Cindy Morse - HAS LEFT

Said the following about Fen Lin Incident Response Team 'FLIRT':

“Fen Lin Incident Response Team (FLIRT) consists of: Karen Gregson, Graeme Pratt, Andrew Hart, Sam Hart, Paul Emmington

You might be wondering what the ‘FLIRT’ team represents...this is the name that has been given to a few highly committed individuals who love on the North end of the Great Northern route. These individuals willingly step in and respond to major incidents on the Fen Line, hence the title ‘FLIRT – Fen Line Incident Response Team’ is what they have become known as.

Over the years whether the individuals have been on-call or on duty or not; they have made themselves readily available on numerous occasions to assist when an incident occurs. When they received advice about any incidents we usually get the call from them asking where they can assist.

The Fen Line is a remote part of the Great Northern route with limited alternate routes and it can be very difficult to locate where you need to be should there be an incident that occurs in the midst of the Fens, so their local knowledge is key.

Graeme and Paul’s priority is always to get to the train, Paul to take the role of the TOLO (Train Operations Liaison Officer) and to act as the GTR representative for the emergency services and Graeme to ensure the driver is okay and gets home safely.

Karen, Andy and Sam’s priority is to get to the affected station or the nearest accessible point to cater for the needs of the customers. Once the initial needs are catered for, Sam and Andy often end up managing the rail replacement buses that then need to operate whilst repairs are undertaken.

There have been many occasions when the team have responded to incidents out of hours, after having finished their days work. They all do this because they care and know that it can take a long time for the dedicated on-call managers to get to the site due to the remoteness of the area.

Without the dedication and professionalism of this group of people customer needs and recovery of incidents over the years would have been much less seamless and much more protracted.“