What does a station manager do?
My name is Simon and I work for Avanti West Coast as a Commercial Partnerships Manager, although my Avanti career began when I spent my first three years here as a Station Manager, covering Liverpool Lime Street and Runcorn stations. I came across from Northern having spent eight years as a Station Manager for various areas on their network, so you could say I’ve been around a bit!
Station Management isn’t easy, but it can be very rewarding. As a train station manager, you are ultimately responsible for everything and everyone at those stations, from conducting periodic safety inspections to looking after staff welfare and everything in between. Never has the phrase “no two days are the same” been more applicable than in the case of a station manager.
A week in the life of a train station manager
A typical week for me used to look something like this; Monday – meeting with Station Managers to discuss strategy. Tuesday – Meet with the union representatives to discuss a local staff concern and agree the best way forward. Wednesday – assessing staff on their dispatch of trains. Thursday – health and safety audit, reporting any issues to the relevant people to get them fixed ASAP. Friday – welfare calls to sick members of staff, whilst fielding calls about cancellations due to Storm Phyllis.
Throw in a leaking roof or two and on-call duties overnight and you have yourself a party!
Suffice to say it’s a demanding job, and you need to be able to think on your feet, but that’s also what makes it so exciting, and such a privilege, to be a train station manager! You really get to know your team, your customers and your station environments like the back of your hand. There is a real sense of accomplishment at times.
An insight into frontline railway careers
For anyone familiar with rail you may have come across the phrase “The Railway Family”; frontline roles, including frontline management roles, are where you really see this coming into play. Everyone looks out for everyone else. You’ll see amazing camaraderie in the mess room, colleagues picking each other up during difficult times and staff volunteering to work extra hours to support colleagues through busy events.
For me especially, it was always the last one – the busy events – that really made the job feel worthwhile. Hours spent in meeting rooms, poring over risk assessments and crowd management plans always paid off in the end, as did working closely with Network Rail and at times, the British Transport Police. There is a huge amount of satisfaction to be had from safely getting large numbers of passengers home. If you get to have a laugh with customers and colleagues on the day, even better.
I’ve been involved in many of these events over the years but the most significant (and enjoyable) of my career to date was when the Eurovision Song Contest came to Liverpool. It was an unforgettable event and so good for the city, but the weight of responsibility was tremendous, with the eyes of the entire world on Liverpool. This was even more keenly felt as we were hosting on behalf of Ukraine. There were several events planned in the city all that week including the busy Eurovision village on the waterfront, concerts and events outside St George’s Hall (which is directly opposite the station), parties and smaller events throughout the city and of course, the Grand Final itself. Months of preparation went into the event, and I worked with representatives from across the industry and the city. We built a crowd management system including queuing areas and roped in dozens of volunteers from every corner of the business to staff it. Anyone reading this who caught a train either the day of or the day after the Eurovision Grand Final will remember the sheer presence of staff and police on all the Liverpool city centre stations that weekend. In the end, we got several thousand passengers safely on their way home. There were even a few Eurovision performers who snuck through with very dark glasses and very sore heads!
The operation was a huge success, not just from an operational and safety point of view, but also as a showcase for what Liverpool can do as a city. The atmosphere over the entire Eurovision period was electric and I have never seen so much colour and such a sense of joy as I did staffing the station over those days. As you can see from the picture, we might have gotten carried away a bit ourselves.
It was also where I first encountered the wonderful world of commercial partnerships, which is my current role. Our Commercial Partnerships Manager at the time worked closely with the event organisers to launch a special Eurovision Superfan service dedicated to the diehard fans, OGAE. They follow the song contest from host city to host city and always take the celebrations up a notch. If you didn’t catch it at the time, you can read more about it on our Newsdesk here. Seeing the amazing event laid on by Commercial Partnerships in collaboration with Network Rail was a big part of why I applied to join the team.
How to work on the railway
On the subject of joining teams, two questions I have been asked repeatedly during my career as a station manager are 1) how to get a job on the railway and 2) how do I get a job as a train station manager. Whilst every train operator will be slightly different in what they are looking for most in an applicant, from my experiences my advice would be;
- If you want to join the Railway, apply, apply, apply! Railway jobs are highly sought after and don’t be discouraged if you are not successful on your first attempt. Experience in a safety critical job is often looked on favourably for operational roles as you can demonstrate strong safety awareness, which is our number one priority. Likewise strong customer service experience is crucial for roles such as caterers and welcome hosts.
Sometimes you might have to make a sideways move – if you want to join a particular train operator, or get a specific role like a train driver for example, you may find it easier to apply to another operator that is recruiting first and get that all-important safety critical experience, then apply again for your preferred role or company.
- Don’t do it! No, I would say if you want to be an Avanti West Coast station manager the safety stuff is even more important, as you will be responsible for assessing the safety performance of your environment and your teams. Leadership experience is a huge plus too, as much of your time will be spent supporting, developing, and (occasionally) enforcing discipline within the team. Practical items to tick off – look at getting nationally recognised qualifications in assessing staff competence and assessing safety in the workplace – both of which are needed for the role, but not always held by applicants. Having these skills and qualifications will greatly increase your chances of making it to the interview.
Hopefully that gives you a bit of insight into the day to day life of a Station Manager. It isn’t wall-to-wall sunshine and smiles, I have also seen some of the toughest experiences that our frontline colleagues have to deal with, and often times been there with them in the thick of it. But it is never dull, infinitely rewarding, and you learn and experience so much along the way. Plus they give you a whistle!
