The RailStaff Awards 2024

Joshua Taylor

Said the following about GTR ThamesLink & GN Control Team:

“Since the May timetable change, the GTR ThamesLink and GN service delivery team have worked tirelessly to deliver the train service in extremely difficult circumstances. This team deserves recognition for the hard work they've put in, and going the extra mile, to deliver the new timetable.“

Stephanie Sauvarin

Said the following about GTR ThamesLink & GN Control Team:

“The control team for GTR are a mixed team of talented individuals, with half of the operations staff having less than a years’ experience of working within the control environment. Despite this, they are an incredibly knowledgeable and resilient set of people, quickly adapting to the daily challenges that the railway produces for them. Those with more experience are always willing to help those with less experience and this is evidenced best during disruption, when they really pull together to recover the train service as quickly as possible.

Over the past year there have been several major challenges for the control to overcome, the biggest of which is the May 2018 Timetable Change. The team, some of which were only weeks into working the control desk on their own, were faced with the challenge of running a temporarily amended timetable for Thameslink and Great Northern. They faced this without question or complaint, working long and hard hours, pulling together as a team to provide as much service as they could to the passengers.

During this time, they also successfully moved an entire control centre, introducing brand new routes into the control team that many of the operations and customer experience teams had never dealt with before. Together they quickly learned how to best serve the passengers, learning how to provide alternatives for passengers during this challenging time.

I am confident that given the challenges the entire team have already faced in the past 12 months, they are more than capable of facing anything that is thrown at them.“