RAIL COMMANDER TRAINING

Thanks to the hard work of everyone at ARL, the London Overground is recognised as one of the best-performing train operators in the UK. A key component of running a busy and successful railway service is responding to incidents and events, minimising disruption and returning to normal operations as quickly as possible.

Last month all senior on-call managers attended a training course to equip them with the knowledge, skills and techniques required for them to be able to take 'strategic command' during significant incidents.

Head of Control, Steve McDaniel, said, "This training will be fundamental in giving the senior manager on-call community the skills and confidence to deliver successful strategic command of a major disruptive event, as well as ensuring the framework is in place to enable effective joint working with other agencies."

Any disruptive event, whether it's train derailments, high-profile incidents such as Operation London Bridge, fires, terror attacks or fatalities, will put significant pressure on ARL colleagues. As a workforce, we must have the direction, knowledge and composure to navigate such incidents to ensure our people and customers are kept safe and we recover the network promptly.

Training like this will help and empower those responsible for setting the strategic direction for managing an incident and recovery. They oversee a strategy to ensure colleagues consistently work in the same direction and prioritise the same objectives, such as keeping passengers safe and the railway moving.

Further activity is ongoing to meet regularly to discuss incidents, share best practices and learning, and highlight risks in business areas. We are also exploring options for extending command training to Duty Control Managers and other on-call managers.