Recruitment
“As Pete approaches retirement after 30 years in the rail industry, we are awed by the dedication he has shown to the communities we serve. At work and in his personal life, he is passionate about helping communities across Yorkshire to reach their full potential.
Every community is different, and Pete adapts his skills and knowledge to help the best he can. This could be helping flood-affected residents, or helping to create a dementia-friendly railway, or supporting young people from low socio-economic backgrounds. He truly believes the railway is about the people it supports, and he knows how blend the corporate and community aspects.
Pete joined the railway in 1992 as a trainee conductor and succeeded in a variety of operational roles before being appointed as Stakeholder Manager in 2014. He has formed valuable relationships with stakeholders including local authorities, MPs, and community rail partnerships. His personable style readily enables him to understand and embrace people of all standings and communities; even challenging news is delivered with empathy and a solution.
The Boxing Day flood of 2015 resulted in the emergency evacuation of the Calder Valley community. Pete jumped into action to help residents from the devastated areas where roads had become unusable. He arranged special stop orders to ensure all available trains could help with the evacuation efforts, notably for elderly residents in a sheltered housing complex. Many homes were uninhabitable for nearly a year, and Pete supported the community with special rail passes for residents who needed to return to check on the state of their homes. Seven years later, grateful residents still talk about Pete’s generosity.
Pete, along with the Bentham Line Community Rail Partnership, was instrumental in the development of the Dementia and Community Rail project on the Bentham Line which was ground-breaking in the community rail world and led to a highly praised National Community Rail Award in 2019. A project which has received the support of the Department for Transport and has been recognised in the recent White Paper, the ‘Williams-Shapps Review of Rail’.
In 2021, Pete was recognised by the City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council for the support he and his team have shown to the Community Youth Engagement agenda in recent years. He aims to inform, engage, and inspire the young people to achieve their goals, and encourages them to use the railway to access education and employment opportunities. Furthermore, this engagement will hopefully attract the brightest young talent into the rail industry.
Pete has been involved in such a variety of projects, it’s difficult to name the most impactful, but each has been important to the community he helped.“
“I would like to compliment you on the very successful Awards night, very well organised, super food and I admire the amount of detail you have gone into with the little booklet and everything. The hall was very well suited for so many people.”
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