Syeda Ghufran

Said the following about Shields Depot Shields Depot:

“Shields depot is the largest and most diverse depot in Scotland. They are responsible for all ScotRail EMU fleets running services from Ayr in the West to North Berwick in East, and provide the main service through the Glasgow central belt. There are now six different fleets maintained at Shields, 314’s, 318’s, 320’s, 365’s, 334’s, and 380’s, which are all different in their own right with varying levels of technology from the 40year old 314’s with DC traction, to the more advanced 380’s with AC traction.

Running a country wide EMU service from one maintenance location brings its own challenges, and the local management team must plan workload priorities around extremely tight timetables. This has become even more of a challenge following the introduction of the EMU’s on to the E&G, and the introduction of a completely new/different fleet in the 365’s. The depot continues to make its MTIN and PPMf targets during what has been a very difficult period and all the while maintaining the increased availability required to support the late delivery of the class 385 Hitachi fleet.

The introduction of the 365’s ran smoothly due to the commitment and patience of both the technical staff who attended the previous 365 home depot at Hornsey for courses and shadowing, and the depot management team who continue to work tirelessly to ensure availability is maintained to ensure the required number of units are available and presented in the highest possible standard to our customers.

Although there is a set management structure in place at the depot to ensure that safe, reliable, well presented trains are provided for our customers, the success of the last year could not have been achieved without the backing of the whole team. The level 5 team ensuring that C4’s, wheelset renewals and other level 5 work is completed in the designated down time. TPM staff who continue to turn around units between peaks to ensure availability is maintained across all fleets. Level 1-4 maintenance teams who continue to work under increased pressures of stretched manning levels, all the while maintaining high quality standards The Tech team who rectify faults across such varied fleets and by doing so build greater knowledge and understanding of all EMU’s that will benefit both the depot and the business in the future. The SQUIRE team who constantly come up with innovative ideas to improve passenger experience and improve service quality figures. The admin team who keep the all our records in order, and ensure the staff holidays and pay are kept up to date. And finally the whole management team who have worked relentlessly to ensure we continue to make performance and availability targets through such a difficult time.

Over the last year, through a very difficult time, with increased workload and tighter performance targets, the depot has increased its staff engagement score which is a credit to all managers/leaders within the depot. The ‘Can Do’ attitude of everyone at Shields is what makes the depot what it is, and this will continue in the future with more challengers ahead, although nothing on the scale of what we have seen in the last 12 months.“