The NR Regional Director now departing

[The Stationmaster]

I see from the national press that Michelle Handforth, NR"s Regional Director Wales and Western,has resigned in the wake of recent shambles (various) at the eastern end of her patch.  Alas recent experience on trains (or not - because were  missing) east of Reading does make me tend to take her Linked In CV with more than a dash of salt.

 

I don\t know if she'll be shunted elsewhere on NR or maybe she'll leave to enjoy the benefits of the AirMiles etc that she has collected while making her weekly (NR funded according to a very reliable source) airborne commute between her home in the Aberdeen area and Bristol airport en route to her office in Swindon.  What a pity she wasn't doing it by rail via London and finding out for herself just how badly the track on the GWML has declined in the past year.

 

The real question behind her departure is of course whether she is just the stool pigeon for DafT parsimony and incompetence or whether some of the decline is down to her own management abilities (or lack thereof) ?   Whichever it is I can't see anybody at the top end of NR or in DafT rushing to supply an answer to that question.

[phil-b259]

My impression as regards NR management is that the only requirement for the role is unwavering obedience to the orders handed down from the DfT - or indeed obsessive fawning over the various ‘projects’ / ‘Initiatives’ NR has dreamed up themselves.

 

All very Emperors new clothes, no wonder front line staff are fed up and morale is low…

 

 

 

[Southernman46]

Above a certain level it matters little whether these people know how to run a railway or manufacture crisps - they are all interchangeable and rarely effective - we are a long long way from the days of Green, Pettit, Holden and even Armitt (who (from personal experience) knew a thing or two 👍 despite, on his own admission, didn't consider himself a railwayman but knew their value.

Edited December 20, 2023 by Southernman46

[jjb1970]

At a certain level management doesn't necessarily have to know the nuts and bolts and be able to go out and do a job on the coalface (though it's nice when they do and can). What they do need to be capable of is recognising the right expertise needed by the business and ensuring it is in place, understand advice, be capable of making decisions and have a spine. There's a theory that managers don't need to know anything about the industry within which they work because it's a process, I think that goes too far but many of the best leaders in shipping have never been to sea or have any detailed knowledge of how ships work, in electricity generation while most senior leaders were engineers it wasn't the case they'd all worked in power plants. The real disasters can't do, can't manage and can't make decisions but they can say yes and play corporate politics.

[russ p]

Was she the manager driving the unit that the driver did an impomtue pan swap in a load of pointwork 😄 

Edited December 19, 2023 by russ p

[uax6]

12 hours ago, phil-b259 said:

 

All very Emperors new clothes, no wonder front line staff are fed up and morale is low…

 

 

Whats Morale? Not seen that round these parts for a long time...

 

Andy G

[Mike_Walker]

11 hours ago, russ p said:

Was she the manager driving the unit that the driver did an impomtue pan swap in a load of pointwork 😄 

That's a cheap shot. 

 

The train in question was being driven by a driver manager and the investigations have shown the incident was caused by component failure within the OLE and had nothing to do with the actions of the train crew - the pan was certainly not being raised and the train was on electric power from Paddington.

 

Ironically, it had been diverted to another line at Ladbroke Grove as its booked one had been closed due to the poor condition of the track caused by further "wet spots".

 

Ms Handforth was previously head of the Aberdeen Harbour Board and still lives in that city and, as the OP notes, has been commuting by air since her appointment in August 2020.  I understand that she took the decision to resign herself as she had concluded she was not up to the job and her resignation letter went in before the Ladbroke Grove incident.  She was not "forced out".

 

Long distance commuting isn't unusual - I'm told there is a very senior civil servant in the rail section of the DfT who lives in Vienna and commutes to London!

[phil-b259]

8 minutes ago, Mike_Walker said:

 

Long distance commuting isn't unusual - I'm told there is a very senior civil servant in the rail section of the DfT who lives in Vienna and commutes to London!

 

Indeed - and who plaid a key role in prolonging industrial disputes in his crusade to 'break the unions'

 

Why on earth he is still employed at the DfT after his antics (other than him being a pro Thatcherie Tory boy) I have no idea...

[david.hill64]

My early career was with British Rail Research. In the more junior grades promotion was linked with technical knowledge: up to a certain level (equivalent to BR management grades 3 or 4) the higher the grade, the better you knew your subject. When I became a section leader I was in charge of people who knew a lot more about their specialist subjects than I could ever hope to know. I remember being asked by my manager about how I was coping with managing the team. I pointed out that it was the first time I had ever been in the position of having less knowledge than the people I managed. It was clear to me from then on that the best way to manage was to know who you could rely on and then rely on them. Know too those who might have their own agenda and work with those as best you can. Try to pick up the basics of each subject within the team and know what you can answer and what needs support. I am sure that the best managers that I worked for operated that way. You don't need to be a technical expert in rail to manage rail, but you do need to have sufficient engineering/operations knowledge to be able to interact to get the best from your team.

 

I think that the rail industry, like every other, follows diversity principles which often seem to ensure that the correct boxes are ticked rather than appoint on merit alone. 

[The Stationmaster]

12 hours ago, russ p said:

Was she the manager driving the unit that the driver did an impomtue pan swap in a load of pointwork 😄 

I doubt she needed the alleged 500 quid someone has claimed he was being paid.  I have heard her salary quoted as in excess of £300K per annum (plus air fares of course); I don't know how correct that information was but it came from a very senior retired source.

 

1 hour ago, Mike_Walker said:

That's a cheap shot. 

 

The train in question was being driven by a driver manager and the investigations have shown the incident was caused by component failure within the OLE and had nothing to do with the actions of the train crew - the pan was certainly not being raised and the train was on electric power from Paddington.

 

Ironically, it had been diverted to another line at Ladbroke Grove as its booked one had been closed due to the poor condition of the track caused by further "wet spots".

 

Ms Handforth was previously head of the Aberdeen Harbour Board and still lives in that city and, as the OP notes, has been commuting by air since her appointment in August 2020.  I understand that she took the decision to resign herself as she had concluded she was not up to the job and her resignation letter went in before the Ladbroke Grove incident.  She was not "forced out".

 

Long distance commuting isn't unusual - I'm told there is a very senior civil servant in the rail section of the DfT who lives in Vienna and commutes to London!

Interestng t hear that the Viennese commuter is still at DafT - it's long past the time they should have got rid of that destructive and ignorant  anti-railway clown.

[Mike_Walker]

I've been told she was on around £330k and claimed £10k for commuting air fares last year alone.

[The Stationmaster]

5 minutes ago, Mike_Walker said:

I've been told she was on around £330k and claimed £10k for commuting air fares last year alone.

Almost the same as my information then the onlu difference being that i was told the air fare claim was £15K

[Bernard Lamb]

17 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

Almost the same as my information then the onlu difference being that i was told the air fare claim was £15K

Before or after tax?

The last time that I looked, the cost of travel between home and your normal place of work was not an allowable expense.

Bernard

[Oldddudders]

When I was at NSE HQ, my immediate boss, Paul, was a qualified BR signal engineer - who lived in Paris. He arrived at London City Airport on Monday morning, and used a pied-a-terre in Chislehurst during the week. He was originally from Macclesfield. His contribution to the success of the Chris Green team was enormous. 

[The Stationmaster]

23 minutes ago, Bernard Lamb said:

Before or after tax?

The last time that I looked, the cost of travel between home and your normal place of work was not an allowable expense.

Bernard

It depends how your Contract of Employment is written - there are ways and means and there are various Income Tax  exceptions for travel between home and work.

[phil-b259]

14 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

 there are ways and means and there are various Income Tax  exceptions for travel between home and work.

 

In other words if you are wealthy enough / high enough up the cooperate food chain there are plenty of accountants etc who will tell you how to work the system and get exemptions for all sorts of things that ordinary folk aren't aware exist (or don't have the patience / time to claim)

Edited December 20, 2023 by phil-b259

[phil-b259]

34 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

When I was at NSE HQ, my immediate boss, Paul, was a qualified BR signal engineer - who lived in Paris. He arrived at London City Airport on Monday morning, and used a pied-a-terre in Chislehurst during the week. He was originally from Macclesfield. His contribution to the success of the Chris Green team was enormous. 

 

Yes but I can't imagine Chris Green putting up with people who were ineffective or merely content with 'costing' as part of his team.

 

There are circumstances where its worth bringing in expensive people - but ONLY if they deliver the results you want.

 

And when I say results thats results for the end users - not results which are solely geared around telling HM Treasury or DfT / ORR mandarins what they want to hear!

 

 

 

[The Stationmaster]

5 minutes ago, phil-b259 said:

 

In other words if you are wealthy enough / high enough up the cooperate food chain there are plenty of accountants etc who will tell you how to work the system and get exemptions for all sorts of things that ordinary folk aren't aware exist (or have the patience / time to claim)

No.  The biggest and most widely used exemption comes in respecte of company vehicles but it only applies to van drivers and people driving other vehicles used as part of their employer's business.  if you drivea. company suplied/financed car you are taxed but if it is avan it is an allowable expense.  There are probably more building workers, gas, electricity, or water workers than any other category not paying tax on using a company vehicle to get to/from work.

 

I wonder how many NR staff that also applies to?

[PaulRhB]

2 hours ago, david.hill64 said:

It was clear to me from then on that the best way to manage was to know who you could rely on and then rely on them. Know too those who might have their own agenda and work with those as best you can.

Very true, I’ve had a couple of very good managers with technically less experience than me but they would check out details with you and ask all the right questions and more importantly ‘get’ the answers. Equally if you had an issue you could talk straight to them and pass it up the chain far more effectively with their support so that trust works mutually. 
There are managers who were way up the chain from me you could sit down and chat to and have an unfiltered conversation with. Certain things they’d explain the reasons or politics behind a decision and others they’d take on and you’d see change. You develop real respect for them, a friend who’s moved up the ladder ended up working with Chris Green recently and was very impressed. He knew nothing of his history and was amused that I guessed his surname and who it was from his description of getting stuff done. 

[phil-b259]

10 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

 

I wonder how many NR staff that also applies to?

 

Officially it shouldn't - in my career its been made crystal clear that vans are not to be taken home after a shift finishes as not only is it a breech of tax rules it also invalidates the drivers insurance.

 

(Officially authorised Exemptions for people who undertake 'on call' duties where having a fully equipped van negates the need to travel to the depot before heading out to site thus providing a rapid response do exist)

Edited December 20, 2023 by phil-b259

[Bernard Lamb]

35 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

It depends how your Contract of Employment is written - there are ways and means and there are various Income Tax  exceptions for travel between home and work.

Or you ask to be paid through the payroll and the agreed amount is enough to cover the tax liability.

Now, how do I know that?😀

As you say, there is more than one way of skinning a cat. 

Seeing different figures have been metioned I thought that might explain the difference.

 

As Chris Green has been mentioned. The last time I saw him he was looking very well. Funnily enough his wife was at my wife's coffee morning last week.

Bernard

[The Stationmaster]

Just now, phil-b259 said:

 

Officially it shouldn't - in my career its been made crystal clear that vans are not to be taken home at night as not only is it a breech of tax rules it also invalidates the drivers insurance.

 

(Officially authorised Exemptions for people who undertake 'on call' duties where having a fully equipped van negates the need to travel to the depot before heading out to site thus providing a rapid response do exist)

So it does apply to some staff.

 

HMRC Rule is very simple.  if the employee has the van n mainly for work journeys (e.g. making calls at customers of making deliveries - attending sites is equally acceptable) and the only private use is commuting to work there is no tax to pay,  

 

If NR wish to aply restrictions on the use of vehicles - for example in order to reduce insurance costs - that is up to them as it is to any other employer.  BR of course didn't pay insurance for its road vehicle fleet so there was no saving on people legitmately being allowed to take a vehicle home in connection with their work.

 

Certain case law rulings apply as well but I duly was excused from paying tax after my then MP took the matter up with Inland Revenue as I only used a railway car to commute when I was On Call or otherwise on railway business such as out of hours visits.

[Wheatley]

1 hour ago, The Stationmaster said:

I wonder how many NR staff that also applies to?

 

I remember the time someone in ER HQ (might have been RRNE HQ) over-reacted to some fuss involving lorry drivers taking the tractor units  home (DHL ?) and decided that on-call vans were to be left at work and we could come and get them if we needed them. 

 

Being on call was on our JDs so we couldn't refuse to do it. The next few out of hours call outs were done by taxi until that was stopped, at which point the entire on-call roster suddenly didn't own a car or had only insured it for social domestic and pleasure. Response times thereafter (until someone was invited to read the HMRC rules again but carefully this time) depended on what time your first bus was.    

Edited December 20, 2023 by Wheatley

[phil-b259]

55 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

 

HMRC Rule is very simple.  if the employee has the van n mainly for work journeys (e.g. making calls at customers of making deliveries - attending sites is equally acceptable) and the only private use is commuting to work there is no tax to pay,  

 

 

A van to attend the site of a failure is one thing - a complementary plane ticket so you can commute from your home to your regular office (particularly as most NR staff do not get free travel to / from work i.e. commuting) is another....

[TheSignalEngineer]

When it came to Railtrack projects I had one Project Manager I respected for his attitude and abilities. We were still part of BR at the time and I was Senior Project Engineer in charge of all signalling works on the job. 

He was a civil engineer who was brought in from the oil industry. When he was introduced to us he said "I'm an engineer but know nothing about railways. That part is down to you, just tell me where the problems are, and otherwise I will stick to sorting out and programme, finance and politics issues." 

He pulled all the departments into a really effective team and the job was a great success, as all of the people on my level of the pyramid were very competent railway engineers in their particular field and he had his finger on the interfaces likely to cause delays.