Bella Cowler

Said the following about Carys Thomas:

“Carys was our Duty Station Manager before moving on to a new role recently as an Operations Compliance Manager. Her exit from the station was and is sadly felt by all front line and management colleagues and although we are all happy to see her progress, her loss is missed at the station. As many colleagues has put it ‘our loss is their gain’.

Carys had a significant impact at Bristol Temple Meads, starting when staffing levels were at 67%, with only two duty station managers in post and paperwork almost non-existent. Although there had been improvements, large barriers were held between managers and front line colleagues and staff felt unsupported and unheard. She was determined to change this, working with colleagues to document the main issues and working tirelessly to influence change.

Her first steps was to identify what was held and what was missing. She documented and created an audit tracker which demonstrated the large gaps in documentation needed to be operationally and occupationally compliant. Working with the station supervisors and team support she arranged briefings so that all staff had a base understanding of the requirements. She also created a number of risk assessments working with various individuals, one of which was arranging the train dispatch risk assessment, working with a number of stakeholders and consolidating a 350+ page document to 30. In addition to this she created a risk assessment checklist and due date list as well as a system for managing medicals making it easier for audit and operation. She also arranged training to become competent in investigations operations and worked with the head of operations standards to clear all outstanding investigations from the system, creating a system so that they would be completed within the required timescale in future. She also worked with Network rail to action backdated accident investigations also building a system for their timely completion in future. All systems have been adopted as normal station working and have been shared as best practice.

Carys held regular documented meetings with staff and introduced a documented and structured time with your manager form encouraging all staff to be seen twice a year. She would often hold more than the requirement, to ensure staff were involved and kept up to date with upcoming possessions. Not only did she better communication with staff, forwarding relevant information but she involved staff in workshops that influenced the strategy of the station and the works. Staff were involved in things like customer workshop groups and station disruption plans. She also introduced station management meetings with a structure that allowed all Exemplar aims to be continued and for managers to have an input into the operation of the station, review KPI’s and action plan.

Her can do attitude and open door policy meant that staff would willingly go and see her to not only ask questions but just to have a quick catch up. She would make sure that if you needed something she attended to it and was always kind to the welfare of staff, even purchasing beverages from her own funds to reassure and give condolences when we lost one of our staff members. Not only did staff feel comfortable approaching her with issues but if they didn’t she would take them a cup of tea just to make sure that everything was ok. Beyond this she has still kept in touch with a number of colleagues at the station who were going through varied troubles, checking on their welfare and offering her support. She broke the divide between front line colleagues and management. They still go to her for support now.

Working with her colleagues the station, staffing levels were increased to 96% and sickness levels lowered to a level never reached before. She wrote the initial business case for the TSSO/Ticket office and shared it amongst the team for comment before its submission. Working with her colleagues to raise the profile of it, she raised it in a number of groups and workstrands to signify its importance, showing her commitment not only to her direct team but Temple Meads as a whole.

She’s known on the station as the person who will always get it done straight away. The staff trust her and know that she will always respond to their queries and follow them up even if the answer is no. She worked tirelessly to put the station and staff needs above her own working a large number of overtime hours and answering all staff calls for assistance despite being out of her rostered hours.

She’s been instrumental to the possessions ran at the station, completing all safety validation documentation herself and building handbooks and activities for staff, volunteers and agency, which have all been used as best practice. Not only has she looked after the needs of our station, but she’s also raised concerns for other stations during possessions, sending staff where possible to local stations who were in need and offering to support herself. She has also done this in her capacity as an on call manager aiding other stations where needed and always answering the phone.

She led on the Exemplar and 6S program where the ticket office worked hard to create better working procedures and she introduced the same principles to the management office allowing for better stock keeping, organisation and compliance with GDPR legislation.

She is a large believer in reward and recognition and introduced a letter system where staff are thanked personally for their efforts during possessions and if they go above and beyond in their roles. The want to develop has radiated throughout the station, with more staff wanting to learn and develop. She arranged training for colleagues across the station whilst also maintaining its operation. Her willingness to support has seen others on the station looking to help other areas and actively looking for a way of improving station working.

She is also widely known for her engagement with the community working tirelessly to support a number of programs such as Envision, the princes trust, opendoors, young railway professionals, women in rail, GWR LGBTQ+, severnside, crimestoppers, all in her own time. She also set up a partnership with lifeskills learning to deliver safety messages to over 12000 year 6 students and vulnerable adults annually, as well as starting our adults with disabilities internships at the station.

Her ethos is collaboration amongst staff and stakeholders to ensure a one railway method of operation, involving all in its decision making and accountability. She’s gone above and beyond in transforming both the culture at the station and its operations and is worthy of recognition. She inspired us to improve and continue to want to improve and the collective work under her leadership is why the station has been able to maintain its operations and make such tremendous strides in the face of adversity.“