28 Years and Counting

Monday 15th July 1991, I started on the Railway, joining a company called BR, fortunately things for me have gone slightly better than they did for BR. 28 years have passed very very quickly, frighteningly so in fact. Despite the years I can remember it clearly, a blistering hot day at Romford Overhead line Depot, I was a Trainee Lineman with a whopping salary of ￡127 a week, for 40 hours (￡3.17 per hour, and yes it was a 40hr week). I took the job as it was substantially more than the Dole money I was on at the time, 18 years old, what was there to lose and it would only be a matter of time before something better came along! Well after 28 years, its clear that nothing better is going to come along, and that's because the Railway is such a great industry. Everyone in the depot kept telling me it was a job for life, but no one explained the journey ahead of me.

From those humble beginnings I have gone on to become the Managing Director of a company I founded with my friends, watching that grow has provided me with the same sense of pride as watching my children grow up. I have been lucky over my time in this industry to work with some truly great individuals and I am honoured that many of them have chosen to work with me at CPMS and I thank you all for taking that leap of faith.

So going back to that day at Romford, as part of the "induction" I was handed an orange bib, and a pair of boots, the boots I was told were optional, however the bib was not! The boots went into my locker where they stayed for a couple of years until becoming mandatory, which at the time I was outraged about as I liked to wear trainers, but that explains the culture back then and why things had to change. The first safety initiative I encountered was my orange bib being taken off me, when I asked why I was told the "when you get your vest snagged on a train, the old stitched one would drag you into it, this new Velcro vest simply comes off and saves your life". I think the concept of removing the risk in the first place had been missed at the time.

As the years rolled by we saw the introduction of Hard Hats, Orange Trousers, Goggles and Gloves. This in turn covered the individual from head to toe in safety equipment, yet despite this, life changing accidents and fatalities are still happening in our industry, just this month we have seen two more fatalities in our industry, and this saddens me as it does everyone else who works in Rail. Over the years I have lost three colleagues to accidents at work, one of these was a close friend and the person who told me to apply for my first promotion and was the catalyst for my journey. For this I will always be grateful to Malcolm Slater and I wish I could thank him personally for what he done for me, but sadly this industry takes too many people from us.

Unfortunately I don't have the answer to enabling everyone to get home safe everyday, but things have improved dramatically over the years and we just have to keep trying to improve, its a heart and minds thing now and it will be way after I have left.

So, getting back to my earlier comment, why has nothing better come along? Well that's down to one thing, quite simply put, You. Yes, if you have read this article and are in fact still reading then I am pretty sure you are a Railway Person, and I have hopefully had the pleasure of working with you at some point in my career. Railway people are phenomenal, we work in an industry that only gets negative press, you never see the headline "Railway Delivers a Project on Time and on Budget", which is a shame because it happens, in fact it happens all the time and this is down to the great people that give their all day and night to achieve success. I am both privileged and honoured to be one of those people, striving to deliver as part of a team, and that is why I am still here, the team for me is everything, it becomes your family, and if you are lucky like me then you get to work with your best friends every day!

I don't think I will see another 28 years, but I look forward to the rest of my journey and hopefully we will all make it home safe every day.