Anouska Chisholm

Said the following about Ann Turner:

“Ann Turner has given her dedication and commitment to the railway from 1991 through to 2015, She has had several roles and has shown courage, dedication and commitment to the rail industry including in challenging times whilst also promoting the rail industry to the local community and further afield and encouraging her teams to grow. Ann retired this summer as she wanted to spend more time with her family and grandchildren but still has the passion, love and dedication for the railway in her bones.

In 1991 Ann began her career in the rail industry as a chef and worked her way up the ladder to her final role as Retail Manager with East Coast Trains. Through her career she has had many challenges; one of the early challenges was manage a small team to implement Virgin Trains Project Dynamo service which saw a full revamp of the first class offer on trains for Virgin who had recently taken on the new West Coast franchise. She then went onto become catering manager and then became Station Manager at Carlisle station in 2001. One of the first challenges Ann faced that year as station manager was severe disruption due to bad weather where no trains ran north of the station because of snow and the city ran out of hotel rooms to accommodate people and no onward transport could be provided due to the severity of the weather. Ann manage this and worked effortlessly over the 24 hours, which included looking after a couple who because of the weather and delays missed their own wedding, Ann took it upon herself to rearrange their wedding for the following morning and even took them to the wedding and became a witness to their wedding which has to be said is dedication and commitment both to the train operating company and to the passengers, needless to say a very happy couple the following day.

During Ann’s time at Carlisle she managed the reception of several members of the royal family including the Queen in 2012. As a result of Ann efforts she was invited to the Queen’s Garden Party as a way of thank you for all her input and support to the Royal Family. Ann was on site following the aftermath of a fatal stabbing on a train, where Ann oversaw the station operation and ensured that everyone got to their destination or a hotel, she also went out her way for one passenger where she took them for shoes, and another for a baby car seat and then followed up with passengers and the family member. Ann also was on the scene at the Greyrigg incident and worked tirelessly that evening to ensure that passengers were looked after; following on from this Ann regularly met with the residents where the incident happened to ensure they had everything they needed including taking flowers to them day after.

Ann was also the station manager when Homebase approved her to undertake a filming at the station for a TV advert. See attached link of images and advert below: http://www.tellyads.com/play_advert/?filename=TA10571&type=recent https://www.flickr.com/photos/davidambridge/4382380838/ Managing and overseeing this could have been a logistical nightmare as the station still was operational during the set up and filming of the advert and is known is known by millions for the dynamic transformation of the station. Ann encouraged her team to embrace this temporary transformation which wasn’t easy for them.

Ann also saw her station and teams win awards over the time including Penrith Medium size station of the year in 2007 and Carlisle won best station toilet. Ann then moved onto work for East Coast trains where she spent her last 4 years managing Edinburgh travel centre and then Newcastle travel centre where she relocated the team from the 1970’s ticket office accommodation into the new ticket 21st century ticket office. Newcastle ticket office was also shortlisted for best team in 2014.

To sum up Ann has given 24 years of dedication and commitment to the railway and the description above only covers some of Ann dedication and achievements, Ann has managed and has encouraged her teams to grow and evolve and promoted train travel, this can be demonstrated through being shortlisted for Rail Manager of the year by her team at Newcastle Travel Centre.“