The c2c Open Day on 18th October was a great opportunity to gain a greater insight into the day to day running of a Train Operating Company, and was attended by a wide variety of people both within and outside the rail industry.

After an introductory session, the day began with a talk from Chris Loder, c2c Operations Manager, outlining the significant and numerous challenges that occur when providing leadership in such a crucial area of an operating company. There was an in depth explanation of the skills required in people management and numerous examples were discussed, such as handling the demands of trade unions. The critical need to respond decisively and effectively when incidents that disrupt the train service break out was also conveyed very clearly.

Occurring alongside Chris Loder's presentation, Hugh Jennings, c2c Head of Retail, and Michelle Pryle, Group Station Manager, outlined the issues surrounding managing passenger expectations. This was a particular area of concern after the discovery of a wartime bomb near the line at Bromley-by-Bow severely disrupted the c2c service for a few days in June.

Following on from this, groups attending the day received the benefit of trains especially timetabled for the day from London Fenchurch Street , including the rare treat of travelling on a train straight to the East Ham depot. There, Slavina Nikolova, from the c2c fleet department, provided a detailed presentation on how the fleet is maintained and repaired at East Ham. Slavina explained that the strong reliability of the c2c class 357s was in no small part down to the effective working relationship with manufacturers Bombardier. It was clear that the relatively small difference between the number of units c2c possess and the number that always need to be in service was one of the more challenging aspects of managing the fleet.

At Southend, the Performance and Planning departments revealed how the train service is monitored and planned. Andrew Monk, Performance Delivery Manager, explained the importance of analysing the service to provide detailed performance statistics and identify recurring problems that prevent the service from performing as punctually as it should. Phil Sullivan, Short Term Train Planning Manager, also provided an insight into the numerous issues that have to be accounted for when planning the service, particularly when engineering works are taking place.

The other presentations that took place came from Driver Managers John Leonard and Robert Mullen , at Shoeburyness Depot. They spoke about the reorganisation of the Shoeburyness Depot, particularly putting the Driver Managers office opposite the mess room to bring staff and management closer together. The process of driver monitoring and assessment was explained to attendees very comprehensively. The need for appropriate management was a common theme, in terms of making the drivers feel valued, and ensuring that they are given appropriate training and other activities to aid their development.

All in all, the day was a huge success and well received by the attendees, who enjoyed a rare opportunity to get a look behind the scenes at the workings of a TOC.

Written by Andrew Jones, c2c.