From... Retail, Police, Travel & Aviation and now Railway.
I have been very lucky to experience many varied roles in my life. I started working in Retail whilst at school and my studies and home life directed me towards becoming a Police Officer, where I served for over 5 years. I realised that the Police was not a life long career for me and decided a change of direction was needed, so I chose to follow my childhood passion and became Long Haul Cabin Crew and travelled the world and experienced various cultures. From Aviation I headed back to earth and worked in Retail Travel, where I worked for a major tour operator in their high street retail shops, selling holidays, excursions and foreign exchange. My next adventure was joining the Railway and I have been here ever since and just finishing my 7th year. I started as a Welcome Host, dealing with ticket gates and revenue and from there I went to the role of Train Manager. Since March 2024 I have started a new adventure as a Resources Operations Controller, working within our Resources Operations Control Centre. I have been asked to now take on this exciting new role as a Brand Insider, where I can share my railway experiences and tell others what it's actually like to work on the railway.
Train Manager - onboard our famous Class 390 Pendolino Fleet
I work onboard our famous Class 390 Pendolino Fleet and work out of our Manchester Piccadilly Depot. I get to travel every day between Manchester and London. During my career so far I have worked the entire West Coast Mainline, from London Euston all the way to Glasgow, Edinburgh, Birmingham and Blackpool. My first and primary responsibility is for the safety and comfort of up to 800 passengers & crew. My secondary responsibilities are Customer Experience and Ticket Revenue. I manage the whole onboard experience and manage the three class environments. I am responsible for passenger safety, comfort, revenue, train defects, first aid and management of any out of course situations such as train failures and evacuations. It's an exciting and challenging role, where every day is different.
It's varied and no day is the same
Working with the general public, there is never a dull day. I am always alert and have to be ready for any situation that may arise. I regularly have to deal with:
Emergency First Aid Situations
Train Failures & Defects
Train to Train Evacuations
Major Disruption
Conflict Situations
If the Railway is your dream job, Never Give Up!
I have been on the railway for nearly 7 years now and I can truly say it's never been boring. There is a true family atmosphere and everyone looks after each other. The Railway has changed a great deal in the last few years and is still changing now, it's modernising and evolving all the time. It's an exciting time for our particular company, in that we have just been awarded a 9 year contract, we are a new fresh brand, we have new trains arriving and our inherited fleet of trains are coming to the end of an exciting major refurbishment programme. Everyone is accepted and Equality and Diversity is a major factor of everyday work.
As a LGBTQ+ Employee Champion, I am proud of PROGRESS, our Pride Train
I have always had a passion for LGBTQ+ Equality and Inclusion. I have worked on two major projects involving our Pride Train, aptly named Progress. I was involved with the initial designs and launch of Progress and then presented a business case to members of our Exec Team, to take Progress to a whole new level and have the interior reflect the exterior design and use the interior as a talking and education piece. We designed the interior with information showcasing our Charity Partners, there's very bold information regarding Hate Crime and lots of educational pieces about the LGBTQ+ Community.
