by P J Shannon
A Private Company Is Born
After years of debating how, why, and when they would privatise British Rail, the U.K. Government decided, in 1994, to go ahead with their plan for privatising the company. The government reorganized and fragmented out different areas of British Rail's responsibilities, creating four main component parts: track, rolling stock, maintenance, and train operators. The old railway companies Regional Railways, Network SouthEast, and Intercity were abolished and replaced with 25 train-operating units. The railway infrastructure (the track) was placed under the control of the newly formed, government-owned Railtrack, the Company that I worked for.
They said that we would control the entire track, but with the exception of Waterloo which came under the control of Network South East, many of us were asking how they expected us to have any control over the way that delays were reported if we didn’t control it.
After I had been there for about six months I began to feel ill. I was getting every cold or other illness that was going round the office, and this was the first time in my life that I had a prolonged rough time. On one occasion I was so ill that I was sent home by train and somehow, (I think Chris Harper phoned them) one of my old colleagues at Feltham, Frank Wynn, found out that I was travelling on a certain train from Waterloo and was on the platform to take me off and drive me home, for which I was very grateful.
On my return to work it was decided that as a shift we should go to France for a day out to look at how the SNCF operated, so arrangements were made for us to travel across the Channel. As I did not have a passport I had to apply for one in a hurry and because I am Irish I had to collect mine from the Irish Embassy in London, which was no real problem as I was able to collect it the next week. We were to meet up at Woking at some ungodly hour and travel down to Dover by coach, so with my passport in my wallet, I set off from Bagshot to Woking where we gathered in the car park outside the station. At about 08.00am we boarded the coach and set off for Dover and the journey seemed to take for ever and when we finally arrived, the customs officer boarded the coach to check our passports. With everything correct, the coach was allowed to board the ferry. Our first priority was to get to the restaurant on board to order some breakfast, and it appeared from conversation that this was the norm. As I had not been part of the team before it was a new experience for me. During the meal it became evident that the real reason for the trip was to restock some of their liquor cabinets, so when we arrived at Calais the coach dropped us in town so that any one who wanted to do something different could look around the town. Some of us decided to do just this so we had a wander about until it was time for the coach to pick us up again and take us to the booze supermarket so that some of us could purchase wines and spirits. After all the purchases had been made, it was back onto the coach and to the ferry port for the return journey home. It was not a trip I was keen to repeat.
Unfortunately, back at work, I seemed to get over one illness only for another to arise. I became convinced that this had something to do with the air conditioning, but I struggled on into 1995 and beyond. However, I did not really feel any better; some days I was all right, other times I felt rough, but this was not like me at all, as normally I was well, but I was determined to try and stick it out which I did. Somehow this did not affect my work and in January 1996 I was requested to attend a proposed new management remuneration policy interview. What was the purpose of all this? From 1st January 1996 Railtrack would implement a new remuneration policy for staff previously graded, by evaluation, in EG and MS grades, and staff covered by the new arrangements would be known as Management Group and would be offered personal contracts. These would be negotiated by us and Railtrack. Anyone not wishing to change could remain at his existing terms and continue to have his salary reviewed on the basis of performance, but Railtrack hoped that we would consider the new arrangements carefully before rejecting them. This interview resulted in my grade being restructured to step 12 with 406 Hay points at a fairly good salary plus London Allowance. There was also a clause in the contract where I could take early retirement or voluntary severance, which we were given time to think over. What was the real reason for this change?
When I had read and inwardly digested the next five or six pages of FAQ and the Management Group Employment Arrangements, I decided that it was not for me.
During 1995 and 1996 the government fell behind on their privatisation schedule, and the U.K. Transport Secretary, Sir George Young, was concerned that the planned sell-off of Railtrack would be undermined by the slipping timetable. Sir George was further concerned when financial advisors stated that the success of the planned privatisation rested largely on Railtrack's successful privatisation. Although the original plan had been for the government to sell Railtrack after all the other rail franchises had been sold and the operating companies had proven themselves, the government pushed Railtrack's sale date to 1996. The estimated time schedule for selling Railtrack had originally been set at 2000. In January 1996 the government confirmed the privatisation of Railtrack. In October of the same year, Railtrack announced a plan to invest £1.5 billion to upgrade the West Coast Mainline railway.
Back to reality, in February 1996 I elected to apply for voluntary severance, or early retirement as it is more commonly known, which was accepted and as I was not the only one who elected to go, we were given a financial presentation by a financial adviser at Waterloo. He talked a lot of sense and through him I was able to sort out my finances, like paying off the mortgage and other commitments that I had. This I found very useful, so on 15th February 1996, I received the letter which spelt out to me all my entitlements and instructed me that under the Railtrack voluntary severance scheme, my employment with the company would terminate on March 30th 1996.
After 40 years of service I vividly remember my last day. I was on late turn and when my time came to clock off for the last time, there was no big celebration, no card, no senior manager to wish me good luck. As I walked out of the door for the last time, the Control manager just looked up and waved his hand. Had I still been at Feltham, I know that I would have been treated very differently. As I sat on the train on my way home that night, I wondered what the future would hold for me. Was I being shunted into the sidings for the last time or was there something else on the horizon? I need not have worried…
Isle of Wight Steam Railway
In 1998 we moved to the Isle of Wight. After making the house habitable and to our liking I did a lot of walking, and my health improved dramatically. I now felt the need to do something constructive, but put this idea to the back of my mind until one day we visited the Steam Railway, a heritage railway representing the age of steam trains from the early 20th century. Here I got talking to Graham Gibbons who told me that he was the volunteer co-ordinator and suggested that I might like to volunteer. I said that I would give it some consideration and soon decided that this would be an enjoyable way to spend my retirement.
During my first year I had passed through the grades up to and including Duty Officer so by now I had a good knowledge of the railway and its infrastructure. One day I was asked if I would call in to see the Chief Executive, Hugh Boynton, who asked me if I would be interested in taking on the role of the Company’s Safety Officer as the current one was to leave in a couple of weeks and would use his last days to show me the ropes.
So off he went to pastures new leaving me with the responsibility of sorting out what I thought was necessary to comply with the current legislation and to measure our performance as this was the procedure that I had been used to on the National Network. I soon realised that the Heads of Departments (HODs) had their own systems to comply with their particular requirements, but there were no general systems in place. So for the next 3 months it was a case of hectically compiling check sheets to satisfy this need. These check sheets needed to cover all the company’s infrastructure - car parks, roadways, foot-crossings, platforms, buildings, AV room, administration office, mess room, children�
�s play area equipment, woodland walk, signal box and ground-frames. You name it, there had to be a check sheet for it. All of these had to be collated into a summary sheet which would be the Performance Standard and would be submitted each month with a self assessment certificate to the Chief Executive confirming that all the checks had been carried out. Should there be any hazards found, the details would be recorded and given a unique number. Then a hazard reporting sheet would be submitted to the HOD of the Estates Department for remedial action, giving a time frame for this work to be carried out. The summary of this action would be followed by a year after year safety report, which would be submitted to the Board, and gave us the information to measure our performance.
The overall control for the safety of railways came under the jurisdiction of Her Majesty’s Railway Inspectorate (HMRI) and this was the body to which we would have to report any incident or accident. With this in mind, my next task was to address the statutory regulations such as accident reporting. First Aid Regulations required us to have first aid boxes in certain locations and have the required equipment to use in cases of accident, which would need to be checked regularly. There was also a requirement to have staff qualified in emergency first aid. Fire Precautions required us to have fire alarm systems and fire extinguishers in every building. COSHH, Control of Substances Hazardous to Health required us to have data sheets and assessments for all dangerous chemicals.
The above is only a sample of what was required and as the list of legal statutory requirements was extensive and needed to be addressed, it was at this point that the idea of a Safety Procedures Manual (SPM) was conceived. The concept was that for every statutory requirement I would create a policy by setting out a simple set of instructions to cover that requirement.
So after a couple of years with many improvements we had a fairly comprehensive system up and running and could prove, should the occasion arise, that we were taking health & safety seriously.
At about this time I was asked by Steve Oates, the railway’s chairman, if I would be prepared to take over the safety examination of the Island Steam Show. As it was a major part of the railway’s revenue, how could I refuse? So I set about compiling check sheets to cover all the aspects and functions of the show such as hygiene certificates for the catering outlets, certificates and risk assessments for the fun-fair rides, steam engine boiler certificates, tents, fire precautions, emergency evacuations, first aid and overall risk assessments. I am pleased to say that over the years we had no major problems.
In 2004 I was asked by the Chief Executive to assist Brian Bell in completing the railway safety case, a standard requirement for all railways. It took many phone calls to HMRI to confirm that we were on the right track before it was nearing completion, but as this time approached we were made aware that safety cases would be abolished and replaced by the safety management system within two years. So we decided to incorporate some of the new systems into the safety case. At long last it was accepted and certified by HMRI.
I realised that the railway had not held an emergency exercise for some years and as this was part of the safety case I, with the help of my colleague, Ron Lee concentrated on setting up a Table Top exercise. Two years later, Alan Doe, Terry Hastings and I set up a live emergency exercise. The experience of these two exercises enabled us to product the Major Accident and Incident Procedures Manual.
In 2005 the Rail Accident Investigation Branch was formed which was an organisation to investigate railway accidents independently with the aim of improving safety, and we would now be reporting to them. So in 2006 when the railway safety case was abolished, we extracted the SMS part of it that Brian and I had written and used that as the basis for the new SMS. The other important change was that from now on the heritage railways would be self regulating and the HMRI would become the Office of the Rail Regulator (ORR) to whom we were now required to report.
Fortunately for us, whilst Len Pullinger our Motive Power Supervisor was attending a presentation by the RAIB on the contents of the SMS, it was discovered that the document that we had would not stand up to scrutiny, so after many long discussions between him and myself we agreed that a meeting of all the HODs and the General Manager was required to try and sort out the deficiency.
After a couple of meetings we had made much progress and agreed that to put the situation right we would need someone to act as the SMS co-ordinator, and it was suggested that Len would be the ideal candidate and he agreed to undertake the project which would be a dynamic document. During one of these meetings it was also agreed that the HODs should form a safety committee with the General Manager at its head. It became quickly apparent that one person could not write up all the HODs requirements, so it was agreed the HODs would write their own specifications saying what they did and how they did it.
Swift progress was made on the SMS under Len’s directorship and it was soon finalised and presented by Len and myself to the Board for ratification and was accepted with the proviso that only one hard copy should be issued and this would be kept in the Safety Officer’s office. It would also be published on the company’s server with instant access for all the staff and volunteers, so we now had a comprehensive document saying what we do and doing what we say. Should any organisational changes be needed, this was now a simple process of the HOD concerned putting in a proposal of change with the appropriate risk assessments, and if agreed it is signed off by him, the Safety Officer and General Manager.
The next problem was getting the contents of the SMS over to the masses. For new intakes to the railway it was decided by Clive Miller, Allen Atley and me to organise a structured induction course which would contain an overview of the company plus a in-depth presentation of the requirements of the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 and the SMS, while for the older established people we would add it to the compulsory training days.
We have seen many major improvements within the company’s health & safety policies over the last decade. Beside the small issues such as filling in potholes and mending fencing, there have been major ones like the new equipment in the children’s play area, the running boards on Havenstreet platform, the new accommodation, and the anti-slip measures at Smallbrook As well, Wootton is having an extension to and resurfacing of the platform, new toilets, booking office, and shelters. New toilets, booking office and shelter at Smallbrook are also to be completed by the start of the new season.
Late in 2011, I decided to retire from my post of safety officer. On this occasion my retirement was marked by a very enjoyable send-off. Many staff, past and present, came to the railway for a buffet lunch and presentation.
Looking Back on Changes
When I look back, I can see the huge changes which took place imperceptibly, or so it seemed.
In 1958 the first diesel-electric locos were coming into service. The process began on the London Midland line. A contract for 52 such locos for main line running was placed on behalf of British Rail the same year. These 52 locos represented the first major instalment of a scheme for the complete replacement of steam by diesel traction. The last steam-hauled passenger train service ran in 1968.
Also in 1958, the first of the new order of 4800 small wheeled containers with 70 cubic feet and one ton capacity were coming on stream. These were highly popular with traders, and could be wheeled into and out of railway wagons. They were used for transporting general merchandise such as cloth, wallpaper, glassware, toilet requisites, stationery and switch-gear.
During my career, I witnessed many amalgamations of small departments into larger ones. While some of these were undoubtedly improvements, it cannot be denied that some were less obviously good moves. For example, the closure of small signal boxes when the new panel boxes arrived caused great concern among staff. Many would be made redundant, but there was also a feeling that the signalmen in the panels were remote from the action. Is bigger always better?
Another sign of the changing times was the closure of many of the freight yard
s and parcels depots. Road haulage became the preferred option, and British Railways suffered the consequences. As I have said earlier, some of these closures affected me personally and I had to reinvent myself many times.
Probably the biggest change of all was the privatisation of the railway. Those of us who were now coming to the end of our careers could now sympathise with the concerns of the men who had been our superiors when we were starting out as callow young railwaymen. Now it was our turn to grumble about change, and to wish we were well out of it, while the youngsters looked forward to the new challenge, much as we had done all those years ago.
For me, the wheel has turned full circle as I returned to the glorious age of steam.
