The RailStaff Awards 2024

Nominations for Rail Person of the Year

Adrian Brown

Said the following about Sarah Swanston:

“I have worked with Sarah a number of times over the past 8 years and shared an office with her for some of that time, but most recently I volunteered her to assist me in a major training project by asking her to present 10 consecutive days training to Managers, even though she was on annual leave at the time!!

On her return she not only co-operated willingly with my every request, but literally dropped the day job as a Senior Right Time Railway manager, and organised the training, but continued to proactively stay involved in helping out the whole team with training, 'live' working experience and assessments for some 5 - 6 weeks.

Having completed this task and seeing we were struggling to complete our competency schedules on time she continued to organise and carry out ongoing assessments and practical experience that every manager required for our project. As the main organiser of the project we would have failed, had it not been for Sarah's commitment and hard work, still on-going for all for September, and noted simply by the fact that one of those volunteers has already nominated Sarah for this award.

On top of her day role she also leads the Incident Care Team for Greater Anglia and takes on more that her fair share of On call duty - Operational, customer service and for the Incident Care Team. And yet all this only describes a small amount of the huge contribution Sarah makes to the company and the railway as a whole; for which I wish her all the success in this small token of recognition of her efforts.“

Karen McCann

Said the following about Sarah Swanston:

“Sarah is:

1) Committed & Dedicated

2) Honest

3) Genuine

4) Reliable

5) Professional

Sarah is always offering her support and in my respect to Customer Service, nothing is too much for Sarah, early starts, late finishes, assisting customers and colleagues through the most difficult disruption. Always offering her help regardless of the day of the week and I have known Sarah to offer support during her annual leave periods also.“