Andrew’s ‘catchphrase’ is Putting Passengers
First - it was on the front of the booklet in front
of every diner, replacing 2018’s “A better railway
for a better Britain”.
“I make no apologies for being unremittingly
relentless talking about putting passengers
first,” he exclaimed, “because I believe it is
absolutely where our future lies.
“All too often, we talk about the system as
being congested, and the system being nearly
full, as if it’s a bad thing. But is it? How many of
you would choose to carry a significant amount
of spare capacity? Earning nothing for you,
month after month, because your assets are not
sufficiently reliable or because your maintenance
practices weren’t up to scratch, or because your
systems and skills were not fit for purpose? And
if you did, what would your shareholders make
of it?
“We must stop talking about the railway
being full as a bad thing. It is actually a fantastic
thing. It’s an indication of the long-term
economic growth that actually underpins the
economy of our country and it’s what we do.
And, as colleagues would have heard me say,
I passionately believe that trend of growth
will continue to be strong over the next few
generations.”
Safety is another big topic, and Andrew
remarked on the industry’s significant change to
worker safety since he has left and come back
to rail: “In the years that I’ve been out of the
industry, I’ve seen a complete transformation in
the approach to that, the significant reduction in
worker injuries and fatalities as a consequence.
We can do it when we put our minds to it and,
frankly, the supply chain is leading ahead of us in
many ways.”
“If we can do it on safety, we can do it on
reliability.” Which brought him back to serving
the customer, and Putting Passengers First.
Your host for the evening
One of television’s most experienced, and
versatile presenters, Julia Bradbury (pictured
below) was the host for the evening. A former
presenter of both Watchdog and Countryfile,
Julia can currently be seen in her new series
‘Australia with Julia Bradbury’ on ITV, in which
she travels 12,500km from the western coast of
this giant continent across to the east.
Outside of her presenting duties, she is
the current President of the Camping and
Caravanning Club.
“It is wonderful to see you all here tonight,
gathered in the heart of the country, at
this amazing venue, to celebrate your
achievements,” she told the audience. She then
joked with Andrew Haines, who claimed that,
since he joined Network Rail in August 2018, he
had done more public speaking than she had!
Following dinner, and plenty of conversation
between the audience that filled the room at the
NEC’s Vox conference centre, Julia returned to
the stage.
She then spoke about her career in television,
where she is perhaps best known for Countryfile.
“Countryfile was an amazing show to work on,”
she said, “and there are too many highlights
to recount here - travelling up and down the
country to some of the most beautiful locations,
covering such diverse stories, from county shows
to the plight of our crayfish populations in the
UK, under threat because of a ‘crayfish plague’
(carried by the American signal crayfish).”RAIL PARTNERSHIP AWARDS 29
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