6 Membership
New POD Experience Events
Howard Collins Awarded with Honorary Fellow
Howard Collins has had a long and distinguished career in rail operations starting in the UK and presently in Australia . Howard spent 35 years with London Transport leading and shaping the London Underground we know today . He was determined to put a culture of delivering customer service through quality rail operations . This was not just a case of new trains and signalling but also to ensure customer information was transformed . So , he oversaw a programme of changes with improvements across all of rail operation such as train cleaning , on line information , train performance and at the heart of this change passenger information both long line and at station and train level .
One of Howard ’ s greatest achievements with London Underground was as Chief Operating Officer overseeing the very successful delivery of London Olympic 2012 . Howard subsequently accepted the challenge to become Sydney Trains CEO and accept the challenge to bring a similar energy and style to what he deployed in London Underground .
The Sydney network was known to be at the time someway behind worldwide heavy rail metros and Howard lead a series of upgrades which continues today . This included a strategy known as “ fixings the trains ” to improve reliability whilst overseeing new train fleet introduction . On the passenger side the Opal Card was introduced , which mirrored the Oyster card from London Underground . Other changes including creating a business case for the now delivered Rail Operations Centre . Today Howard has accepted another challenge to move across Transport New South Wales and look at strategy across all modes in Greater Sydney . One thing is for sure Howard continues with boundless energy in transforming public transport and it ’ s fantastic for CIRO to have him accept a well-deserved Fellowship .
CIRO are developing a series of learning experience events that will align with the POD ( Professional Operators Development ) framework .
As Railway Operations is very much a holistic system , we recognise that operators need to have experience and knowledge in the Whole System of Railway Operations in order to make the system work effectively .
Many operators do not necessarily come across every element of railway operations in their day to day job but are still keen to make improvements in those areas and see the full impact of their role .
The events will be designed to assist members with their Continuing Professional Development ( CPD ) and can also be used to supplement membership upgrade applications .
Each event will follow a learning framework developed to cover key criteria of the specific POD section .
The first event will be held in the New Year and will be based around Delivering Customer Services ( POD section 5 ). We have started with Delivering Customer Services as this is often a section that members say they have less experience in and limited access to improving . Many operators do not work in customer facing roles , however , ultimately every role in the industry impacts upon the customer . This event will give members an insight into these roles and also help them to
Kim Bucknell
Glen Merryman think about how their own work contributes to the end user .
Kim Bucknell , long standing Lead Tutor of CIRO ’ s Certificate and Diploma Customer Services Modules and Head of Customer Service East & Revenue Protection , Abellio Greater Anglia has been working with us to develop the framework for the first event and Glen Merryman , CIRO South East Area Chair and Service Quality Implementation Lead , Abellio Greater Anglia will be working with us to turn the material into an event .
The Delivering Customer Services experience be held in a station and a walking tour will stop off at several point of interest and key staff members . The experience will cover elements such as Station Approach & Access , Ticket Purchase & Collection , Gateline , Platform Moving &
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Waiting , Boarding , On-board Experience and Disembarking . A crowd management scenario will also be conducted .
Members will be able sign up to attend and if they would like to use the experience as evidence to supplement their membership upgrade then an additional professional discussion will take place after the event to ensure that the member comprehends the criteria at their desired upgrade level .
After this first event has been rolled out , we will work on developing events for each of the remaining eleven POD sections . The events will able to be held up and down the country as well as internationally by CIRO Area Councils .
We will communicate more information about the events through our usual event emails and on the website .
“ The events will be designed to assist members with their Continuing Professional Development ( CPD ) and can also be used to supplement membership upgrade applications .”