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“Ian has worked on the railway for 44 years and is going to retire on 22nd October 2016. He deserves to win this award as he is a true railwayman in every sense of the word. He is the most respected and knowledgeable railway operator that I’ve come across during my career on the railway.
He is the most dedicated and committed Driver Competency Manager who totally values and respects his team of drivers who in return are totally loyal to him.
During his 44 year career he has held numerous roles. He has been very proactive in demonstrating a high level of self-development that in turn benefits both himself and the safety of the railway.
He has been second to none in supporting and training others, for example, he developed the traction user guide for drivers which enabled the training department to give drivers a tangible tool to perform their role more effectively and professionally, keeping safety as the primary objective.
His contribution to teambuilding throughout his career has earnt him the respect not only locally but on a national level and he has very good working relationships with stakeholders such as Network Rail. Although his primary career has been the management of train drivers he has also been responsible for Guards/Conductors and Station staff which enabled him to gain very valuable experience and knowledge on the overall running of the railway.
Due to his knowledge, experience and initiative he was promoted to operations standards manager and fulfilled that role by demonstrating strong leadership, yet again safety always at the forefront of his key consideration.
When First Great Western gained the Greater Western Franchise in 2006 he was instrumental in developing the competency assessor team in Bristol as their team leader. The local services were an unknown quantity to FGW (GWR) and he had a major contribution in this transition. Collaboration was required during this very difficult period, not only for the staff but also for the travelling public, for example, when I became a driver manager in 2006 having had no previous experience, Ian was the manager that I was able to look up to, this allowed me to gain valuable advice, support and knowledge. He taught me how to manage the drivers, what behaviours and attitude to demonstrate and treat people like human beings.
He also developed the Professional Driving policy which included defensive driving techniques which was very innovative at that time. This provided practical interpretation of the rule book for drivers.
He was key in obtaining a system for sanding in step 3 on the class 150’s which ensured that we had a safety system to keep our staff and customers safe in time of low adhesion.
Ian experienced a fatality and he turned this into a positive and is able to empathise with drivers who have experienced the same situation.
Over the years because he has held various roles he gained a wealth of technical knowledge which has been put to good use on many, many occasions to keep the railway running. He has the flexibility, willingness , and resilience to always help out, for example I arrived at Westbury on an incoming train and the horn kept freezing as we had a big snowfall overnight and it was still snowing, the temperature was freezing and true to form Ian showed me how to de-ice a horn with a hot kettle and de-icer, we probably de-iced ten horns that day and on this occasion he was able to ensure that the trains still ran in difficult weather conditions and avoided undue delays and cancellations and more importantly got our customers to their destinations.
Another example was during last winter he was called out to the down sleeper service which had failed at Westbury and there were technical issues with the assisting loco as well as the coaching stock. The faults were finally rectified and the train continued its journey although several hours late. The following day the sleeper train was again terminated at Westbury with no locomotive. A fresh loco was sent down from London but there was no-one available with the knowledge or experience of coupling coaching stock to locomotives, he therefore donned a pair of overalls and coupled the train, thereby preventing serious delays.
Ian brings stability to the team and having experienced numerous franchise, management, role and infrastructure changes he is very resilient and still has massive enthusiasm, passion and commitment to the job.
He has always demonstrated a positive, proactive attitude and shows concern in everything he does. He remains calm no matter what the situation is, sits back, lets the dust settle, prioritises and makes a plan.
His retirement will be a sad loss. His contribution not only to the local team but to the railway industry as a whole is immeasurably“
“I have known Ian for the my whole railway career.
He is a railwayman in the true sense of the word, as well a great colleague.“
“I've never met anyone who knows so much about the job they are in, in any profession. Has always done his utmost to help me whenever I have needed it. A truly fine person and will be sorely missed by everyone who has worked with him when he retires in October.“
“Both myself and my girlfriend had a really good time at Sandals in Jamaica. Thank you to the RailStaff team!”
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