London public transport workers.

Initial funding for this was money left over from the Mutual Aid Fund set up in 1914 to help families of staff who had been called up to assist the First World War effort.

Lost property office

The man who rescued the Transport Benevolent Fund is retiring after a long career in the rail industry. Chris Godbold helped sort out accounting and finance at the TBF seeing it emerge as a flourishing and growing part of the wider transport industry.

Chris joined London Transport in October 1968 working as a Duty Sheets Assistant planning the working days of train and station staff. A clear mind and head for figures saw him subsequently working in various departments including Railway Operating, Publicity, Lifts and Escalators and eventually, as Personnel Manager for the Jubilee and East London lines.

In 1994 Chris became the Chief Executive of the London Transport Benevolent Fund (LTBF). In 1996 the Fund’s assets were transferred in accordance with the Charity Commissioner’s scheme. A new Deed

It is a membership-based charity and used to provide a handful of financial benefits and medical equipment to its members, all of whom worked for London Transport. This was at a time when LT would match members’ contributions penny for penny and also share income from the lost property office.

Under Chris’s guidance there has been a dramatic increase in benefits including greater access to financial help with cash grants for hardship, more flexible forms of convalescence, comprehensive legal advice, a wide range of complementary therapies, second opinions and scans and a far greater provision of medical equipment.

All this is achieved with fewer administrative staff than before.

Found to be deficient However it wasn’t all plain sailing.

When Chris first arrived at LTBF, he found that his predecessors had attempted in 1990 to widen recruitment through a Deed which was found to be deficient and created doubt over ownership of the assets. The auditors refused for three years to sign off the accounts because of these deficiencies and the only answer was basically to start again.

The auditors also refused to allow further recruitment owing to the uncertainty over who had title to the assets under this Deed. In drawing up the revised Trust Deed and Rules he was assisted greatly by David Freeman, an LT Pension Fund director and thereby a director of the London Transport Trustee Company.

The charity’s dwindling funds were mostly taken up by the operation of a convalescent hotel. The charity had no effective accounting system. There were also a number of expensive equipment contracts. Figures revealed that the charity would run out of money without drastic measures, and Chris altered procedures immediately.

He shut down the hotel and in doing so, cut staff. He adopted a ‘can do’ approach by putting the people the organisation was supposed to be helping at the top of his priority list, rather than the hotel.

Paybill deduction Closure of the hotel was achieved against very difficult circumstances and some tough decisions had to be made by Chris. There was opposition from many sides. Chris not only had the courage to follow through these decisions but, was able to get the message across as to just how serious the financial situation had been in order to ensure that the charity could be placed on a more secure footing.

Chris then set about reorganising the administration of the Fund. He streamlined the committee structure so that the day-to-day business could be carried out easily and efficiently. Office accommodation was examined and more savings made by downsizing.

Crucially he set about enlarging membership of the charity by sending out a team of organisers to public transport operators the length and breadth of England, Scotland and Wales. These organisers were tasked with meeting employers and encouraging them to allow access to staff as well as introducing membership payment through paybill deduction.

This has been hugely successful and the charity now has a membership

FEATURE

April 2014 | RailStaff | 47

figure of over 42,000. This extraordinary achievement is all the more dramatic when viewed against a membership roll which had dropped to just 8,000 by the time the problems of the 1990 Deed had been resolved.

Largely owing to Chris’s achievements and the team he built around him, the Fund now has access to nearly £2m a year with which to help its beneficiaries.

This is a far cry from where the Fund was back in 1994. Membership still only costs £1.00 per week, exactly the same as it was when he arrived on the scene.

For many years Chris worked tirelessly for far longer hours than contracted and always ensured he was available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week where possible. He often had to take difficult decisions in the face of opposition to achieve his goal, which has always been to oversee the continuation of the Fund with the least possible running costs.

Every penny possible is spent for the benefit of those who serve and served the public transport industry.

savings he made, introduced new ones to enable workers to resume work more quickly; in some cases to avoid losing their jobs. This in turn has benefited the industry as the investment in training these workers has not been lost.

Chris was always a great supporter of all who worked in transport. He was very hands-on and accessible to all.

When the annual Railway Carol Service was under threat Chris and the TBF stepped in. This convivial celebration of the railways still gets Christmas off to a good start on Eversholt Street – behind Euston Station. Chris is a firm supporter of the RailStaff Awards – the TBF supports the Station Staff of the Year Award which is now among the most keenly contested.

It is fair to say that without Chris the TBF would have ceased to exist years ago, to the detriment of many public transport workers and their dependents.

TBF will continue and everyone both at the Charity and at RailStaff wishes Chris every success in his new life.

A great supporter

Many thanks to John Sheehy and Ian Barlex at TBF and Paul Curtis at Rail Media for their help with this article.

Not only did he maintain the provision of the original benefits, but through the

TBF is extremely sad to learn of the sudden death of Bob Crow, RMT General Secretary and a patron of the charity. Outgoing TBF Director, Chris Godbold, expressed condolences at his passing and said ‘Bob was a great man and a superb leader but also very caring. He was a great supporter of TBF and there to help when asked. Of course RMT will have a new general secretary in time and we look forward to working with them, but Bob’s will be a hard act to follow. We may not see his like again.’ (Picture) Bob Crow, in the middle, pictured with TBF organizers for Southeast England, Sandra Ryland and Phil Talbot, at the RMT’s 2013 annual conference.

OBITUARY

48 | RailStaff | April 2014

LAST OF THE WORKING CLASS HEROES T

he untimely death of Bob Crow, general secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers, at the age of 52, has been mourned by railway staff, family, friends and a wide circle of admirers – many of whom did not share his views. Andy Milne reports.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union and Tony Blair’s takeover of the Labour Party many people in Britain may have dismissed socialism as dead. Bob Crow proved them wrong.

His tenure of the RMT leadership saw union membership soar from 57,000 to 80,000. Pay and conditions for thousands of transport workers were boosted as a result.

Robert Crow was born on 13 June 1961 at Shadwell in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. His father, George Crow, was a dock worker and his mother Lillian, a cleaner. His grandfather was said to be a great amateur boxer who went by the nickname ‘Punch Crow.’

The family moved to Hainault, in northeast London. Bob Crow went to Kingswood Upper School – now Hainault Forest High School. After leaving school at 16, he joined London Transport as a track worker. Early work included tree felling and track maintenance.

Sense of togetherness After a disagreement with his foreman, Bob Crow went to his union to complain. Impressed at how the case was dealt with, he quickly became involved and joined the branch committee. Crow found the railway camaraderie of the track gangs and mess rooms deeply engaging. The sense of togetherness, of looking out for your friends, found ready expression in his subsequent involvement with trade unionism.

For Bob Crow the sense of a closeknit railway fraternity always informed his politics. Age 22 Bob Crow became a

representative of the National Union of Railwaymen. He joined the Communist Party and remained a member until 1995 when he joined Arthur Scargill’s Socialist Labour Party. As a union leader he did much to bridge the gaps between ASLEF and TSSA. Crow had met Mick Rix, one-time general secretary of ASLEF on a trip to the German Democratic Republic. The two played football together and became firm friends.

Crow moved up to become NUR national officer for track workers in 1985. After the merger between the NUR and the seafarers’ union in 1995, he was elected assistant general secretary of the RMT. The new union had to grapple with the emerging world of the privatised railway.

Crow proved very able to cope with the new structures, constantly pushing an agenda of workers’ rights and improved pay and conditions. In 2002, following the death of Jimmy Knapp, Bob Crow was elected general secretary of the RMT.

No one like us Away from work Crow was a lifelong Millwall supporter and enjoyed the rousing chorus of, ‘No one likes us, we don’t care.’ Among his most treasured possessions was a signed photograph of former Millwall manager Dennis Wise with the salutation: ‘From one striker to another.’

In private he was a friendly and kind man, devoted to his family and friends. Criticised for taking holidays in Brazil he said, ‘‘What do you want me to do? Sit under a tree and read Karl Marx every day?’ Fond of a drink with

friends, during election night in 1997 Crow reputedly downed a can of beer for every Tory cabinet minister who lost his seat. ‘Quite a lot,’ Bob ruefully admitted later.

The enduring hangover of the Blair administration was to prove rather more of a headache. Nothing was done to reverse the John Major privatisation of railways although Crow had the satisfaction of seeing Railtrack plc replaced by the not-forprofit Network Rail and most of the track maintenance function brought back in house. John Prescott was expelled from the RMT for failing to deliver on an election commitment to renationalise. The RMT was itself expelled from the Labour Party in 2004.

In his council house, Crow kept a bust of Lenin and a brick from the house where Jim Connell, the Irish docker who wrote the words to the Red Flag, once lived. Bob’s dog was called Castro. Crow was a loyal railwayman who never learned to drive and routinely travelled on public transport.

The financial crash of 2008 and the ensuing banking and stock markets scandals brought a new audience for Bob Crow’s politics. The Thatcherite free economy theory became discredited and Bob found himself in demand on phone-ins and talk shows.

He had a ready wit and emerged as both articulate and thoughtful, getting the better of Jeremy Paxman, Andrew Neill and the right-wing media generally.

Accused of being a trade union dinosaur, Crow replied that dinosaurs had been around a long time.

What mattered was the rights of the workers, the creators of wealth.

As London blossomed as a world financial and industrial centre, Crow was determined that the men and women who brought Londoners to and from work every day should share in the capital’s economic success story. Under his leadership tube driver salaries topped £50k with ticket office staff pulling down £30k. Nationally the RMT was able to negotiate better deals for its members than before.

OBITUARY

April 2014 | RailStaff | 49

A capitalist conspiracy He remained vehemently opposed to the European Union which, like Tony Benn, he saw as a capitalist conspiracy. ‘I’ve got more in common with a Chinese labourer than with Sir Fred Goodwin,’ he said. However, this was not an anti-immigrant stance and Crow was keen to disassociate himself and his party, No2EU, from any hint of a link with UKIP. Crow always remained loyal to his friends. Tony Benn he described as a true friend of workers. When reminded that Benn was a member of the upper classes with a peerage under his belt Crow shrugged and said, ‘Just because you go to the Virgin Islands doesn’t make you a virgin.’

In fact the shaven head and what has been described as Crow’s ‘night club’ bouncer demeanour concealed a complex and sensitive nature. Bob Crow was something of a romantic.

One day he spied Nicola Hoarau walking down a street near where he lived. On impulse Crow followed the Marks and Spencer office worker and found out her phone number.

He then texted saying that he had worked out where she lived but was not a stalker. Next, with a daring only his political opponents completely

understood, Crow said, ‘I’m going to stand under the lamp-post outside your home. If you don’t like what you see, don’t come down.’ Nicky Hoarau did and the two formed an enduring partnership.

We fought for them Bob Crow’s politics can best be summed up in an interview he gave Andrew Neill earlier this year.

‘Unfortunately we live in a jungle and if you are not strong, the bosses will walk all over you,’ Bob said. ‘The reason why we have good terms and conditions is because we fought for them. And the reality is all the political parties, the Liberals, the Tories and Labour, have all put no programme up to defend

working people. So we have to do it on our own.’

Bob Crow is survived by his partner Nicky and four children. His enduring monument is a successful union, which continues to grow and to campaign for its members. Crow may be seen as the last of the working class heroes but this is misleading.

Bob Crow was among the first to start redefining the role politics should play in advancing the interests of working people in a world increasingly orchestrated by global corporate interests and outmoded systems of privilege. Longer lasting still will be his contribution to the rise of a credible left wing alternative to the inertia of centre–right consensus politics.

“

Bob Crow was a personal friend for twenty seven years and we grew up side by side in our great union.

We campaigned together with our members and fought hard battles that were important for the well being of our union.

When Bob was elected General Secretary on 14 Feb 2002 it was obvious that he had a special gift and ability. I actually think Bob is the greatest leader our union has produced.

He cared about working people with a passion that was an inspiration to countless people. Bob was a true internationalist. I'm sick and tired of reading in the press how he only cared for RMT members. What absolute nonsense. Bob travelled far and wide to speak up for anyone who was oppressed and suffering injustice.

He was a tireless campaigner for his class.

The media tried to demonise him but that was testimony to how effective a leader he was.

Bob told me on many occasions 'if the likes of the Daily Mail started to praise me then I would be ashamed.'

Bob's legacy is wide reaching. He has certainly left us a much stronger RMT. Our membership increased by 20,000, our activists doubled and our finances could not be better.

All RMT activists and officials are united in the common belief that we must now make our union even stronger as a lasting tribute to Bob.” Friend and colleague Alan Pottage

OBITUARY

50 | RailStaff | April 2014

ALASTAIR McPHERSON KEEPER OF THE JEWEL

ScotRail’s first post-privatisation leader, Alastair McPherson, has died aged 62. Glasgow-native Alastair was delighted to return to the city to head up what he described as National Express Group’s jewel-in-thecrown franchise in 1997. Andy Milne reports.

Few had expected the national railway of Scotland to be sold off. The protracted process had dragged on, delayed by local authority reservations and negotiations. Most commentators believed it would be impossible to launch ScotRail into the private sector before the general election in 1997.

Unlike almost any other franchise, ScotRail was geographically selfcontained and enjoyed fierce loyalty from the people it served. The company matched the Scottish zone of Railtrack almost completely. ScotRail sleeper trains might travel every night to and from London Euston and local services fetch up at Carlisle and Newcastle where train crews were greeted with frontier-post jocularity but there was never any doubt this railway was different, and that it rightfully belonged to Scotland.

However, the sale went through and on 1 April the National Express Group took over. The Labour Party won the election just one month later on 2 May 1997 - too late to save ScotRail. No attempt was made to rescind railway privatisation.

At Union Street Alastair McPherson, arriving at the Union Street HQ, understood all this but was quick to grasp the relative independence local management now enjoyed under the new system. Before long many at ScotRail were won over by McPherson’s easy-going affability. The public and politicians were harder to convince, but Alastair McPherson leant heavily on the top-performing PR team put together by John Boyle.

Chris Green, erstwhile managing director of ScotRail, is generally credited with thinking up the name ‘ScotRail’ but it was Boyle who drove brand recognition sinking it deep into national

consciousness making it synonymous with Scotland’s railway. This brand identification now came into its own, depot staff slapping ScotRail vinyls on trains overnight and eventually recasting stock in a smart new livery.

Gone was the Regional Railways BR grey and blue.

A tremendous privilege ‘Personally, I regard it as a tremendous privilege to be back in Glasgow heading the new company,’ Alastair said at the time. NEG might be London–based but McPherson was a local boy made good and had form in transport up country. He had run the bus company, Scottish Citilink and Express Travel.

As the summer unfolded, he crisscrossed the network talking to staff and passengers. Several reforms came on stream with a sure footedness that quickly became his hallmark. The hated £3 bike charge slapped on by British Rail was abandoned – and has never been re-introduced. More startling still was his decision to push ahead with new rolling stock procurement.

Traditionally Scotland had suffered from the cascade system, often making do with second hand rolling stock. Now a fleet of new Class 334 and 170 trains was ordered. McPherson almost trebled the order for the 170s, boosting it from

the franchise requirement of nine to 24.

The Club 55 offer opened up the railway to more people. McPherson helped pioneer a new commuter service into Inverness from Tain. EdinburghGlasgow services were beefed up to four an hour. Performance reliability increased and local government joined with Railtrack and ScotRail to set about opening more stations and further increasing services. McPherson helped open four new stations at Dalgety Bay, Drumfrochar, Dunfermline Queen Margaret and Howwood. An engaging visionary he progressed the Edinburgh Crossrail route which would lead to the forthcoming Borders Railway.

Scotland’s Railway Sadly Alastair McPherson’s tenure of the jewel in the crown was brought to an abrupt halt when he was diagnosed with a tumour on the spine in 2001.

ScotRail continued to flourish and today all its trains bear the legend, ‘Scotland’s Railway.’

Alastair McPherson was educated at Croftfoot Primary School and King’s Park Secondary School. Always interested in maths and numbers, he read an MA in Economics and Statistics at Glasgow University and went on to study Transport Planning at Birmingham University.

After working briefly in Swansea he joined the Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Executive in 1977, initially as an operations planner. The huge urban metro project was underway and McPherson made a major contribution

to it. At Tyne and Wear he also worked as an industrial relations officer.

His planning expertise came to the attention of the National Express Group which he joined in 1990. He worked as general manager for Caledonian Express and managing director of Express Travel and Scottish Citylink.

Eventually he was promoted to National Express Ltd’s commercial director.

Outstanding Contribution Despite his illness, Alastair McPherson remained an employee of the National Express Group for the rest of his life.

After initial hospital treatment he suffered from MRSA. In 2003 he won the Outstanding Contribution to Scottish Transport at the Scottish National Transport Awards.

Disabled by his illness, he nevertheless made a strong contribution to the mobility impaired as a member of the Mobility and Access Committee for Scotland between 2003 and 2006.

Towards the end of his life he lived in Lochgoilhead, a small village in Argyll.

He was delighted to learn that the forest backdrop was used in the James Bond film, From Russia with Love. He described his interests as hill walking, reading and ‘generally just having a natter over a beer with friends.’

When asked if he supported any particular football team he said, ‘As a Glaswegian my affection for the game is both studied and neutral.’ Alastair leaves a wife Sara and a young daughter Eilidh.

Thanks to John Yellowlees of Scotrail for his help with this article.

OBITUARY

April 2014 | RailStaff | 51

INDUSTRY MOURNS HUDSON-MORGAN PASSING

Dedicated railway worker Julia Hudson-Morgan has passed away aged 57.

Julia, who began her career with Sealink in Dover when it was still part of British Rail, leaves behind her husband John, her Mother, her sisters Elaine and Hazel and an extended family of nieces, nephews and great nieces and nephews - she will be very missed.

Julia was born in Dover on the 19 May, 1956. She attended the local grammar school and from a young age was described by her sister Hazel as intelligent, academic and articulate.

She had a happy childhood and was close to her parents, especially her Dad who was a big part of her life. He was self-employed and had a strong work ethic. A driven individual, he wasn’t

The untimely death of Ian Findlay at the age of 62 sent shock waves throughout the S&T community in Glasgow.

He had been the inspiring mind for all the recent advances in telecommunications for Network Rail north of the border, with his enthusiasm for introducing the latest technology noticed and copied throughout the UK. At the forefront of this was the now famous ‘Jock WAN’ that brought about IP networking as a transmission medium for wide area passenger

afraid of hard work and this was a value he definitely instilled in Jules.

He was a big kid at heart and Julia’s family said that his side of his nature was evident in Jules as she grew into an adult. Julia’s first full-time job was with Sealink in Dover, then still a part of British Rail. When this was sold off in 1984, she stayed with the railways, moving to Margate AMO where among other roles she was a roster clerk for the area’s signallers. She held various admin roles and eventually worked her way up to the position of station manager at Chatham.

When this post was removed in a re-organisation, she decided to focus on heath and safety, gaining various professional qualifications, and worked on various projects within the rail industry, including West Coast Route

Modernisation.

Although she left Network Rail under ill-health retirement, she wasn’t ready to stop work and once she had recovered, she set up her own business as a health, safety, quality and environmental consultant and lead auditor, helping her clients achieve and maintain Link-Up and ISO accreditations.

Work was a huge part in Julia’s life.

She was very driven and was very proud of what she had achieved in what could be a very male-dominated industry. She was highly regarded and respected by all her colleagues in the work place and was right to be proud of what was ultimately a very accomplished career.

Julia passed away at St Thomas’s Hospital in London on 8 March.

A LIFELONG CAREER IN RAIL

information facilities at Paisley and remote condition monitoring on the Edinburgh - Glasgow main line. The flexibility of the facility has led to rapid expansion elsewhere in Scotland and adoption by Network Rail Telecoms in parts of England.

More recently, Ian has been the prime mover in getting a fibre-opticbased monitoring system in place for detecting rock falls - under trial currently at the Falls of Cruachan site on the Oban line.

Ian started his railway career in the late 1960s, being trained on the telecom systems of the day. He was

responsible for rolling out the Scottish element of BR’s National Radio Plan as well as introducing the Cab Secure Radio system onto the Glasgow suburban network.

He was a progressive character who had the vision to see how technology was developing and how it would fit the railway environment.

A talented musician, he left the rail industry for a period in the 1990s, becoming a keyboard player in his own group. Part of this involved opening a music business for the sale and repair of instruments and as an outlet for the provision of PA systems. This latter

included repair of long line PA systems for BR in Scotland. Having realised that this would not provide a livelihood into old age, Ian re-joined Network Rail early this century and was due to retire in September this year.

A heart attack on the 8 April put paid to his plans for the future and sympathy is extended to Ian’s wife Carla, his two daughters and to brother Colin who also works in the telecoms section of NR in Glasgow. Ian will be sorely missed by many, not least for his friendliness, willingness to help and wonderful sense of humour.

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CAREERS

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Salary £60k plus, as well as benefits package.

To apply, please forward your CV to OHLE@isslabour.co.uk or call us on 0800 7833382

Thermic / MMA Welders Sentinel qualified Welders to TW1-4, RT1-3, MMA1-5 Welding Inspectors Due to further new contracts we require experienced rail welders and welding inspectors for work commencing July 2014.

www.isslabour.co.uk

We offer long term work with guaranteed hours and excellent rates of pay and benefits.

For more information please forward your CV to welding@isslabour.co.uk or call us on 0800 7833382.

ISS Labour

H T I W K C A R T GET ON S L A C I D E M S EXPRES IN 2014 Save Time No Hidden Costs Quick Results ity l i b a l i a v A t n e m t Appoin No Stress CALL 0207 0 0 9 6 500

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