A galaxy of rail excellence
The NRA honoured rail’s finest - we are lucky to have them
Visiting the top of the 360ft north cantilever of the Forth Bridge. Being a guest at the St Pancras International formal opening ceremony, a decade ago on November 7 2007. Riding from Mount Pleasant to Paddington and back, beneath the streets of London, on Mail Rail when it was still a working railway. The privilege of having the ear of the last ten Secretaries of State for Transport, from Stephen Byers (June 2001-May 2002) onwards. Being warmly welcomed into the workplaces and lives of railwaymen and women of all grades. These are just a few of the career highlights I’ve been lucky to experience during my time editing RAIL, since 1995.
But they were all significantly surpassed by the enormous privilege of co-hosting (with BBC News journalist and broadcaster Huw Edwards), RAIL’s 18th annual National Rail Awards on Thursday September 21 at the Grosvenor House Hotel, in London’s Park Lane. I’ve co-presented this event every year since 2000, and it is always a tremendous honour to present awards to outstanding individuals, teams and companies for the excellence and achievement which we all know lies behind the frequently critical media coverage. Excellence and achievement which is rarely properly exposed to the wider public and for which there is too little credit, appreciation or understanding. We do our bit each year to reward those who have excelled.
But this year’s event was extra special - extraordinary, actually - and for me it was a stand-out career highlight. I was privileged to lead the NRA’s acknowledgement of the courage, service and dedication (in horrific circumstances) shown by Northern staff and British Transport Police officers, after the terrorist attacks at Manchester on May 22 and London Bridge on June 3.
Our coverage on pages 10-13 and 58- 63 really says it all, so do please have a read. Also, please try and watch the YouTube videos of the last half hour of the NRA presentation to Northern and BTP officers, together with the stunning poem we commissioned from Manchester poet Tony Walsh. This powerful and emotional poem is printed in full on pages 62- 63 - but Tony’s rousing and impassioned performance at the NRA, also on YouTube, is worth every second of the few minutes of your time it will take. This entire section of the NRA had our 1,200 guests on their feet and, I suggest, shedding a few tears. I certainly found it deeply emotional.
Amid all this, there were two outstanding moments which I will never forget. It was one of the greatest honours and privileges of my career to help present BTP officer Wayne Marques with a new NRA Gold Award for gallantry, for confronting three terrorists in the London Bridge attack on June 3. He tackled the three London Bridge knifemen alone, armed only with his baton. He suffered numerous stab wounds and slashes, placed his life in peril to save others and very nearly lost an eye - and his mobility. I know that strings were pulled to get Wayne into the MoD’s Headley Court, for rehabilitation, where soldiers severely injured in Afghanistan and overseas go to help rebuild bodies and lives. Without the expertise of the Headley Court therapists, it is likely that Wayne would have ended up in a wheelchair - so well done to those who got him in there. I’m sure Wayne will receive many awards - as I see it, he deserves the George Cross.
Watching Wayne with his walking stick in one hand and his other arm round the shoulders of BTP Chief Constable Paul Crowther, helping him onto the stage to collect his NRA Gold Award, was emotional, humbling and an incredible honour which will remain with me. The thunderous, seemingly endless applause from the 1,200 standing guests made clear that my feelings were shared around the room.
Wayne, the wider group of BTP officers and the Northern staff, from Manchester and London Bridge, really are the best of us and it is right that we should say thank you - although in these circumstances that seems too small a word of not enough significance.
The other moment I shall treasure and remember was meeting Manchester BTP PC Phil Healy and his wonderful, eightyear-old Border Collie Mojo, who you’ll see on pages 58- 63 and on the video. Mojo is a highly trained and lovely natured Explosives Detection Dog, and within minutes of the Manchester Arena explosion Phil and Mojo went to work for several hours checking for ‘secondary devices’ - other bombs.
It wasn’t just the very real, mortal risk of them being caught up in a second explosion that moves the spirit - it’s the horrific circumstances in which that secondary search took place. As Tony Walsh put it: “Where they felt the blast, but got there fast, the first ones on the scene/ We can’t imagine, shards and fragments and… all… that they have seen.”
Phil’s voice caught afresh, when he told me on stage and behind the scenes about the impact of the bomb scene not only on him and his fellow officers and Northern staff, but also on Mojo. The dog also was traumatised by the experience and subsequently suffered stress alopecia - his fur started falling out.
“He kept looking at me and I could tell he didn’t want to be there - neither did I - but we had a job and so we just got on with it,” said Phil. “He’s getting better now, thankfully.”
After the London Bridge attack, BTP Chief Constable Paul Crowther told me that when he first saw Wayne in hospital, he was still in his stab vest, covered in blood, lying on a trolley.
“I thought he was dead, but as I walked up he turned his head, saw me and said: “I’m so sorry Guv - there was just too many of ‘em…”
Wayne, Mojo, and all the officers and Northern staff in between deserved every second of applause that night and the thanks of the entire industry for what they did - and we know that BTP officers and rail staff everywhere would have risen to this challenge in like style. We are fortunate - nay, blessed - to have them. But don’t take my word for it. Watch the YouTube video. Then you decide - and let me know what you think.
Meanwhile, given that Labour trounced the Conservatives in terms of national conference impact, prospects for a Corbyn Government have improved - by how much remains to be seen. But this means that Labour’s clear promise of rail renationalisation (whatever that means) needs to be taken seriously and countered by those who believe this would be a retrograde step. Especially the rail industry itself.
Shadow Transport Secretary Andy McDonald’s conference speech was very long on rhetoric, short on effective substance and shot through with some misleading claims. But the Labour message in outline is nevertheless resonating with a public fed up of what passengers see as high fares and profiteering, especially by foreign-run franchises.
Robust rebuttal is needed. Where is it?
“I thought he was dead, but as I walked up he turned his head, saw me and said - ‘I’m so sorry Guv - there was just too many of ‘em...” BTP Chief Constable Paul Crowther.