The RailStaff Awards 2024

Michele Ciniero

Alstom Transport UK Ltd

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Nominations for Lifetime Achievement Award

Lorna Richardson

Said the following about Michele Ciniero:

“Michele Ciniero ‘Cini’, joined British Rail as an apprentice signalling engineer at the tender age of 17 years old. Throughout his 40 years’ service he has seen many changes to the Railway Industry, from privatisation to significant changes to health & safety legislation.

Having been impacted following tragic railway collisions such as Clapham and Ladbroke Grove, Cini has been a key advocator and supporter to changes in how Signalling works are delivered. Along with his 40 years’ service, Cini has also acted as a Safety representative for staff and is currently Staff union representative, still driven and passionate in improving conditions and championing improvements to on site safety.

Cini is a born leader and in his role as Signalling Installation Manager has seen him involved in many major Signalling Improvement Projects, such as East Coast upgrades from York to Kings Cross. The West Coast modernisation and re-modelling of Milton Keynes Station, to most recently the major challenges and pressures the CrossRail programme of works has entailed.

Considering the changes Cini has seen it is a huge achievement that he has 40 years of continuous service with the passion and willingness to help all members of staff still clearly evident to see. He has always been willing to work wherever and whenever required to meet the requirements a challenging Railway imposes.

Considering the amount of exposure to high risk activities throughout his many years in his job it is ironic that the life he saved was of a man that had suffered a heart attack in a Tesco’s car park in Goole. Cini was first to pull the man from his vehicle of which it was clear that his heart had stopped, and he immediately began to administer CPR until the ambulance service arrived. During that ambulance ride to the Hospital fortunately the man was revived and subsequently went on to live his life, however the man who administered CPR for almost 5 minutes was praised for continuing to pump blood around the body and inevitably prolong his life until support arrived. Since this event, Cini has continued to support the training of full first aid to ALL staff and not just the general leaders of works such as Supervisors and COSS’s, as in his words, you could be anywhere when the need arises to potentially save a life.

I believe Cini should be recognised for his service, not just because of the reasons above but because he has always been there, never wavering or running from a challenge, always speaking up when others feel they can’t and always leading from the front.

When the time comes for him to retire, he can look back and be proud of his achievements and the positive affects he has had on the Industry. One thing is for sure, there will never be another ‘Cini’ on the Railway.“