Recruitment
“The Cambrian Local Railway team were formed as a joint team (Network Rail & Transport for Wales) to work locally together as one industry team to deliver better results for their customers and taxpayers. The team formed in April 2023 under the leadership of Gwyn Rees and are a mix of local colleagues and managers based on the Cambrian line in Mid-Wales.
The team set their sights on how they could deliver immediate customer benefits by increasing capacity during the peak summer period. They managed to accomplish this in just 11 weeks by working together, challenging standards and breaking down historical barriers, meaning they were able to double the capacity (from 2 car to 4 car operation) on peak services - something that hadn’t been achieved for over a decade. This delighted passengers and local communities/businesses, and helped to grow revenue.
But the team haven’t stopped there. They have developed a joint P&L and identified ways of reducing overall net subsidy for their line. They worked together to reduce the cost of depot track maintenance and station cleaning (by using local maintenance teams when they were under-utilised), they have grown revenue (by 200% on some services) by introducing Conductor Assists through changing diagrams (at no cost) and are about to improve train crew facilities by making alterations to the station building at Machynlleth - something that frontline staff have complained about for years. They have also worked together to create new paths for freight, carrying regular timber traffic for the first time in many years, reducing the carbon impact (from lorries) and growing income for the team’s joint industry P&L.
The team have achieved all of this in 6 months, and it’s been accomplished by empowering the joint team to challenge historical norms and think/act like it’s their business - delighting their customers and reducing the cost to taxpayers. It’s been a pleasure to watch them thrive and deliver such fantastic early results.“
“Well done last Saturday, an excellent evening for which a great deal of planning and hard work had gone into the event and thoroughly enjoyable.”
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