Rail Infrastructure Person of the Year

Name: Peter Richards
Job title: Director, London Overground Infrastructure
Company: TfL
Location: Bonhill Street

Why they should be this years rail infrastructure person of the year?
“Peter is a great boss and the best team leader! He would have to have been, having delivered the East London Line before time and on budget!”

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"I am very pleased indeed to support Laila Bergesen’s nomination of Peter Richards ‘Rail Infrastructure Person of the Year’ in leading the integrated team that delivered the East London Line Project. Peter’s leadership has brought together a team from the whole industry – Network Rail, Transport for London, Bombardier and key infrastructure contractors including: Parson’s Brinkerhoff, Balfour Beatty, Carillion and Thales.

The Project is not one infrastructure project, but the integration of three infrastructure projects – an upgraded ex-London Underground East London Line, a new railway linked onto the former British Rail route from Broad Street and an integration project with Network Rail providing a through-new railway route across London from Dalston to Croydon. The project has involved bringing people together to construct the new link but also providing all the other elements of a railway including: a new signaling and control centre, a new depot at New Cross Gate for 57 new trains and indeed the new London Overground train fleet commissioned as part of the project. This is a true cross industry team endeavor delivered to exceptionally high construction safety standards.

The result – a brand new, high frequency Metro system for London opening ahead of schedule and working straight out of the box to high-levels of operational reliability. Most importantly, passengers love it, with passenger journeys reaching over 70,000 per day, achieved even before the official opening date of June, 2010.

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Date of event: 27-4-10

Name: John Turner
Job title: Possession Support
Company: Bridgeway Consulting Ltd
Location: Nottingham

Why they should be this years rail infrastructure person of the year?
"John Turner is a one of Bridgeway’s highly regarded possession support team members. He holds an array of safety critical competences, such as, COSS, Engineering Supervisor and (S)PICOP. His consistently high level of performances has helped many possessions start and finish on time and this has assisted Bridgeway Consulting to grow its reputation within the industry.

Whether it is days or nights in all weathers undertaking safety critical activities – John really is at the frontline of today’s railways and has an exemplary safety record. He is a pleasure to work with as he is well organised and always prepared for the job at hand. At all times John goes about his work on track very professionally and always very safely

His attention to detail ensures that all works undertaken in a safe manner, which is a great example for many of his colleagues. His proactive approach provides great confidence to those he works with that they will be aware of their responsibilities and importantly safe. He is someone you can rely on and on more than one occasion has provided solutions to those posed with logistical problems. John is never too busy to help others and has mentored possession support staff. His Railway experience is one that many would like to learn from.

John always ensures that the job at hand is complete, always safely and to the rules. This type of proactive attitude helps the railway meet the targets set to it and helps Bridgeway to successfully deliver for its clients. We therefore believe John is a worthy candidate for Railstaff Awards 2010 – Rail Infrastructure Person of the Year award".

Date of event: 16-8-10

Name: Mark Owens
Job title: Infrastructure Support Team Member
Company: Bridgeway Consulting Ltd
Location: Nottingham

Why they should be this years rail infrastructure person of the year?
"Mark works at the frontline of today’s railways and he regularly undertakes safety critical activities such as, COSS, Engineering Supervisor and PICOP. His performance has helped Bridgeway Consulting to deliver on its promise to its clients – we will deliver on time and within budget.

He has an exemplary delivery and safety record and his proactive nature is a great example to others within the business. He is someone you can rely on and on more than one occasion has provided solutions to those posed with logistical or operational problems. Mark also takes his continuous professional development seriously and has attended several training courses to understand the rail network and safety guidelines better.

Mark has a drive in wanting to get the job done, always to the highest possible standards and always by the rules. He often mentors those new to specific competences. This is testament to Mark’s infectious nature and displays that he really is a great team player with a can do, will do attitude to work.

Bridgeway are fully aware of Mark’s capabilities and we will continue to provide him with the platform for him to progress further within the industry. We truly believe Mark would be a worthy winner of Rail Infrastructure Person of the Year".

Date of event: 11-8-10

Name: Jim Beattie
Job title: Signaller
Company: Network Rail
Location: Motherwell

Why they should be this years rail infrastructure person of the year?
Jim is a signaller based in Motherwell SCC who takes a great deal of pride in his work, and is an extremely capable and focused employee.

A prime example of his focus occurred on 22/12/2009, when the brakes of a freight train carrying a dangerous and inflammable cargo failed.

The unit passed a signal at danger and Jim, being alert and aware of other services in the vicinity, reset a safe route for the train in a matter of moments. Thanks to Jim’s quick actions a potentially severe accident was averted.

Quote from David Simpson, his Route Director;

“Jim Beattie’s actions in responding to the runaway train were in the highest standards of professionalism of the signalling grades – having observed the dangerous situation unfolding he calmly and effectively responded to prevent the risk of a collision occurring. His actions were vital to avoiding a more serious incident, and he fully deserves recognition for the part he played’.

Date of event: 22-12-09

Name: Xavier Augereau
Job title: Civil Asset Area Manager
Company: London Underground Ltd.
Location: London

Why they should be this years rail infrastructure person of the year?
“Always helping graduates and other engineers /colleagues in need of assistance. Always meets targets to deadlines, keeps a direct approach to get the tasks done. Have very good knowledge about civil engineering and civil asset maintenance of the underground railway environment.

In the last five years with London Underground, Mr. Augereau has always been fully committed to works he had been assigned to. Mr. Augereau played a leading role in preparation of Year 7, Year 8 and Year 9 AAMP (Annual Asset Management Plan) for BCV Civil Maintenance team. Mr. Augereau managed to plan and deliver all maintenance works from concept to completion in line with the program and budget with excellent safety record.

Mr. Augereau has always showed his commitment to emergency response during on call person on Civil Maintenance Team. In the recent incident at Baker Street Flooding, Mr. Augereau attended site and arranged remedial works in order to revive service. He not only stayed on site until the service was up and running but also attended site during Engineer Hours to supervise the permanent maintenance works been carried out by contractors. In this way, Mr. Augereau put safety of our customers first and kept the value of London Underground to its highest aim.

When the Cable shaft at Edgware Road was assigned DSN (Dangerous Structure Notice) due to inadequate and unsafe landings along the vertical Cat Ladder, Mr. Xavier Augereau took lead of the project and carried out enhanced inspection of the shaft in the environment which was not very friendly but without compromising safety of himself and his team. It was a very tricky decision to make in order to propose remedial works, but with the help of consultants Mr. Augereau managed to come up with an out standing and sustainable solution to the works which not only demonstrated his value management skills but also compliant to waste management standards when the other solution was to replace the existing shaft furniture with the new one.

Holland Park Underground Station undergoes closures very often due to the Lift doors keep jamming at the top landing. The matter was investigated and no faults were discovered by Lift and Escalators team. Further investigations showed that the pressurized air from the trains approaching platforms from narrow running tunnels push the doors and lift fails at that point, leaving no option for Station Supervisor to shut down the lift, eventually closing the station for operations. The task was assigned to civil maintenance and Xavier Augereau took charge of this task. The project is still underway, named as “Holland Park Door Relief Project”. Mr. Augereau is performing leading role in writing the works specifications. This task needs extensive studies and consultations because these type of works are not within standard specifications and guidelines of the London Underground Standards. Mr. Augereau and his team are very confident with the progress and are committed to deliver works in the agreed time frame.

The achievements of Mr. Xavier Augereau have added great value to London Underground’s maintenance regime and I am sure that Mr. Augereau will keep delivering maintenance works in the same proficient way as he has been doing this in the past. For all his achievements I think he must be awarded award of Rail Infrastructure Staff of the Year. He really deserves this award for what he is capable of".

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“His enthusiasm and dedication to his work. I have recently joined the company and he has been an inspiration to me. He is dedicated to his team and constantly goes above and beyond his role.

Whilst helping our manager to train me he has had to continue with his own job as well as overseeing my work. He helps our manager with budgets, programmes and work loads, as well as becoming a dad for the first time. He is an absolute pleasure to work with”.

Date of event: 26-4-10

Name: Samir Achbab
Job title: Principal Technical Officer
Company: Network Rail
Location: Westbourne Park London

Why they should be this years rail infrastructure person of the year?
"Samir demonstrates the four values of Network Rail, pride, determination, teamwork and respect. Samir goes over and above the call of duty to make sure we have a well maintained railway for our customers and constantly looks for ways to solve problems.

We were undertaking a project to install 25KV insulation strips when the product we were using was imposable to install. Samir found a new product which caused us problems because it was a 3 month delivery date, this meant the plan had to change in an already tight schedule. The £100,000.00 project had to be delivered by April 2010 and due to the hard work and all the re-planning the project was delivered on time. Samir is a fantastic person to work along side and I’m proud he forms part of our team in the Reading Delivery Unit".

Date of event: 4-5-10

Name: Joanne Muttitt
Job title: Section Planner/Administrator
Company: Network Rail
Location: Westbourne Park London

Why they should be this years rail infrastructure person of the year?
"Joanne demonstrates the four values of Network Rail – pride, determination, teamwork and respect. Joanne goes over and above the call of duty to make sure we have a well maintained railway for our customers and is constantly looking for ways to solve problems".

Infrastructure Maintenance is measured against a wide range of league tables and Joanne continually looks for ways to improve the status of Plant and Distribution. Joanne’s department recently inherited assets from Signalling and Telecommunications – equating to an additional 1500 assets that need to be planned and inputted into the Ellipse data system. This is a huge project that Joanne has readily taken on.

It is down to Joanne’s hard work that the department is now the envy of others. I am proud she forms part of the team at Reading Delivery Unit".

Date of event: 11-4-10