Tony Brindley

Said the following about Philip McCarthy:

“I have worked alongside Phil for 17 of his 23 years on the railway. I have been lucky enough to have worked with some very different individuals in that time, but Phil is one of the people who stands out for the way he deals with his customers and colleagues alike. I know a lot of other rail workers look up to Phil, and try their best to get to his level.

Never panics just calmly deals with any situation that arising when he is on duty. Whether it is a customer queries or someone committing a suicide attempt. Never have I seen him lose his cool and always comes across as unflappable.

A true professional who I one day would like aspire to, (I will never reach that level, but will never stop trying to get to the level he is at)

I just hope every person working in our industry has a Phil in there working environment because we all need someone to look up to and inspire us to get better every day, and help us with the actions to set ourselves targets whether they are reachable or not.

MTR Crossrail who run the TFL Rail franchise. Have a goal of being an industry leading railway franchise, and belief that Philip McCarthy epitomises this goal. To achieve this goal the company is like a ladder, with the start of the ladder being the start of your railway carrier and there are many rungs on the ladder, from the start the company needs a lot of people on all rungs of the ladder, from cleaners all the way to the person at the top running the company. Every rung of the ladder the company needs leaders, and Phil is one of the best leaders on his rung of the ladder.

As an example a good leader can take orders from higher up and also listen to ideas from the people on the rungs below, and as a superb leader her does not have to be out giving orders to people in emergency situations, as he knows he may not be around to give advice so he is comfortable to let people on the lower rungs to run the show an offer advice if he thinks the decision they are taking may not be right, and that in my mind is what a great leader should do , as it builds confidence in people and allows them to climb the ladder to where they want to get.

Phil is more than comfortable on the rung he is on and has no problem on passing on his knowledge to help people climb above him on the ladder, and I know of at least two of our current managers who were trained partially by Phil when they first started on the railway with us. It is people like Phil that will eventually help TFL Rail achieve their ambition to be an industry leading railway.

The railway are lucky to have people like him who allow people higher on the ladder so they can concentrate on other things.

So as you see leaders like Phil are priceless and needed on every level of the ladder.“