As part of our ‘Women On Track’ campaign, we’ve been interviewing some of the incredible women who are working and paving the way in our industry. We want to celebrate our colleagues and showcase the huge variety of career opportunities available.
Today we’re introducing you to Kelly: Head of Performance. She’s worked at London Northwestern and West Midlands Railway for 22 years!
What do you do day-to-day in your role?
I lead a team who look at how we can make our trains more reliable and punctual. We capture the reason for a train being delayed, analyse the data and identify trends. As a team, we go out, working with all areas of the business, other train operators and Network Rail to identify ways in which we can do this. I set the annual and longer-term strategies, trying to gain funding for improvement schemes, unblocking issues the team identify and support them to help us deliver our objectives as a team.
What do you like about working for the railway?
The people are fantastic – we talk about a railway family, but it really is true. It’s also the variety of opportunity, my career started working in Customer Relations and during the last 22 years, I’ve progressed from that to chairing industry working groups on improving passenger information, managing contact centres, improving accessibility, leading revenue protection and prosecutions teams, information controllers, station and on board safety and quality audits and managing our contract with the Department for Transport and West Midlands Rail Executive – and now to performance improvement.
How does it feel to be a woman working on the railway? (i.e. do you feel like you stand out as a woman at work)
There are a lot more women in the industry than there were when I started, which is fantastic to see. Sometimes I’ll walk into a meeting and still be the only female in the room, so there’s still more to do.
What would you say to a woman thinking about getting into the railway?
Do it! There are opportunities in every discipline you can think of, and you’ll work with some great people who are totally committed to improving the service we provide.
Interested? Inspired? Check out our careers page for more information on our current vacancies, and a (long) list of benefits to joining the railway: https://www.londonnorthwesternrailway.co.uk/about-us/careers