STAR OF NEW TV SHOW
people to the 500 bus to the airport. Ten weeks is quite a long time – there was a bit of pressure sometimes but it was enjoyable in the main.”
Turns out the skills needed to deal with 32million Glaswegians on their way to London for a job interview or heading back to Paisley after a big night out transfer well to television.
Drew Burns, the shift station manager, is a natural in front of the camera.
The 54-year-old started on the railways through the Youth Opportunities Programme and counts the west of Scotland’s junction boxes as his close friends.
He is at permanent war with the roosting pigeons that fly around the station. Up on the roof, his favourite part of the building, they make it clear the feeling is mutual. Dive bombing is one of the occupational hazards of his job.
Drew has the kind of CV that would normally go with Susan’s job. She is a late convert to the railway. Before she came to Network Rail as an occupational health nurse, she worked in industry. Her career started in the Navy.
She had to be persuaded to apply for the manager’s job, assuming that her lack of engineering and signalling experience would rule her out. Turns out that years of setting Marines’ broken legs is just as useful as decades of signalling.
“It’s like running a big hospital,” Susan explained. “A station has people in it, they have all types of things happen in lives, they’re trying to travel from A to B.
“The building needs looked after and maintained, I need to make sure the staffing levels are right and that we are delivering to our customers.”
Susan’s customers are not just the commuters swarming through the concourse at 8.57am.
She added: “They vary from the train operating companies to the retailers that work in station, the builders and contractors.
“For the public, we need to make it as safe and secure as we can. It’s an iconic building. It belongs to the people of Glasgow.”
Dealing with the different train operating companies that use Central means she has to be “like Switzerland” and make sure that they are all treated equally.
Then there are big sporting events. There’s a weekend next month when the Scottish cup semi-final clashes with the Ayr races. Depending on which teams are playing, this has the potential for pandemonium. Women in uncomfortable shoes and fascinators heading in one direction. A strong possibility of football fans arriving in the city for crunch games going the other way.
What could possibly go wrong?
Susan said: “I have no interest in football whatsoever but your view of life changes when dealing with a station like this. “It’s pivotal to people getting to and from these events. The crowd for the races is Sex and the City when they’re going and River City coming back. Then there are the football fans as well.”
Susan and her team don’t just get up on the morning when Pink is playing Hampden and start wondering how they will deal with thousands of Prosecco-filled dames who need to get to Mount Florida.
Months of planning goes into major events, with the venue, the station and the British Transport Police all involved.
Susan said: “We work out what time it will all start, where passengers will board from, what numbers we can take on each train. We have a feel for these events – the team understands what the challenges are.
“We can segregate parts of the crowd, we can use different entrances and different parts of the station. There’s more to it than putting up a few barriers.”
Despite her unconventional career path, barriers are not something Susan has faced.
She said: “Sure, some people say, ‘That’s an odd job you’ve been given, how does that work?’ I always believe you just get on with it and prove your worth.
“I can’t say that I have experienced discrimination directly and if people have thought it, it doesn’t really bother me.”
Inside Central Station is on Sunday, BBC Scotland at 9pm.
SUSAN HOLDEN ON THE AYR RACES PASSENGERS