60 SECONDS WITH IMOGEN HUDSON

Every Month on Exchange Extra, we take sixty seconds out to get to know our team. Follow us on our journey to connect all members of our network.

This month we introduce you to Imogen Hudson!

Name: Imogen Hudson

Job title: Emergency planning and resilience manager

Location: Palestra

Hi Imogen! Please sum up your role in one sentence

Developing and maintaining emergency contingency plans and capabilities to meet relative legislation along with training and exercising the business on resilience and emergency management requirements.

Tell us about your journey to ARL…

I completed an undergraduate degree in International Disaster Management at Coventry University, during which I spent a year in the industry doing emergency planning for the NHS England London Team. Once I completed university, I wanted to move back to London but still in the emergency planning field. So, I started working for the Ealing Council in Emergency Planning, where I completed a year and then moved to the Southwark Council’s Emergency Planning team. I then looked at moving out of the public sector into private sector emergency planning for a different challenge, which led me to ARL!

What do you look forward to most working at ARL?

Joining ARL has been quite a learning curve from my previous jobs in terms of learning so much rail terminology and new ways of working. So far, every day has been a totally different day and it’s been interesting understanding the different parts of the organisation. My team in control has been super welcoming and I’m enjoying working with so many skill sets.

So far, what are you most proud of in your career?

I have been most proud of supporting Merton Council when their gas explosion in Thornton Heath affecting hundreds of residents. They requested mutual aid from other councils to support rest centres for evacuated residents and their control room, which deals with all incoming and outgoing information. I supported them in their control room and was able to see a live incident in play and understand the complexities that come with large-scale incidents. I was proud to have supported residents in that time of need in my own small way.

Tell us about your most memorable railway trip…

My grandad was a train driver in the West Midlands, and when I was younger, he was coming up to retiring for his last journey at work when we were able to see him at the station and wave to him as he completed his last route and then ride in the train he was driving. I will never forget this and I feel very proud to know he was the one operating the train.

Where would you go if you could book a ticket to any destination?

I would like to do a road trip across America. My auntie and family live in America, and we often visited them in Alabama when I was younger, so I have fond memories of my parents hiring a car and driving to different states close by. My boyfriend and I went to New York and then to visit my auntie in her new state of Michigan this March. Travelling to different areas is something I want to do simply because of all the fast food and other foods they have!