Sam Newman

Said the following about Rob Bowman:

“Background

Rob is one of Northern’s conductors, working from our Blackpool depot. He joined us in February of 2020 and has been a shining example to his peers since day one.

Information

Rob is an active member of Northern’s Equality Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Engagement Steering Group, made up of a core group of Northern colleagues which was created in June 2020. Rob was instrumental in helping us launch Northern’s EDI strategy during Pride month and helps to represent Northern at various key events throughout the year, championing Northern as a great place to work, for everyone.

He is one of Northern’s ‘Diversity Champions’ and also a ‘Revenue Champion’ and is part of our panel of employees who get together to ensure the rest of the business is aware of changes, kept up to date and are receiving the best information – known as ‘Northern Crowd’.

Rob brings a wealth of experience in EDI best practice, thanks to his previous role working for ASDA. He helped develop our gender pronoun guidance to help colleagues understanding and helped introduce the name badge initiative where colleagues can now have their pronouns on their name badges should they choose to recently. He has recently been accepted on to our Horizon programme, which aims to develop colleagues with potential into management roles across the business.

All of this, and in particular, his assistance with the overall EDI strategy, is above and beyond Rob’s ‘day job’ as a conductor for Northern.

Examples of actions

There are a number of individual circumstances where Rob has been commended by both members of staff or our customers for going above and beyond his role. The following are two such examples:

• Our Customer Information Centre was contacted by a lady whose sister was travelling on a service from Liverpool Lime Street to Euxton Balshaw line to attend a friend’s funeral. The customer on board is profoundly deaf and was travelling with an old friend, who is also deaf. Rob realised that they had a disability and went out of his way to make sure they were OK and were aware of where they were on the route. This has been a problem for this particular customer before, as unable to hear ‘next stop’ announcements, has missed their intended destination in the past. Obviously travelling to a funeral was a very stressful and important journey and thanks to Rob, they were made to feel completely comfortable and that they were in good hands. He ensured they knew when the stop they needed was coming up, and also ensured they departed the train safely at the door and headed in the right direction on departure at the station. Both customers were incredibly grateful and asked the sister to contact Northern to let them know what a difference he had made to their day.

• On 7 September 2021, Rob was travelling pass back to Blackpool from Liverpool there was an emergency brake applied as the unit had struck a person on the line. The person was injured and had run away from the area, and the conductor on board the service had followed them to make sure they were OK. Rob realised this was going on and quickly sprang into action to cover the conductor’s role on board. He kept in touch with the driver and travelled the length of the train to check all passengers on board were ok following the emergency brake application, and to keep them well informed of what was happening the following plan of action to get moving again. He was complimented widely by his colleagues who were appreciative of his support in a very stressful situation, and the customers on board.

Conclusion

Rob is an asset to the Northern family, through his amazing attitude every day. His contribution to the many steering groups across the business is widely noted and appreciated, and his outstanding actions continue to impress us.“