Rachel Poynter

Said the following about Daniel Kirkman:

“Daniel is one of the most conscientious and proactive members of the station team at Manchester Victoria. He is calm in his approach to his role and excellent when dealing with customers. This has been demonstrated over the past few months through Daniel dealing with particularly challenging situations.

At the start of the year, a customer was taken ill on the platform at Salford Crescent station. This happened at a particularly busy time and unfortunately CPR had to performed on the customer until the paramedics arrived. Daniel acted quickly and remained calm, taking the lead with the train movements and the existing customers on the station. He ensured that all services stopped in an appropriate location on the platform as to not interfere with the medical emergency and assisted his colleagues so that the situation could be dealt with as smoothly as possible. Unfortunately the customer passed away. Daniel was understandably upset by this but chose not to take any time off work, he just took it all in his stride.

A second significant incident occurred at Manchester Victoria one June evening when Daniel was on shift. He was waiting to meet the arrival of a service when he noticed two males on the platform near by. Continuing his platform interface duties, the service was making its way into the station. At this time, Daniel noticed that one of the males had fallen onto the track. Acting calmly and quickly, he ran over to the male and pulled him up from the track just before the train arrived into the platform. His quick thinking and calm behaviour prevented what could have been a very serious incident at the station.

Daniel demonstrates professionalism at all times and is a credit to the Northern Rail team here in Manchester. This is why I believe that he deserves the Station Staff of the Year award.“