Garry Hall - **HAS LEFT**

Said the following about Peter Bowes - **HAS LEFT**:

“I would like to nominate Peter Bowes, Safety Director for Virgin Trains in the category of lifetime achievement award. He is highly regarded throughout the industry and within Virgin Trains and is an authority on all aspects of safety management. Peter has shown that working collaboratively with other parts of the business, external stakeholders and the regulator can bring huge benefits and allow the business to progress and challenge normal working practices to improve efficiency and create a better experience for the customer.

Peter joined the railway (what was then BR) in January 1981 as a relief Booking Clerk at Farnborough on the Southern Region and after a short while there went to Birmingham New St covering the Commercial block and operating desk. This also involved working on the broadcast in the signal box. By 1984 Peter had quickly gained promotion to Supervisor and covered the Traffic Manager at Walsall. Further promotion took Peter to the TM at Coventry which then also included Nuneaton. In those days the TM was involved in all railway aspects from ticket office, platforms, signalling and operations so was excellent grounding for future work.

Peter moved into the Management grade at Shrewsbury in 1987 which included the Cambrian lines that he knows so well and spends much of his free time. With route mergers Peter also become responsible for the Chester area and North Wales. Peter then went on to work for InterCity West Coast back at New St but during 1993 he moved to Midland CrossCountry which looked after East Midlands and CrossCountry services.

Upon privatisation Peter joined and helped set up the InterCity CrossCountry franchise which then became XC Trains and Virgin CrossCountry. Peter was instrumental in the Train crew restructuring and new train implementation for CrossCountry when Class 221’s were introduced.

Peter stayed with CrossCountry until 2007 when VT lost the franchise but transferred to Virgin West Coast and led a big change in the way safety was managed in the business.

After joining Virgin West Coast Peter implemented a team of Safety Business partners whose role was to embed themselves within the routes and work with the route teams to lead safety and ensure that safety was included in everything that was done and high on everyone’s agenda. Very quickly safety targets for these routes were set up under Peter’s leadership and improvements in safety performance quickly materialised. Peter then looked at how the routes managed competence for safety critical activities and recruited a team of safety assessment managers to his team to manage competence and work with the route teams and Route Safety Managers to integrate competence and safety management and to demonstrate how safety and competence can work hand in hand. Peter also expanded the safety team to include Operations, Security and Training and this worked well when it came to sharing ideas and giving an overall safety message to the business.

Peter’s commitment to emergency planning has shown that given the right investment then emergency scenarios and real time practice of incidents can transform the way people are trained and refreshed. An emergency response suite was built at Virgin Trains Talent Academy and was led by Peter to ensure that Virgin trains on call people were given the correct skills to be able to respond to a major incident. A series of inter-connecting rooms was built with one-way glass, loudspeakers, telephones and video to allow simulation of the most serious events. This was so successful it is now also used by other operators to undertake training and is held in high regard by the ORR and the DFT security team.

Part of Peter’s legacy when he retires (planned for early 2019) is that he is leaving a team where he has promoted development and continual learning and all of his team are qualified in multiple disciplines, from NEBOSH diploma level to fire certificate trained and many of the team have also been developed to certification Health and Well Being with NEBOSH to give them a greater understanding of the impact health can have on safety culture in a business. He will leave a business where safety is high on everyone’s agenda (thanks to his safety leadership) and where people feel confident to work with the safety team to make changes and push boundaries.

Peter works closely with IOSH and this helps with further development for the team, he also sits on the peer interview panels for IOSH to help others achieve chartered status for their safety roles.

A message from Peter’s Manager Peter Broadley shows how highly Peter is regarded by our senior executive team:

‘Peter has been Safety backbone of Virgin Trains for many years. His vast experience of Safety on the railway has been invaluable to both myself and many industry peers.

When Peter speaks, people listen. He has the credibility and gravitas to give a considered and authoritative view on all Safety matters. Under Peter’s leadership, Virgin West Coast’s safety performance continues to be up there with the best in the industry. External audits are always strong with our RM3 results particularly worthy of note as they improve year on year from an already strong starting base.

When safety incidents do occur, his measured approach can calm the most excitable, meaning that we always come to an intelligent outcome. He has kept safety at the forefront of everyone’s mind at Virgin and he will leave a legacy of high achievement and a very strong safety culture.’

Throughout his career (and the many roles he has experienced) Peter has led by example, has been a mentor, advisor and support for so many people. I have learnt so much working in his team and he will leave a gap that will be very difficult for anyone to fill. His knowledge and authority on all safety matters is considerable and he is highly regarded by all that work with him.“