Benjamin Swan

Said the following about Michael Adams Louisa Johnson Paul Irish Marie Neathey:

“Great Western Railway (GWR) is one of the biggest rail franchises in the UK, part of the First Group of companies, operating the Western network since 1996, rebranding ourselves as GWR in 2015. We employ over 6000 people across our network and we carry more than one and a half million customers over two million single journeys on 10,000 services every week. People are at the heart of our business and our ethos is that we are 'greater together'.

This nomination concerns the coordinated efforts of four amazing GWR colleagues...

06/02/2019 1P31 Driver Michael Adams was cautioned by the signaller reporting a trespasser in the 4ft at Wylds Lane crossing. When the train arrived at the trespasser Michael stopped the train and got out of the cab to try and talk to the trespasser. The trespasser was female and Michael noticed that she was very distressed. Train Manager Louisa Johnston moved to the front of the train and Louisa then exited the train and walked out to the distressed female to assist her. After talking to her, Louisa managed to convince the female that it was safer for her to board the train. Louisa and Trainee Train Manager Marie Neathey got the female onto the train and made the female comfortable inside the train while Train Manager Paul Irish secured the train to proceed forward to the next station.

There was a plain clothed BTP officer traveling on the train and approached to offer his help. This made the female become further distressed so he went and sat at the opposite end of the coach to monitor the situation. Paul was liaising with Control and the BTP officer arranged for a BTP team to meet the train. Marie found common ground with the female as they had both previously worked in a hospital.

Louisa made notes to pass onto BTP when they met the train. A short time into the journey Louisa & Marie noticed that the female was trying to cover, but scratch her wrists. This is when they discovered that she had self harmed prior to the train stopping and was in need of urgent medical attention. Paul called Control and Louisa contacted the Driver and advised that an ambulance was urgently required and requested that the service was run non-stop to Oxford.

The Driver made contact with the signaller and Control made the request to Network Rail, the Cotswolds' Signaller and TVSC Oxford who all agreed to run 1P31 non-stop to Oxford from Honeybourne. Control also arranged for a high priority ambulance and senior BTP officers to be at OXF for the arrival of 1P31.

So not to cause any further distress to the female, Paul went through the train twice to talk to passengers individually (as opposed to making a PA) to advise them of the situation. Louisa & Marie built up a trust with the female and she agreed that Louisa could look through her bag with the BTP officer.

They discovered a 6 inch kitchen knife and this was passed onto the team waiting at Oxford. Upon arrival at Oxford, the female started to get agitated and further distressed.

Marie felt that she had built up a significant trust and offered to go to hospital with the young female.“