Mark Green

Said the following about Edinburgh Station Team:

“The team at Edinburgh have been working amazingly for the last year or so throughout COVID and with staff shortages. Their team spirit has been evident throughout this time, even though at times they have had to work alone and call on the support of their wider colleagues at Network Rail, LNER, Crosscountry and Scotrail. Despite this and individual personal challenges, the team have consistently strived to deliver a positive experience for our customers. They have been instrumental in ensuring our train performance is optimum and have been tracking this through Quartz to identify trends. They have turned delayed inward services back round for departure in 5 minutes to keep the delay to a minimum. They are always train side ready for our services in good time to proactively prepare for everything. Recently LNER had major disruption and one of our services were expecting almost 5 trains extra on to one of our departures. They dealt with this superbly and had a number of positive customer comments too. The guys have taken on the task of using our ticket issuing system (Avocet) to solve problems in the moment. For example, the team regularly have last minute bikes turn up for services without a reservation. Recognising sending the customer back to the Travel Centre is not ideal, they now carry the Avocet with them train side, to book there and then. Reservations can be offered for those caught up in disruption and needing booked on an alternative service too which is brilliant!

An example of their team spirit is captured here where Leeah is recognising her Team Leader Carol "Last night was a nightmare disruptive shift due to a blocked line, and for our passengers, a very frustrating night of 3-4 hours of waiting for coaches and buses to be sourced due to a shortage. We had spent 4 hours with hundreds of passengers on the concourse trying to navigate the best routes and tend to the individual needs of not only our passengers but also Transpennine. Three hours past departure time we eventually started to get the passengers onto coaches and taxis, we were down to one last elderly gentleman, by this point we were well past our own shift finishing time. Carol insisted I go home and she waited out on the street with the elderly man for a further half an hour until his designated taxi came. After that, she went back to the office to put out machines for our train managers the next morning so they would not be without, Carol did not have to do this and she missed her NEXT train home also, she was not feeling so great last night but still put this gentleman and my wellbeing, and the smooth running of our company before her own needs and to her own detriment. This is one of many instances I have known Carol to do this and so I feel it should not go unnoticed. Thankyou Carol!”

The team have also "adopted" a Glasgow colleague to help out while they are short staffed. Rebecca comes over and supports coverage and has fitted in brilliantly. I cannot thank the team enough for what they have done and I think recognition with this award would show just how much their hard work and efforts have achieved.

Carol, Paul, Zoe, Ciaran, Jim, Leeah and Rebecca you are awesome and I appreciate all of you so much!“