London, UK, 2015-Sep-18
Achieving Highly Commended status for Maintenance Team of the Year highlights Siemens’ commitment to providing the best service to customers by ensuring the smooth running of its trains across the country. It follows Siemens’ work to improve the braking performance of its trains during times of heavy leaf-fall last winter. The work reduced damage to the wheels, saving significant maintenance costs.
The second honour of the night was Highly Commended in the Outstanding Teamwork category, presented to “entries that show passion and creativity”. It focused on Siemens’ unique collaboration with South West Trains (SWT) to help plug the industry skills gap - running a tailor-made training programme for their apprentices, working together to promote rail as an exciting career choice and holding joint events to encourage networking and cross pollination between young rail employees.
The National Rail Awards take place annually and recognise the very best people, organisations and projects across the industry. Over 1300 people attended the event held at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London on 17 September with awards presented by BBC personality and newsreader Steph McGovern.
Siemens Fleet Delivery Manager Andy Healey, commented: “It’s fantastic for our team to be recognised for the hard work they put in day-in, day-out to make sure passengers travel safely, efficiently and in comfort.”
He continued: “It’s equally gratifying that our joint Siemens and South West Trains approach to promoting rail as a great option for a career for young people was recognised by the judges. We’ve worked together on this since 2013 and it is a really unique partnership between a train manufacturer / maintainer and a train operating company. Well done to everyone involved!”
Around 190 Siemens’s staff maintain its existing South West Trains fleet using a ‘pit-stop’ approach primarily out of its purpose-built depot at Northam in Southampton, Hampshire, but the company also operates out of outstations in Bournemouth, Fratton and Farnham, Strawberry Hill depot and at offices in Waterloo and Clapham.
In 2002 the first Siemens Desiro fleet entered service was onto the South West Trains network. Since that time South West Trains has supplemented its Desiro fleet and now has a total Siemens fleet size of 172 electrical multiple units (45 x Class 444 and 127 x Class 450). In 2014 the company announced that it was to order an additional 30 five-car, second-generation, Desiro City Units which will be known as the Class 707 when they enter service in 2017.
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Laurie Waugh
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Email: laurie.waugh@siemens.com
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About Siemens
Siemens AG (Berlin and Munich) is a global technology powerhouse that has stood for engineering excellence, innovation, quality, reliability and internationality for more than 165 years. The company is active in more than 200 countries, focusing on the areas of electrification, automation and digitalization. One of the world’s largest producers of energy-efficient, resource-saving technologies, Siemens is No. 1 in offshore wind turbine construction, a leading supplier of combined cycle turbines for power generation, a major provider of power transmission solutions and a pioneer in infrastructure solutions as well as automation, drive and software solutions for industry. The company is also a leading provider of medical imaging equipment – such as computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging systems – and a leader in laboratory diagnostics as well as clinical IT. In fiscal year 2014, which ended on September 30, 2014, Siemens generated revenue from continuing operations of €71.9 billion and net income of €5.5 billion. At the end of September 2014, the company had around 357,000 employees worldwide. Further information is available on the Internet at www.siemens.com.