Daniel Hughes

Said the following about Erica Carter:

“The North East & Scotland Management Team at CrossCountry would like to nominate Erica Carter, Customer Service Manager at CrossCountry’s Leeds depot for the Rail Staff Awards Rail Manager of the Year Award. After joining CrossCountry in 2010, Erica has spent six years on board trains as a First Class Host before becoming a Team Organiser in 2016. In 2019 she made the move into management successfully applying for the Customer Service Manager role. The Customer Service Manager role is a hugely varied job that involves looking after a large number of our on-board colleagues – in Erica’s case, half of all of the CrossCountry train crew based at Leeds station. Day-to-day requirements of the role can vary drastically and it’s important that Customer Service Managers can be flexible and adaptable quick-thinkers in order to be successful.

Ever since her promotion into the Customer Service Manager role, Erica has quickly established herself as one of the most senior and well-respected managers at CrossCountry’s Leeds depot. She cares passionately about customer service, rail safety and increasing diversity in the rail industry, dedicating a lot of her own time at work trying to develop a more diverse workforce. She has challenged some of CrossCountry’s existing internal recruitment processes and pioneered new ideas to attract potential employees from different backgrounds and ethnicities, securing funding to promote CrossCountry through recruitment channels that specialise in this area. In a challenging recruitment market she has personally spent a lot of time on station platforms and in Leeds city centre canvassing potential recruits through leafleting, whilst also encouraging other colleagues to get involved.

Erica also cares passionately about safety on the railway. Recently, Erica coordinated Leeds station’s Rail Safety Week on behalf of CrossCountry, acting as the business lead in putting the cross-industry activity day together. Over the week the delivered a number of sessions introducing the Sustainable Travel Toolkit to a number of school children from West Yorkshire. This toolkit is a UK first and highlights the important part rail plays in delivering a sustainable and safe future. Elsewhere, she has spent time at the Yorkshire Show promoting rail safety with other colleagues from CrossCountry and industry partners at Network Rail.

Overall, our regional management team continue to be impressed and very proud of Erica’s continued hard work and dedication since beginning her new role just before Covid. Erica is a pleasure to work with and undoubtedly one to watch progress through senior management roles in rail in the future. She is a fantastic role model for other colleagues hoping to work their way up the organisation and a great example of how hard work and positive engagement pays off.“