Andrew McClements

Said the following about TransPennine Express Control Team:

“The TPE Control Team are the eyes and ears of our operation, dealing with high-pressure situations day-in/day-out. They are responsible for managing hundreds of services, hundreds of front-line teams and more across our vast network.

I wanted to nominate them for this category as they are truly a team of unsung heroes when it comes to suicide and injury prevention. There are far too many instances of the team encountering suicidal people to recall every scenario, but I can share a very recent example:

A call was received in the TPE Control Room on 26th September from a Customer Help Point at Northallerton station. The call alerted the team to a suicidal person who had positioned themselves in the middle of tracks in the path of several high-speed services that would pass along the East Coast Mail Line. The team reacted extremely swiftly, alerting Network Rail so that the line could be blocked and assisted in altering the police. Thankfully the line was able to be blocked before a train entered the station and the person was taken into the care of the authorities. The response was so swift that it even caused minimal disruption to the network (as an additional benefit).

It's examples like this that remind us at TPE how vital our central Control Team are. If they aren't managing the train service or responding to disruption, they're monitoring CCTV cameras and receiving calls like the one described above. In the past, the team have even received calls directly from distressed individuals who have been contemplating suicide, in which they've been able to talk things through with the person until further assistance could arrive.

The team are instrumental to the safe running of our railway and are often overlooked due to being located "behind-the-scenes" however I believe they deserve recognition alongside all the other thousands of railway employees who've had experiences in dealing with vulnerable (and sadly, suicidal) people. We are very grateful for all their work.“