July 12, 2022 • 36 mins
In this episode of Life On Rails, the podcast that takes you behind the scenes at Greater Anglia, we speak to podcaster and writer Robbie Knox about relocating to Norfolk and his passion for the region.
We also hear from a train driver about the dangers of trespassing and the impact it can have, and we meet one of Greater Anglia’s area managers, Paula Wilson, who talks about her career journey from the skies to the rails.
And from Hockley to Hollywood, we find out about some of the big screen blockbusters that have been filmed on our network when we speak to our filming consultant, Adrian Booth.
Our fares guru Ken Strong explains how you can recover the cost of a railcard in a single trip, and presenters Juliette and Lucy explain what to do if you leave something on one of our trains over the summer.
We’d love to hear from you, please tweet us at @GreaterAngliaPR #LifeOnRails. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast as well, and visit www.greateranglia.co.uk/podcast to discover more.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Lucy Wright (00:02):
Hello again, I'm Lucy Wright.
Juliette Maxam (00:04):
And I'm Juliette Maxam, and this is Life on Rails.
Lucy Wright (00:08):
We work in PR at Greater Anglia and host this
podcast, which takes a behind the scenes look at one
of the UK's largest train companies.
Juliette Maxam (00:15):
We're talking to a huge range of people, from train
drivers to film liaison staff, as well as some special
Greater Anglia celebrities.
Lucy Wright (00:24):
In this episode, we speak to presenter, writer, and director
Robbie Knox.
Robbie Knox (00:28):
So I went to university at UEA in Norwich, and
I loved it. You get quite a lot of good bands here, lot of theaters, UNESCO
City of Literature. I think it's a beautiful place.
Lucy Wright (00:37):
Our resident affairs guru, Ken Strong.
Ken Strong (00:37):
If you're going to XYZ place, you will actually save 20 or 30 quid on this
particular journey. Including the cost of the rail card, they were
actually saving money there and then.
Lucy Wright (00:48):
Adrian Booth, Greater Anglia's film liaison consultant.
Adrian Booth (00:51):
We worked on Killing Eve. I Hate Susie, which was
Billy Piper. This is Going to Hurt, with Ben Whishaw
for the BBC. And a big one, Jack Ryan from Amazon.
That was an enormous setup that one.
Lucy Wright (01:03):
And Paula Wilson, one of our area customer service managers.
Paula Wilson (01:07):
I myself don't have a degree. And there's a number
of companies who would not consider me for the role that I'm in now without it. And as far as I'm aware, I'm not doing too badly.
Juliette Maxam (01:17):
To kick things off though, we're going to speak to
Glenn Harwood. One of our driver training managers.
Lucy Wright (01:27):
Every summer Greater Anglia sees an increase in the number
of people on or near the tracks without permission. And
this is a really serious issue. I wanted to speak to
Glenn Harwood about it. He is a train driving manager,
but has been a qualified train driver for 20 years.
Hi Glenn, how are you?
Glenn Harwood (01:41):
Hi, Lucy. I'm fine, thank you.
Lucy Wright (01:43):
Welcome to Life on Rails. Thanks for joining me.
Glenn Harwood (01:44):
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Lucy Wright (01:46):
So just talk me through it. Why is it so
dangerous for people to be on the tracks without permission?
Glenn Harwood (01:51):
Well, from the driver's perspective, absolutely dangerous. Having somebody who's
not meant to be on the track is a heck of a
surprise. Of course, our trains are traveling at high speed.
As a driver, we haven't got a steering wheel, we
can't divert round them. We can't then move to another
line to avoid them. And ultimately we have to put
our break into emergency. And unlike when you're pushing the
(02:11):
road, a car can stop very quickly, our trains don't
do that. It's about 3/ 4 of a mile from 100
miles an hour to stopping. And that's in good conditions.
We added a little bit of rain into that, the train
will slip and slide and could potentially be beyond the
mile. So the reaction times are very, very slow for
the train in that respect. So for the poor driver
who's sitting there, there's nothing more we can do but
(02:31):
put our break into emergency in a hope then that
individual that's on the track moves. So it's very difficult and it's
an extremely dangerous place to be. Ultimately, it's not a
playground. And I think we really need to get that
in there. It's its not a place to be, unless you
are authorized to be there.
Lucy Wright (02:47):
Exactly. And it's not just our trains that run. We
have engineering trains. We have test trains. So by thinking, "
Oh, I know this line. I've lived near this line
for for years." It's not just our services that people
need to be aware of.
Glenn Harwood (02:59):
It's not. And we've seen that in the past. Actually, those are
regular users quite often are the worst. Because you're right,
they think, " Well, the train goes past me at 10:24. At 10
go over." All it takes is a slight delay and then
they're going to get caught. And vice versa. Of course
we have double tracks. So your train may go past
you, but forgetting there may be a delay coming the
(03:19):
other way. So again, you're putting yourself at risk all
the time. So familiarity can actually be quite dangerous. And
we've seen ourselves, especially some of our rural lines, where
tractors, farm users, they're using it all the time, but
quite often they do misuse it.
Lucy Wright (03:33):
And have you ever had a near miss?
Glenn Harwood (03:34):
I've had several sadly. For the drivers, again, it's a regular
occurrence. I'm not saying every day. I don't know if
you're aware, but in the UK alone we have 34
near misses every single day on the UK network. So
yeah, from the drivers' perspective, we see it regularly. I've had
one recently stands out really like a sore thumb because it was
very, very close to me actually killing somebody. It was
(03:56):
on one of our rural lines. Ipswich to Felixstowe, and
as we come into Felixstowe there's quite a sharp bend, so I'm blind basically. And
on that bend are two crossings. As I came around
the corner, there was a chap with his dog. That's
fine. He's on the crossing. He can clear it quite
quickly. Unfortunately, the dog escaped from the lead and which
ran towards me on the track. And the owner in
(04:16):
a panic decided to follow the dog. So he's now
coming towards me. I'm heading towards him at about 50
miles an hour. I put my break into emergency and
I'm sliding towards him. And that's all I can do. And I actually
turned sideways. I was convinced I was going to hit
him. And the train came to a stand and I
didn't hear a thud. So obviously, I haven't hit him.
I pulled my window down and he was halfway down
(04:38):
the train and he went, " Sorry." And I said, " Sorry?" Obviously
for him, he was fine, I'm sure. But I was
all over the place. My heart was pounding and yeah,
it was really difficult. Because I almost went through all
those emotions of killing somebody, but I didn't. Which is
a good thing. And so yeah, that was pretty tough
for me to take actually. And the impact on me
(04:59):
was quite difficult. I actually went back to Ipswich and went and
had a cup of coffee and had a quick 15
minute break just to calm down. It's quite shocking.
Lucy Wright (05:07):
Yeah, so it's just as emotional having a near miss
when you see a trespasser as it can be, if
you do hit someone.
Glenn Harwood (05:12):
Absolutely, yeah. I've had both, sadly. I have had a fatality so I can relate to
both. And it actually was no different apart from the last element
of it, the last two or three seconds of actually
striking somebody.
Lucy Wright (05:22):
It's just not worth it. It's not worth trespassing. It's not worth the shortcut
home or whatever you think you're going to gain.
Glenn Harwood (05:26):
No, no. Because the consequence is not only could you die, remember
the impact on your family, your mother and father. And
not just that, the driver, of course, as I said
before, it's really traumatic and would need time off work,
canceling, all that type of stuff. Ambulance crew, fire crew,
they all come out to scene. And I do go
to scenes that have involved fatalities and a lot of
(05:50):
people are impacted by it. Absolutely, yeah. So there's a
big impact, not just on the individual, but on the
bigger picture.
Lucy Wright (05:57):
And the railway, isn't just trains and tracks. There are so
many hidden dangers. Can you talk me through some of those?
Glenn Harwood (06:02):
There are, you're absolutely right. And we forget that sometimes. I think we just think about
trains. And absolutely they're important and they are a big
risk. But we have overhead wires, which our electric trains
run on, and they're 25,000 volts. And you haven't even
got to touch them. If you get close to them, you
will be electrocuted and ultimately it will kill you. And we
have tracks, of course, where people run across. We have
points where our trains move. They're moving all the time.
(06:24):
And so if we don't know anybody's on there, you
could quite easily get trapped. You could even slip over
and break an ankle.
Lucy Wright (06:30):
So what should somebody do if they see someone on
the tracks?
Glenn Harwood (06:33):
I think first of and foremost I'd dial 999, make an emergency call via
the police force. If you are near crossing and you've
got access to a railway telephone, because all crossings have
railway telephones, I would make that telephone call there as
well. So inform somebody. At least do something with that.
Don't just ignore it. And report it as soon as
possible. But 999 from the police is great. They will
have a link to Network Rail signal box. Or I
(06:56):
said before, if you're near a telephone on a crossing,
that goes straight to the signal box controlling that situation.
Lucy Wright (07:00):
So tell somebody as soon as possible.
Glenn Harwood (07:02):
As soon as possible. Immediately.
Lucy Wright (07:03):
And I think it is important to acknowledge that not
everyone on the tracks is playing around or looking for
a shortcut home. And anyone who needs to speak to
someone should contact Samaritans on 116-123. They are there for
you 24/ 7 every single day of the year. Glenn,
thank you so much for joining me today.
Glenn Harwood (07:20):
Thank you. It's been a pleasure.
Lucy Wright (07:24):
I'm back with our resident fares guru, Ken Strong. Welcome
back, Ken.
Ken Strong (07:28):
Thanks for having me back, Lucy.
Lucy Wright (07:30):
So the summer holidays are here, people are off on
their holidays and day trips across the region. Now we
want to help people save money. And today we are talking about
a rail card which offers great savings. So Ken, what
is a Friends & Family Rail Card?
Ken Strong (07:44):
Friends & Family Rail Card is a product, it doesn't necessarily need to
be for a family, hence they call it Friends & Family as
well now, where you have a group of adults and children
and you can make a journey at very good value
fares. The main condition is there has to be at
least one adult and one child in the group. You
(08:06):
can't just have two adults. There are separate cards for
groups like that. If you have an adult and a
child up to four adults and four children, they could
all be on the one rail card.
Lucy Wright (08:15):
So four adults and four children. So eight people on one
rail card.
Ken Strong (08:18):
Eight people on one rail card. And you can either
have one named holder who can then take up to
three other adults and up to four children. Or you
can have two named holders in which case only one
of the two named holders. So if a say a couple of
partners, one can take the children, the other one doesn't
need to be traveling at all. Or then the next
(08:38):
time, the other one can travel and the other one doesn't
need to take the trip. So it's quite flexible. But
you have to decide whether you want to have both
people named on it. It's best if you're a couple
to name both people. And then you have the flexibility.
You can have one person plus three others, or you
can have the two named people plus two others, or
(08:58):
you can have the other name person plus three others.
So it's flexible like that. So if you're a couple,
it's best to name the two people on the card.
As I say, you don't have to be related at
all. You can just take some random children along, if
you fancy. Take the neighbors' kids out for a day out, something like that.
It's all possible.
Lucy Wright (09:15):
Brilliant. So how much does it cost?
Ken Strong (09:17):
It costs £ 30 a year, or it's £ 70 if you buy
one that lasts for three years. And you can get
it as a physical rail card from the ticket office, or
you can also buy it online, which is easy to
do these days, and have it as a digital rail card.
Lucy Wright (09:31):
So £ 30 for a year and up to eight people
on it, you must be able to pretty much recover
the cost of the card in one journey.
Ken Strong (09:39):
If you make a journey that's of any reasonable length,
you'll save the money back on the card straight away.
And I'll tell you, when I used to work in
the ticket office many years ago, I actually used to
say to people that were making journeys involving adults and
children I'd say, " Buy a family real card." And they
would say, " Oh, I don't know about that." And I'd say, " Well, if you're going
to XYZ place, you will actually save 20 or 30 quid on
(10:02):
this particular journey if you buy the rail card." Including the
cost of the real card, they were actually saving money there and then.
So we used to self a lot of them to people just on
spec because it was such a good deal. So it's certainly worth having.
Lucy Wright (10:15):
Brilliant. They're such good value. I like that bit of Ken
history, you in the ticket office. So can you suggest some
journeys that people can take this summer where they can
use their Friends & Family Rail Card?
Ken Strong (10:25):
So you can use it on short hops. You can
use it just going down to the coast. I don't know, if
you live in Colchester, you could go down to Clacton. Or if you are
in London, you could go down to Southend. Or if
you're in Norwich, you could go to Yarmouth. You can
use it on that kind of short to medium distance
trip. Or you can use it on longer journeys. You
can go from Norwich to Cambridge or go to visit
(10:47):
some of our nice towns that we've got, Burt St Edmuds. Or if
you're taking children, maybe the seaside, get down to Cromer or down
to Felixstowe. There are lots of nice, interesting places you
can visit. And not forgetting the west side of the
network, you could go to Audley End House, or if
you live in Bishop's Storeford or Harlow go into London
for the day or up to Cambridge for the day.
Possibilities are endless really. And as I say, all journeys
(11:09):
take a discount. It doesn't have to be a great
marathon of a journey over a couple of hours. It
can just be a short hop of half an hour
or so, if that's easier for you to make.
Lucy Wright (11:17):
Brilliant. Thank you, Ken. So another great way to save
money this summer. Thank you so much, Ken. And I
will see you on the next episode.
Ken Strong (11:24):
Thank you, Lucy.
Juliette Maxam (11:27):
Up next is Greener Anglia. Part of sustainability is about
boosting the local economy. And one of the ways that
we do this is by offering up our trains and
stations as film locations. And this has a knock on
effect on the local economy. Today I'm chatting to Adrian
Booth, Greater Anglia's commercial film liaison consultant. Hi Adrian.
Adrian Booth (11:48):
Hi there.
Juliette Maxam (11:49):
So, Adrian, what do you do?
Adrian Booth (11:51):
I look after commercial filming for Greater Anglia, which means
facilitating the requests of television companies and film companies and
advertising agencies who want to film trains and stations and
put them in their dramas and TV adverts. And that
means finding a place to film, getting all the permissions
(12:13):
in place, sorting out the contracts, agreeing a price and
sorting them out on the day.
Juliette Maxam (12:17):
Why is it that railway stations and trains are so popular with film and
TV companies? How does it add to a drama?
Adrian Booth (12:25):
The railway station, the train is a touch of real
life, of reality. They want to make things as real
as possible. And this is our common experience. And also
they're very useful for getting the characters from A to
B and have dialogue on the way. Or people might
be waiting for a train or waiting for people to
(12:46):
get off a train, or even the kind of pathos
of parting and the sweet sorrow of all of that.
So there are so many reasons why script writers include them.
Juliette Maxam (12:59):
Oh. And now you actually accompany them on the day of filming, don't you?
Adrian Booth (13:05):
That's right. And we do not want any accidents on our watch.
Particularly as things like distracted people might fall off the
edge of the platform when they're looking through the lens
or something like that. So I do have to do
quite a lot of being with them just to watch
out for their health and safety on the day. There are
very clear procedures that have to be followed in order
(13:29):
to get all the paperwork right to make sure that
they can understand all the risks that there are and
they might encounter.
Juliette Maxam (13:38):
What are the most popular locations on our network? Because
we've got some beautiful stations in wonderful scenery.
Adrian Booth (13:46):
There are two particular stations that seem to have been
singled out for a lot of attention. And they're both
Grade II listed buildings, but in different ways. Hartford East
is a beautiful red brick. It's, I think, probably Edwardian
with mock Dutch facade. And it's very, very beautiful. But
then there's a Broxbourne, which is a concrete cigar box
(14:11):
I sort of think of it as being, is a good
example of brutalist architecture. And the directors love it. So
there's these sort of locations. But they both have different
attributes. One is a very fast, busy station with a lot
of trains passing through at speed. The other one's the
end of the line, which means that you can actually
(14:32):
film statically and have green screen outside the window, which
is by computer technology they're able to, by the the wonders
of modern technology, they can make it look like the
countryside is rushing past the window and all of that. And
we even move the train on the platform for them.
So the different stations have different requirements. But those two
(14:56):
are at the moment our most popular.
Juliette Maxam (14:58):
Oh, so you've just revealed a secret of the trade. So when we
look at a film or a TV drama and it
looks like they're on the train and it's moving, they're
just sitting at Hartford East station with something on the
green screen.
Adrian Booth (15:11):
Some of the time that is true. There are reasons for
doing it, because they spend a lot of time lighting the inside of the carriage, which is
much more difficult to do when it's on the move.
There again, the post- production technology element of using green
screen is very expensive. So it's roundabouts and swings. Sometimes
(15:33):
they like the live feel of filming on a live train.
Juliette Maxam (15:38):
I said at the beginning that this is all part
of our sustainability strategy. It's supporting our local economies. Does
the fact that we are offering our stations and trains
as filming locations, does that have a knock on effect
in terms of other filming taking place in the region?
(15:59):
Or do they use local hotels, local restaurants or that
sort of thing?
Adrian Booth (16:04):
With the big productions it's like the circus comes to town and there's a lot of people
and trucks and the whole logistics of it is enormous.
And once they find a base that they can film
at, they'll look around the area for different facilities. They
might need a restaurant or a night club, or there are many, many different types
(16:26):
of location they need. And if they can find that
close to the railway station that they found that they
can film through us that brings a lot to the local economy, that's
for sure.
Juliette Maxam (16:39):
So Adrian, which films and TV programs have used Greater
Anglia trains and stations as a background?
Adrian Booth (16:47):
We worked on Killing Eve series four. Breeders, for Sky
with Martin Freeman. I Hate Susie, which was Billy Piper.
A show called Suspicion that had Uma Thurman in it.
That's an Apple TV production. Just little dramas like This
is Going to Hurt with Ben Whishaw for the BBC.
(17:09):
And a big one, Jack Ryan for Amazon we did
actually at Liverpool Street. That was an enormous setup that one.
Juliette Maxam (17:17):
I do like trying to spot them myself I have
to admit. And have you ever been an extra in any
of these productions?
Adrian Booth (17:24):
Very often actually. I do a very good man reading book and man
on the phone in the background. And sometimes, funny enough,
the station might be so small that we're filming on
like it was with Magpie Murders that we filmed at
Woodbridge in Suffolk, it was so small there wasn't anywhere
I could be to make sure that everything was going
to be safe. So I decided the best place to
(17:46):
be was within the extras that were just coming off
the train.
Juliette Maxam (17:53):
Oh, we're going to have to look out for you
as well then, Adrian. It all sounds just absolutely fascinating.
Thanks so much, Adrian. And it's just really interesting to
hear and good to hear how Greater Anglia is actually
supporting the British film industry and the TV industry. So
thanks very much for joining us as a guest on
our podcast.
Adrian Booth (18:13):
My pleasure.
Lucy Wright (18:17):
It's now time for meet a member of staff. And
in this episode, I'm speaking to Paula Wilson, one of
Greater Anglia's area customer service managers. Paula oversees 15 stations on
our network, including the Southend Victoria Line. Hi, Paula. Thanks
for joining me.
Paula Wilson (18:31):
Hi, Lucy. Thanks for having me.
Lucy Wright (18:33):
So you've had a really interesting career trajectory so far.
So tell me about it. You've traveled all over the
world. How did you come to work for the railway?
Paula Wilson (18:41):
Basically after my career at British Airways, I was there
for obviously quite a number of years, and when the
pandemic hit and the airline industry began to change a
bit, I thought it was a good time to try and
move on another challenge. So I applied.
Lucy Wright (18:55):
So what were you doing when you worked in aviation
and what are the crossovers between your old job and
your current job?
Paula Wilson (19:01):
At British Airways, for the latter four years of my
career, I was a customer service manager. I absolutely love
travel. The crossover since I've come here, on paper, it's
a very, very similar job. But there railway's completely different
from the way I imagined it to be. The role
is just so widespread and varied. No two days are
(19:23):
different. So I'm enjoying a lot of different challenges, learning
a lot about the railway itself, infrastructure, fleet. And then
on top of that, obviously I manage 15 stations. So
there's a lot of bits and bobs about facilities management
and working with different stakeholders that I hadn't done previously. So it's
been a great opportunity this one to develop myself.
Lucy Wright (19:45):
So you've got a really busy area, the Southend Victoria
Line and also Shenfield, so very, very busy with commuters,
a lot of school children as well in that area.
What are some of the challenges that you face?
Paula Wilson (19:56):
Like you said, it is very busy. So our peak times, if
something goes wrong somewhere along the line, very quickly we
get a big buildup of different people. And it's a challenge
to maintain getting information out to everybody, making sure all
the staff are informed. So when you've got different groups
of staff in all the 15 different areas, you need to cascade out that
(20:18):
information to them, because they're in a similar situation to you. So
even though you've got potentially thousands of people wanting to
make their way into London, you need to make sure
that the information gets out to everybody and nobody falls through
the net and gets forgotten.
Lucy Wright (20:34):
And what's your favorite thing about your job?
Paula Wilson (20:36):
Being able to support people probably. Being a manager in
this company is genuinely an absolute privilege. Having had a
number of jobs before, I've got a lot of things
I can compare it to. And the best thing about
Greater Anglia is that they really value experience on the
railway. So as you know, we've got career pages that
come out internal vacancies only. So that alone tells you
(21:00):
they want to recruit people from the inside. So they
don't put these ceilings that other companies put in when
they're recruiting. So you can go from being on the gate line and
being in control. There's really no end to where you
could end up being. And that's lovely to see, there's
opportunities for everybody. And I really enjoy working alongside people and
helping them get to where they want to go and
(21:22):
develop themselves. And the company's framework very much enables that.
So that is absolutely lovely.
Lucy Wright (21:28):
That's a really inclusive place, isn't it? And you don't necessarily have
to have a degree or a master's or anything like
that. Everyone is welcome at any stage really, as long
as you're old enough.
Paula Wilson (21:37):
Yeah. I myself don't have a degree, and there's a
number of companies who would not consider me for the role that I'm in now without it. And
as far as I'm aware, I'm not doing too badly.
Lucy Wright (21:49):
You're doing great. Travel's obviously played a really big part
in your life. So what are some of your places, both around
the world and in the UK?
Paula Wilson (21:57):
Well, in the UK, it would remiss of me not to
mention north of the border. I love Scotland. You would
think I work for the tourist board. Anybody needs travel tips
for Scotland, then I am here for you. When I
was traveling the world for my job, I would always
holiday back up in Scotland. So I've spent a lot
(22:18):
of time going around the Highlands and Dornoch. I really
like mountains. So Nepal's probably another favorite of mine. I did
a hike out there for a month. I went to
Everest base camp a few years ago. And ever since
then I cannot get enough of mountains. That's what I do in my spare time.
Lucy Wright (22:36):
You must have found the lockdown really hard when we
were completely grounded.
Paula Wilson (22:40):
Very much so. I used to be able to go
to Bangkok if I fancied a Thai curry, and then
for two years I've been going to Tesco and Sainsbury's.
And the (inaudible) isn't the same, is it?
Lucy Wright (22:53):
No, not at all. Oh, you've had such an interesting life. Thank you
so much for talking to me today and for being
a guest on our podcast.
Paula Wilson (23:00):
Thank you for having me. It's been fun.
Juliette Maxam (23:04):
It's time now for our myth buster segment. And in
this episode, Lucy and I are discussing the ins and
outs of lost property. So Lucy, what should passengers do
if they leave something on the train?
Lucy Wright (23:17):
Okay, so if you do leave something on the train,
don't panic, it happens more often than you think. And
we really want to help reunite you with whatever it
is you've left behind. So the first thing you need
to do is speak to somebody. Speak to anybody who
works for the railway as soon as possible. So whether that's
somebody at a station or if you're on a train, if you
change trains and you left it on another train, just speak to
(23:38):
anybody, any member of rail staff as soon as possible.
If you have realized once you've got home, the best
thing to do is to call our lost property team.
You can speak to somebody Monday to Friday 9
to 5
hour answer phone. If you just leave a message, we'll
pick that up as soon as possible. Or email in.
So it's lostproperty@ greateranglia. co. uk and we will all set
(24:01):
about trying to reunite you with whatever it is you've
left behind as soon as possible.
Juliette Maxam (24:05):
I often see some things on @ greateranglia Twitter. " Oh, I've
left my bag on the train. I've lost my phone."
Is it worth tweeting?
Lucy Wright (24:16):
Yeah, you can certainly tweet. Just get in touch with
us anyway possible.
Juliette Maxam (24:18):
It sounds good. Do we get much lost property? And
do we often actually manage to reunite people with their belongings?
Lucy Wright (24:26):
Yes, we get a lot of lost property. We get
thousands of items left on our trains every year. And
we do our best always to reunite people. And a
lot of the times it is successful. We had a
really nice one recently where a man left a birthday
cake for his daughter on the train and he got
in touch with us.
Juliette Maxam (24:43):
I bet he was in trouble.
Lucy Wright (24:44):
Well, no, I don't think anyone found out in the
end because we managed to reunite them. He called and
spoke to somebody and they managed to track this cake
down. It hadn't been too long and we had the cake, reunited
it and happy birthday indeed.
Juliette Maxam (24:59):
Oh, isn't that a lovely story? I'm so pleased to
hear that. Now that seems pretty unusual. I've not heard
of birthday cake before. What sort of lost property do
we usually get?
Lucy Wright (25:08):
There are certain items that we get a lot of
on the train. So wallets, phones, keys, that kind of thing.
They often fall out of your pocket. Laptops, all kinds
of things like that. Kindles, books, anything like that can
be left behind. Jackets, clothing, coats, and hats and scarfs in the
winter. So those kind of things are quite usual. We
get some unusual things left on our trains as well.
(25:30):
We've had a front door.
Juliette Maxam (25:33):
That is crazy.
Lucy Wright (25:34):
It was a proper full size front door with a number and a door knocker
on it and everything. And that was left on the
train that came into Norwich station. And we obviously took
it off the train and the man came back the
next day to retrieve his lost property. He came back
in to claim his front door. So very pleased to
reunite the customer with his item on that occasion.
Juliette Maxam (25:54):
Not the sort of thing that you'd normally take with
you on the train. I reckon he can be forgiven
for leaving that on the train. Although you'd have thought
he would've noticed it as he walked past to get
off the train. But there you go.
Lucy Wright (26:06):
I mean, how can you forget your front door? It's
not every day you travel with your front door. I hope.
Juliette Maxam (26:12):
Yeah. God, imagine that. Imagine the feeling when he got
home and realized he'd left his front door on the
train. Anything else unusual, Lucy?
Lucy Wright (26:21):
All kinds of unusual things. A wooden leg we've had
before, which begs the question how did the customer leave
the train without the wooden leg? We've had a large
amount of cash. And we're not talking coins here that have fallen out
the pocket. We're talking a lot of cash. It was
bag which had tens of thousands of pounds in it
(26:41):
in notes.
Juliette Maxam (26:42):
Blimey.
Lucy Wright (26:42):
Yeah. And as soon as any money is handed in,
it's put in a safe place and logged in in
front of another member of staff. And on this occasion,
it was tens of thousands of pounds. And the person
did come forward to claim it. And it was a
young person and they were a student and it was
their student fees. Their parents had given them the money
to pay for their university fees in a bag, which
(27:06):
they had then left on the train. So again, really,
really happy we could reunite the customer with their missing
money on that occasion.
Juliette Maxam (27:16):
Thank goodness for that. Otherwise that would've been an awful
lot of shifts in the pub that he'd had been
working to pay that off.
Lucy Wright (27:22):
Absolutely.
Juliette Maxam (27:23):
So what happens to the loss property then?
Lucy Wright (27:25):
So all loss property is collected and logged. Usually at
a station, sometimes at a depot if the train goes back to
the depot after it's last working. And we log it,
we keep it for a very short amount of time
before it's collected by a company called Pakex. And they
take it to their big warehouse really, where they store
it. And because of that, there's obviously a cost. There's
(27:48):
a cost to us in keeping and storing this lost
property. So there is a slight cost to some people
when they get their items back. It ranges from just
a couple of pounds to I think it's £ 20 or £25. So that it is
capped. But yeah, there is a cost because it is
a charge to us because it happens so frequently. So
the moral here is please, please, please don't leave your
(28:11):
items on the train. Please check before you leave the
train that you've got everything. Because it's horrible. The moment
you realize you've forgotten something your heart stops, doesn't it?
You think, " Oh my goodness. Where is it?" So please
try and take it with you in the first place.
Juliette Maxam (28:24):
Oh, that sounds like good advice to me. Thanks very
much, Lucy. That was really interesting. And I'm sure it's
extremely helpful to customers. And I look forward to talking
to you next time and busting some more myths together.
Lucy Wright (28:35):
Thanks, Juliette.
Juliette Maxam (28:39):
Up next is travel surgery. And today we're talking to
Robbie Knox. Robbie is an award- winning writer, producer and
director. His past credits include presenting for Soccer AM and
he's a proud Norwich resident. Robbie, how are you?
Robbie Knox (28:53):
I'm very well, thank you. The awards, I've sort of
put that on my Twitter bio, I've not really won
many awards. But we got an award at Soccer AM
for the best portrayal of stamp from the Norwegian Post
Office once. So I just put that, I thought that counts, doesn't it?
Juliette Maxam (29:08):
Deeply impressive. Deeply impressive.
Robbie Knox (29:09):
So it's not a BAFTA but it's honest work.
Juliette Maxam (29:13):
So stamp impersonating and everything else, you've had a very
varied career. Can you talk us through it a little bit? How
did it start? What are you doing now?
Robbie Knox (29:22):
Now was born, went to school, went to university, went
to Canada for a year, came back, started working in a TV
studio for a year. Then I went to Soccer AM and worked there
for seven years. Then I went to work at an
internet TV thing for a bit for a couple of years
with a guy called Simon Fuller who managed the Spice
Girls and David Beckham and things. And then I went
(29:42):
to start my own production company and more recently have started
doing YouTube because I'm having a midlife crisis. And I do
a podcast called JaackMaate's Happy Hour that is moderately popular.
Juliette Maxam (29:52):
And so your YouTube video, I've had a quick squizz at it.
You seem to cover all sorts of things. Tell us
a bit more about that.
Robbie Knox (30:00):
I describe it as it's... I started doing YouTube because of a
friend of mine, Will Brazier. I never really thought of
doing it. He said to me one day, " Why don't
you do a YouTube channel?" And I said, " I think
I'm probably a bit old for that." I'm 45. And
he said, " I don't want to sound rude, but I know
what it's like being an 18 year old starting uni
because every September there's 10, 000 vlogs on being an 18 year old. So
(30:22):
I don't really know what it's like being middle- aged."
So I thought, " All right, fair enough. I'll do that."
Juliette Maxam (30:26):
And then the podcasts, now you talk about being a
45 year old man, the first I heard about your
podcast was from my son who was first year at university.
Robbie Knox (30:33):
So this'd be Happy Hour. Yeah, so my friend Jack, who
I met years ago in a Chinese cooking competition, he's
a YouTuber and he has been for a long time. He's quite popular. He has
a podcast and they invited me along on it once.
And then I just sort of came back a couple
of other times. And then eventually, just through no real decision
making process, am now a permanent co- host of it
(30:55):
just by not really leaving. But yeah, it is popular.
We got these statistics from Spotify around Christmas time that
said a quarter of a million people listened to Happy
Hour more than any other podcast, which is mad. Because
no one had ever really told us any statistics up
until then. So I didn't really know.
Juliette Maxam (31:12):
Oh so it's a few more than Life on Rails then?
Just one or two more I think.
Robbie Knox (31:16):
For now. But we're looking over our shoulder.
Juliette Maxam (31:19):
Yeah, obviously. You're into brewing now as well. Aren't you?
How did that happen?
Robbie Knox (31:24):
Very good question. Again, through the YouTube channel I've worked
out that I make a bit of money from ad
revenue. The way it works is if once you've reach
a certain level of subscribers and watch time YouTube will
show adverts and you will get a percentage of the
money that they get from advertisers. So it's not always
a huge amount, but most of the time I'll probably
make 50 quid at least sort of thing. So I worked out that
(31:46):
I could try any idea up to the value of £
50 as long as I make a YouTube video on it. So
during the pandemic, I got a beer making kit and made
a beer. And then it surprisingly turned out pleasant. Because my
memory of home brewing was in the '80s and '90s, mate's dad
getting some kit from Boots and making beer in the
(32:06):
kitchen that was disgusting from all reviews. I didn't drink
it in the '80s because I was 12. I did.
Juliette Maxam (32:12):
I did. And I will concur, it was absolutely disgusting.
Robbie Knox (32:15):
Okay, good. But no, this turned out really well. So I got a bit
more kit, did a bit more brewing, went to a
brewery. A friend knew to make another video of getting
professional brewers to try my beer. They were quite complimentary
as well. And then my friend Mike and I thought, "
Well, let's just start up a virtual brewery if you will." And
we've just been around I think four or five different
breweries now brewing beer with them and selling it to to
(32:39):
people to drink.
Juliette Maxam (32:41):
You have partnerships and it's Bin Day Breweries, isn't it?
Robbie Knox (32:43):
It's called Bin Day Brewing. Yeah, I made a video
that was quite popular about taking the bins out. I
really want to manage expectations if anyone's thinking of going to my YouTube
channel, this is the level we are pitching it at
here. So Monday was not an exaggeration.
Lucy Wright (32:57):
That's not all you did in the pandemic, is it? Because
you moved to Norfolk.
Robbie Knox (33:01):
Oh God, yeah. Sorry. I thought, " What had I done?" That was terrifying. Yes,
I moved to Norfolk. So I went to university at
UEA in Norwich, University of East Anglia and I loved it.
Lucy Wright (33:11):
Good. Pleased you're here. So what is it you love
about the city?
Robbie Knox (33:15):
I like the culture of things. When I was at
uni in my first term, this is for the older people,
we had like Pulp, The Stone Roses, Black Grape all
play in my first term I was there because there's
not really many places nearby. I know now you get
gig at Thetford, but there's not many people, no one's
coming and playing Bungay. They're either coming here or not
(33:37):
sort of thing. So you get quite a lot of good
bands here, a lot of theaters, UNESCO City of Literature. I
like all that stuff. I think the people are friendly. I
think it's a beautiful place. There's lots of pubs. Everything
really. I think it's great.
Lucy Wright (33:48):
So what kind of things do you like to do
with your family?
Robbie Knox (33:50):
I like going out places and doing things. So vague.
We like going to beaches. We like going to the countryside.
The boys are quite into playing Fortnite and games like
that, I try and get them, when possible, outside away
from screens and doing things. So a lot of that
sort of stuff. I do like it if it can
(34:11):
involve a pub as well at the end of it sort of thing
for some lunch. Just seeing all the joys that the
Norfolk countryside has to offer.
Lucy Wright (34:18):
Brilliant. Well, as part of this part of the podcast,
we recommend a place for you to go and we'll
give you a ticket and send you on your way.
Robbie Knox (34:24):
How exciting. Did I have to go immediately?
Lucy Wright (34:26):
Right now. Bags packed.
Robbie Knox (34:28):
Right now. Good.
Lucy Wright (34:28):
Kids are waiting.
Robbie Knox (34:28):
Fantastic.
Lucy Wright (34:28):
No, not at all. So we are going to suggest a place called Chappel & Wakes Colne, which is in Essex. There's the East
Anglian Railway Museum there.
Robbie Knox (34:39):
I love a railway museum.
Lucy Wright (34:40):
Yeah?
Robbie Knox (34:41):
Yeah, I love a railway museum. My grandpa worked on
trains. He was a guard on trains in the olden
days for (inaudible) steam and stuff like that. But
I used to go with him all the time to Glasgow Transport Museum. So I'm
already convinced by this place.
Lucy Wright (34:56):
Oh, you'll love it then. Because there's something for everyone.
There's little children up to adults. And you can actually
sometimes actually drive the trains there.
Robbie Knox (35:03):
That's incredible.
Lucy Wright (35:04):
Steam days, diesel days, you can drive them.
Robbie Knox (35:06):
Why isn't this the biggest attraction in the country?
Lucy Wright (35:07):
Well, we're going to make it the biggest attraction.
Robbie Knox (35:09):
Good. I'm on board.
Lucy Wright (35:10):
It's a really nice place. Set in loads and loads of
acres. So good for picnics. Great for children. And also
there is a beer festival there.
Robbie Knox (35:17):
Oh wow. This is good. Can I go on the beer festival day or are
you just teasing me?
Lucy Wright (35:22):
You can choose.
Robbie Knox (35:23):
Okay. I'm in. I'm in. All right, perfect. This works out brilliantly.
Lucy Wright (35:26):
Brilliant. That's great. Thank you so much for joining us.
Robbie Knox (35:29):
Thank you. It's been an honor. And can I just
say an honor to be in the upstairs of Norwich
Station as well in the behind the scenes. Because I've
always admired from the concourse.
Juliette Maxam (35:36):
Our pleasure. Thank you very much.
Lucy Wright (35:40):
And that rounds things up for this episode of Life
on Rails. We hope you've enjoyed discovering a new perspective
into Greater Anglia.
Juliette Maxam (35:47):
Please do tweet us @ greaterangliaPR and leave a rating or
review on your podcast platform.
Lucy Wright (35:53):
Life on Rails releases every other month. So check back
soon for episode six.
Juliette Maxam (35:57):
And in the meantime, follow or subscribe to the podcast
and visit our website at www. greateranglia. co. uk/ podcast
for more information.
Lucy Wright (36:08):
Thanks for listening.
Hello again, I'm Lucy Wright.
Juliette Maxam (00:04):
And I'm Juliette Maxam, and this is Life on Rails.
Lucy Wright (00:08):
We work in PR at Greater Anglia and host this
podcast, which takes a behind the scenes look at one
of the UK's largest train companies.
Juliette Maxam (00:15):
We're talking to a huge range of people, from train
drivers to film liaison staff, as well as some special
Greater Anglia celebrities.
Lucy Wright (00:24):
In this episode, we speak to presenter, writer, and director
Robbie Knox.
Robbie Knox (00:28):
So I went to university at UEA in Norwich, and
I loved it. You get quite a lot of good bands here, lot of theaters, UNESCO
City of Literature. I think it's a beautiful place.
Lucy Wright (00:37):
Our resident affairs guru, Ken Strong.
Ken Strong (00:37):
If you're going to XYZ place, you will actually save 20 or 30 quid on this
particular journey. Including the cost of the rail card, they were
actually saving money there and then.
Lucy Wright (00:48):
Adrian Booth, Greater Anglia's film liaison consultant.
Adrian Booth (00:51):
We worked on Killing Eve. I Hate Susie, which was
Billy Piper. This is Going to Hurt, with Ben Whishaw
for the BBC. And a big one, Jack Ryan from Amazon.
That was an enormous setup that one.
Lucy Wright (01:03):
And Paula Wilson, one of our area customer service managers.
Paula Wilson (01:07):
I myself don't have a degree. And there's a number
of companies who would not consider me for the role that I'm in now without it. And as far as I'm aware, I'm not doing too badly.
Juliette Maxam (01:17):
To kick things off though, we're going to speak to
Glenn Harwood. One of our driver training managers.
Lucy Wright (01:27):
Every summer Greater Anglia sees an increase in the number
of people on or near the tracks without permission. And
this is a really serious issue. I wanted to speak to
Glenn Harwood about it. He is a train driving manager,
but has been a qualified train driver for 20 years.
Hi Glenn, how are you?
Glenn Harwood (01:41):
Hi, Lucy. I'm fine, thank you.
Lucy Wright (01:43):
Welcome to Life on Rails. Thanks for joining me.
Glenn Harwood (01:44):
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Lucy Wright (01:46):
So just talk me through it. Why is it so
dangerous for people to be on the tracks without permission?
Glenn Harwood (01:51):
Well, from the driver's perspective, absolutely dangerous. Having somebody who's
not meant to be on the track is a heck of a
surprise. Of course, our trains are traveling at high speed.
As a driver, we haven't got a steering wheel, we
can't divert round them. We can't then move to another
line to avoid them. And ultimately we have to put
our break into emergency. And unlike when you're pushing the
(02:11):
road, a car can stop very quickly, our trains don't
do that. It's about 3/ 4 of a mile from 100
miles an hour to stopping. And that's in good conditions.
We added a little bit of rain into that, the train
will slip and slide and could potentially be beyond the
mile. So the reaction times are very, very slow for
the train in that respect. So for the poor driver
who's sitting there, there's nothing more we can do but
(02:31):
put our break into emergency in a hope then that
individual that's on the track moves. So it's very difficult and it's
an extremely dangerous place to be. Ultimately, it's not a
playground. And I think we really need to get that
in there. It's its not a place to be, unless you
are authorized to be there.
Lucy Wright (02:47):
Exactly. And it's not just our trains that run. We
have engineering trains. We have test trains. So by thinking, "
Oh, I know this line. I've lived near this line
for for years." It's not just our services that people
need to be aware of.
Glenn Harwood (02:59):
It's not. And we've seen that in the past. Actually, those are
regular users quite often are the worst. Because you're right,
they think, " Well, the train goes past me at 10:24. At 10
go over." All it takes is a slight delay and then
they're going to get caught. And vice versa. Of course
we have double tracks. So your train may go past
you, but forgetting there may be a delay coming the
(03:19):
other way. So again, you're putting yourself at risk all
the time. So familiarity can actually be quite dangerous. And
we've seen ourselves, especially some of our rural lines, where
tractors, farm users, they're using it all the time, but
quite often they do misuse it.
Lucy Wright (03:33):
And have you ever had a near miss?
Glenn Harwood (03:34):
I've had several sadly. For the drivers, again, it's a regular
occurrence. I'm not saying every day. I don't know if
you're aware, but in the UK alone we have 34
near misses every single day on the UK network. So
yeah, from the drivers' perspective, we see it regularly. I've had
one recently stands out really like a sore thumb because it was
very, very close to me actually killing somebody. It was
(03:56):
on one of our rural lines. Ipswich to Felixstowe, and
as we come into Felixstowe there's quite a sharp bend, so I'm blind basically. And
on that bend are two crossings. As I came around
the corner, there was a chap with his dog. That's
fine. He's on the crossing. He can clear it quite
quickly. Unfortunately, the dog escaped from the lead and which
ran towards me on the track. And the owner in
(04:16):
a panic decided to follow the dog. So he's now
coming towards me. I'm heading towards him at about 50
miles an hour. I put my break into emergency and
I'm sliding towards him. And that's all I can do. And I actually
turned sideways. I was convinced I was going to hit
him. And the train came to a stand and I
didn't hear a thud. So obviously, I haven't hit him.
I pulled my window down and he was halfway down
(04:38):
the train and he went, " Sorry." And I said, " Sorry?" Obviously
for him, he was fine, I'm sure. But I was
all over the place. My heart was pounding and yeah,
it was really difficult. Because I almost went through all
those emotions of killing somebody, but I didn't. Which is
a good thing. And so yeah, that was pretty tough
for me to take actually. And the impact on me
(04:59):
was quite difficult. I actually went back to Ipswich and went and
had a cup of coffee and had a quick 15
minute break just to calm down. It's quite shocking.
Lucy Wright (05:07):
Yeah, so it's just as emotional having a near miss
when you see a trespasser as it can be, if
you do hit someone.
Glenn Harwood (05:12):
Absolutely, yeah. I've had both, sadly. I have had a fatality so I can relate to
both. And it actually was no different apart from the last element
of it, the last two or three seconds of actually
striking somebody.
Lucy Wright (05:22):
It's just not worth it. It's not worth trespassing. It's not worth the shortcut
home or whatever you think you're going to gain.
Glenn Harwood (05:26):
No, no. Because the consequence is not only could you die, remember
the impact on your family, your mother and father. And
not just that, the driver, of course, as I said
before, it's really traumatic and would need time off work,
canceling, all that type of stuff. Ambulance crew, fire crew,
they all come out to scene. And I do go
to scenes that have involved fatalities and a lot of
(05:50):
people are impacted by it. Absolutely, yeah. So there's a
big impact, not just on the individual, but on the
bigger picture.
Lucy Wright (05:57):
And the railway, isn't just trains and tracks. There are so
many hidden dangers. Can you talk me through some of those?
Glenn Harwood (06:02):
There are, you're absolutely right. And we forget that sometimes. I think we just think about
trains. And absolutely they're important and they are a big
risk. But we have overhead wires, which our electric trains
run on, and they're 25,000 volts. And you haven't even
got to touch them. If you get close to them, you
will be electrocuted and ultimately it will kill you. And we
have tracks, of course, where people run across. We have
points where our trains move. They're moving all the time.
(06:24):
And so if we don't know anybody's on there, you
could quite easily get trapped. You could even slip over
and break an ankle.
Lucy Wright (06:30):
So what should somebody do if they see someone on
the tracks?
Glenn Harwood (06:33):
I think first of and foremost I'd dial 999, make an emergency call via
the police force. If you are near crossing and you've
got access to a railway telephone, because all crossings have
railway telephones, I would make that telephone call there as
well. So inform somebody. At least do something with that.
Don't just ignore it. And report it as soon as
possible. But 999 from the police is great. They will
have a link to Network Rail signal box. Or I
(06:56):
said before, if you're near a telephone on a crossing,
that goes straight to the signal box controlling that situation.
Lucy Wright (07:00):
So tell somebody as soon as possible.
Glenn Harwood (07:02):
As soon as possible. Immediately.
Lucy Wright (07:03):
And I think it is important to acknowledge that not
everyone on the tracks is playing around or looking for
a shortcut home. And anyone who needs to speak to
someone should contact Samaritans on 116-123. They are there for
you 24/ 7 every single day of the year. Glenn,
thank you so much for joining me today.
Glenn Harwood (07:20):
Thank you. It's been a pleasure.
Lucy Wright (07:24):
I'm back with our resident fares guru, Ken Strong. Welcome
back, Ken.
Ken Strong (07:28):
Thanks for having me back, Lucy.
Lucy Wright (07:30):
So the summer holidays are here, people are off on
their holidays and day trips across the region. Now we
want to help people save money. And today we are talking about
a rail card which offers great savings. So Ken, what
is a Friends & Family Rail Card?
Ken Strong (07:44):
Friends & Family Rail Card is a product, it doesn't necessarily need to
be for a family, hence they call it Friends & Family as
well now, where you have a group of adults and children
and you can make a journey at very good value
fares. The main condition is there has to be at
least one adult and one child in the group. You
(08:06):
can't just have two adults. There are separate cards for
groups like that. If you have an adult and a
child up to four adults and four children, they could
all be on the one rail card.
Lucy Wright (08:15):
So four adults and four children. So eight people on one
rail card.
Ken Strong (08:18):
Eight people on one rail card. And you can either
have one named holder who can then take up to
three other adults and up to four children. Or you
can have two named holders in which case only one
of the two named holders. So if a say a couple of
partners, one can take the children, the other one doesn't
need to be traveling at all. Or then the next
(08:38):
time, the other one can travel and the other one doesn't
need to take the trip. So it's quite flexible. But
you have to decide whether you want to have both
people named on it. It's best if you're a couple
to name both people. And then you have the flexibility.
You can have one person plus three others, or you
can have the two named people plus two others, or
(08:58):
you can have the other name person plus three others.
So it's flexible like that. So if you're a couple,
it's best to name the two people on the card.
As I say, you don't have to be related at
all. You can just take some random children along, if
you fancy. Take the neighbors' kids out for a day out, something like that.
It's all possible.
Lucy Wright (09:15):
Brilliant. So how much does it cost?
Ken Strong (09:17):
It costs £ 30 a year, or it's £ 70 if you buy
one that lasts for three years. And you can get
it as a physical rail card from the ticket office, or
you can also buy it online, which is easy to
do these days, and have it as a digital rail card.
Lucy Wright (09:31):
So £ 30 for a year and up to eight people
on it, you must be able to pretty much recover
the cost of the card in one journey.
Ken Strong (09:39):
If you make a journey that's of any reasonable length,
you'll save the money back on the card straight away.
And I'll tell you, when I used to work in
the ticket office many years ago, I actually used to
say to people that were making journeys involving adults and
children I'd say, " Buy a family real card." And they
would say, " Oh, I don't know about that." And I'd say, " Well, if you're going
to XYZ place, you will actually save 20 or 30 quid on
(10:02):
this particular journey if you buy the rail card." Including the
cost of the real card, they were actually saving money there and then.
So we used to self a lot of them to people just on
spec because it was such a good deal. So it's certainly worth having.
Lucy Wright (10:15):
Brilliant. They're such good value. I like that bit of Ken
history, you in the ticket office. So can you suggest some
journeys that people can take this summer where they can
use their Friends & Family Rail Card?
Ken Strong (10:25):
So you can use it on short hops. You can
use it just going down to the coast. I don't know, if
you live in Colchester, you could go down to Clacton. Or if you are
in London, you could go down to Southend. Or if
you're in Norwich, you could go to Yarmouth. You can
use it on that kind of short to medium distance
trip. Or you can use it on longer journeys. You
can go from Norwich to Cambridge or go to visit
(10:47):
some of our nice towns that we've got, Burt St Edmuds. Or if
you're taking children, maybe the seaside, get down to Cromer or down
to Felixstowe. There are lots of nice, interesting places you
can visit. And not forgetting the west side of the
network, you could go to Audley End House, or if
you live in Bishop's Storeford or Harlow go into London
for the day or up to Cambridge for the day.
Possibilities are endless really. And as I say, all journeys
(11:09):
take a discount. It doesn't have to be a great
marathon of a journey over a couple of hours. It
can just be a short hop of half an hour
or so, if that's easier for you to make.
Lucy Wright (11:17):
Brilliant. Thank you, Ken. So another great way to save
money this summer. Thank you so much, Ken. And I
will see you on the next episode.
Ken Strong (11:24):
Thank you, Lucy.
Juliette Maxam (11:27):
Up next is Greener Anglia. Part of sustainability is about
boosting the local economy. And one of the ways that
we do this is by offering up our trains and
stations as film locations. And this has a knock on
effect on the local economy. Today I'm chatting to Adrian
Booth, Greater Anglia's commercial film liaison consultant. Hi Adrian.
Adrian Booth (11:48):
Hi there.
Juliette Maxam (11:49):
So, Adrian, what do you do?
Adrian Booth (11:51):
I look after commercial filming for Greater Anglia, which means
facilitating the requests of television companies and film companies and
advertising agencies who want to film trains and stations and
put them in their dramas and TV adverts. And that
means finding a place to film, getting all the permissions
(12:13):
in place, sorting out the contracts, agreeing a price and
sorting them out on the day.
Juliette Maxam (12:17):
Why is it that railway stations and trains are so popular with film and
TV companies? How does it add to a drama?
Adrian Booth (12:25):
The railway station, the train is a touch of real
life, of reality. They want to make things as real
as possible. And this is our common experience. And also
they're very useful for getting the characters from A to
B and have dialogue on the way. Or people might
be waiting for a train or waiting for people to
(12:46):
get off a train, or even the kind of pathos
of parting and the sweet sorrow of all of that.
So there are so many reasons why script writers include them.
Juliette Maxam (12:59):
Oh. And now you actually accompany them on the day of filming, don't you?
Adrian Booth (13:05):
That's right. And we do not want any accidents on our watch.
Particularly as things like distracted people might fall off the
edge of the platform when they're looking through the lens
or something like that. So I do have to do
quite a lot of being with them just to watch
out for their health and safety on the day. There are
very clear procedures that have to be followed in order
(13:29):
to get all the paperwork right to make sure that
they can understand all the risks that there are and
they might encounter.
Juliette Maxam (13:38):
What are the most popular locations on our network? Because
we've got some beautiful stations in wonderful scenery.
Adrian Booth (13:46):
There are two particular stations that seem to have been
singled out for a lot of attention. And they're both
Grade II listed buildings, but in different ways. Hartford East
is a beautiful red brick. It's, I think, probably Edwardian
with mock Dutch facade. And it's very, very beautiful. But
then there's a Broxbourne, which is a concrete cigar box
(14:11):
I sort of think of it as being, is a good
example of brutalist architecture. And the directors love it. So
there's these sort of locations. But they both have different
attributes. One is a very fast, busy station with a lot
of trains passing through at speed. The other one's the
end of the line, which means that you can actually
(14:32):
film statically and have green screen outside the window, which
is by computer technology they're able to, by the the wonders
of modern technology, they can make it look like the
countryside is rushing past the window and all of that. And
we even move the train on the platform for them.
So the different stations have different requirements. But those two
(14:56):
are at the moment our most popular.
Juliette Maxam (14:58):
Oh, so you've just revealed a secret of the trade. So when we
look at a film or a TV drama and it
looks like they're on the train and it's moving, they're
just sitting at Hartford East station with something on the
green screen.
Adrian Booth (15:11):
Some of the time that is true. There are reasons for
doing it, because they spend a lot of time lighting the inside of the carriage, which is
much more difficult to do when it's on the move.
There again, the post- production technology element of using green
screen is very expensive. So it's roundabouts and swings. Sometimes
(15:33):
they like the live feel of filming on a live train.
Juliette Maxam (15:38):
I said at the beginning that this is all part
of our sustainability strategy. It's supporting our local economies. Does
the fact that we are offering our stations and trains
as filming locations, does that have a knock on effect
in terms of other filming taking place in the region?
(15:59):
Or do they use local hotels, local restaurants or that
sort of thing?
Adrian Booth (16:04):
With the big productions it's like the circus comes to town and there's a lot of people
and trucks and the whole logistics of it is enormous.
And once they find a base that they can film
at, they'll look around the area for different facilities. They
might need a restaurant or a night club, or there are many, many different types
(16:26):
of location they need. And if they can find that
close to the railway station that they found that they
can film through us that brings a lot to the local economy, that's
for sure.
Juliette Maxam (16:39):
So Adrian, which films and TV programs have used Greater
Anglia trains and stations as a background?
Adrian Booth (16:47):
We worked on Killing Eve series four. Breeders, for Sky
with Martin Freeman. I Hate Susie, which was Billy Piper.
A show called Suspicion that had Uma Thurman in it.
That's an Apple TV production. Just little dramas like This
is Going to Hurt with Ben Whishaw for the BBC.
(17:09):
And a big one, Jack Ryan for Amazon we did
actually at Liverpool Street. That was an enormous setup that one.
Juliette Maxam (17:17):
I do like trying to spot them myself I have
to admit. And have you ever been an extra in any
of these productions?
Adrian Booth (17:24):
Very often actually. I do a very good man reading book and man
on the phone in the background. And sometimes, funny enough,
the station might be so small that we're filming on
like it was with Magpie Murders that we filmed at
Woodbridge in Suffolk, it was so small there wasn't anywhere
I could be to make sure that everything was going
to be safe. So I decided the best place to
(17:46):
be was within the extras that were just coming off
the train.
Juliette Maxam (17:53):
Oh, we're going to have to look out for you
as well then, Adrian. It all sounds just absolutely fascinating.
Thanks so much, Adrian. And it's just really interesting to
hear and good to hear how Greater Anglia is actually
supporting the British film industry and the TV industry. So
thanks very much for joining us as a guest on
our podcast.
Adrian Booth (18:13):
My pleasure.
Lucy Wright (18:17):
It's now time for meet a member of staff. And
in this episode, I'm speaking to Paula Wilson, one of
Greater Anglia's area customer service managers. Paula oversees 15 stations on
our network, including the Southend Victoria Line. Hi, Paula. Thanks
for joining me.
Paula Wilson (18:31):
Hi, Lucy. Thanks for having me.
Lucy Wright (18:33):
So you've had a really interesting career trajectory so far.
So tell me about it. You've traveled all over the
world. How did you come to work for the railway?
Paula Wilson (18:41):
Basically after my career at British Airways, I was there
for obviously quite a number of years, and when the
pandemic hit and the airline industry began to change a
bit, I thought it was a good time to try and
move on another challenge. So I applied.
Lucy Wright (18:55):
So what were you doing when you worked in aviation
and what are the crossovers between your old job and
your current job?
Paula Wilson (19:01):
At British Airways, for the latter four years of my
career, I was a customer service manager. I absolutely love
travel. The crossover since I've come here, on paper, it's
a very, very similar job. But there railway's completely different
from the way I imagined it to be. The role
is just so widespread and varied. No two days are
(19:23):
different. So I'm enjoying a lot of different challenges, learning
a lot about the railway itself, infrastructure, fleet. And then
on top of that, obviously I manage 15 stations. So
there's a lot of bits and bobs about facilities management
and working with different stakeholders that I hadn't done previously. So it's
been a great opportunity this one to develop myself.
Lucy Wright (19:45):
So you've got a really busy area, the Southend Victoria
Line and also Shenfield, so very, very busy with commuters,
a lot of school children as well in that area.
What are some of the challenges that you face?
Paula Wilson (19:56):
Like you said, it is very busy. So our peak times, if
something goes wrong somewhere along the line, very quickly we
get a big buildup of different people. And it's a challenge
to maintain getting information out to everybody, making sure all
the staff are informed. So when you've got different groups
of staff in all the 15 different areas, you need to cascade out that
(20:18):
information to them, because they're in a similar situation to you. So
even though you've got potentially thousands of people wanting to
make their way into London, you need to make sure
that the information gets out to everybody and nobody falls through
the net and gets forgotten.
Lucy Wright (20:34):
And what's your favorite thing about your job?
Paula Wilson (20:36):
Being able to support people probably. Being a manager in
this company is genuinely an absolute privilege. Having had a
number of jobs before, I've got a lot of things
I can compare it to. And the best thing about
Greater Anglia is that they really value experience on the
railway. So as you know, we've got career pages that
come out internal vacancies only. So that alone tells you
(21:00):
they want to recruit people from the inside. So they
don't put these ceilings that other companies put in when
they're recruiting. So you can go from being on the gate line and
being in control. There's really no end to where you
could end up being. And that's lovely to see, there's
opportunities for everybody. And I really enjoy working alongside people and
helping them get to where they want to go and
(21:22):
develop themselves. And the company's framework very much enables that.
So that is absolutely lovely.
Lucy Wright (21:28):
That's a really inclusive place, isn't it? And you don't necessarily have
to have a degree or a master's or anything like
that. Everyone is welcome at any stage really, as long
as you're old enough.
Paula Wilson (21:37):
Yeah. I myself don't have a degree, and there's a
number of companies who would not consider me for the role that I'm in now without it. And
as far as I'm aware, I'm not doing too badly.
Lucy Wright (21:49):
You're doing great. Travel's obviously played a really big part
in your life. So what are some of your places, both around
the world and in the UK?
Paula Wilson (21:57):
Well, in the UK, it would remiss of me not to
mention north of the border. I love Scotland. You would
think I work for the tourist board. Anybody needs travel tips
for Scotland, then I am here for you. When I
was traveling the world for my job, I would always
holiday back up in Scotland. So I've spent a lot
(22:18):
of time going around the Highlands and Dornoch. I really
like mountains. So Nepal's probably another favorite of mine. I did
a hike out there for a month. I went to
Everest base camp a few years ago. And ever since
then I cannot get enough of mountains. That's what I do in my spare time.
Lucy Wright (22:36):
You must have found the lockdown really hard when we
were completely grounded.
Paula Wilson (22:40):
Very much so. I used to be able to go
to Bangkok if I fancied a Thai curry, and then
for two years I've been going to Tesco and Sainsbury's.
And the (inaudible) isn't the same, is it?
Lucy Wright (22:53):
No, not at all. Oh, you've had such an interesting life. Thank you
so much for talking to me today and for being
a guest on our podcast.
Paula Wilson (23:00):
Thank you for having me. It's been fun.
Juliette Maxam (23:04):
It's time now for our myth buster segment. And in
this episode, Lucy and I are discussing the ins and
outs of lost property. So Lucy, what should passengers do
if they leave something on the train?
Lucy Wright (23:17):
Okay, so if you do leave something on the train,
don't panic, it happens more often than you think. And
we really want to help reunite you with whatever it
is you've left behind. So the first thing you need
to do is speak to somebody. Speak to anybody who
works for the railway as soon as possible. So whether that's
somebody at a station or if you're on a train, if you
change trains and you left it on another train, just speak to
(23:38):
anybody, any member of rail staff as soon as possible.
If you have realized once you've got home, the best
thing to do is to call our lost property team.
You can speak to somebody Monday to Friday 9
to 5
hour answer phone. If you just leave a message, we'll
pick that up as soon as possible. Or email in.
So it's lostproperty@ greateranglia. co. uk and we will all set
(24:01):
about trying to reunite you with whatever it is you've
left behind as soon as possible.
Juliette Maxam (24:05):
I often see some things on @ greateranglia Twitter. " Oh, I've
left my bag on the train. I've lost my phone."
Is it worth tweeting?
Lucy Wright (24:16):
Yeah, you can certainly tweet. Just get in touch with
us anyway possible.
Juliette Maxam (24:18):
It sounds good. Do we get much lost property? And
do we often actually manage to reunite people with their belongings?
Lucy Wright (24:26):
Yes, we get a lot of lost property. We get
thousands of items left on our trains every year. And
we do our best always to reunite people. And a
lot of the times it is successful. We had a
really nice one recently where a man left a birthday
cake for his daughter on the train and he got
in touch with us.
Juliette Maxam (24:43):
I bet he was in trouble.
Lucy Wright (24:44):
Well, no, I don't think anyone found out in the
end because we managed to reunite them. He called and
spoke to somebody and they managed to track this cake
down. It hadn't been too long and we had the cake, reunited
it and happy birthday indeed.
Juliette Maxam (24:59):
Oh, isn't that a lovely story? I'm so pleased to
hear that. Now that seems pretty unusual. I've not heard
of birthday cake before. What sort of lost property do
we usually get?
Lucy Wright (25:08):
There are certain items that we get a lot of
on the train. So wallets, phones, keys, that kind of thing.
They often fall out of your pocket. Laptops, all kinds
of things like that. Kindles, books, anything like that can
be left behind. Jackets, clothing, coats, and hats and scarfs in the
winter. So those kind of things are quite usual. We
get some unusual things left on our trains as well.
(25:30):
We've had a front door.
Juliette Maxam (25:33):
That is crazy.
Lucy Wright (25:34):
It was a proper full size front door with a number and a door knocker
on it and everything. And that was left on the
train that came into Norwich station. And we obviously took
it off the train and the man came back the
next day to retrieve his lost property. He came back
in to claim his front door. So very pleased to
reunite the customer with his item on that occasion.
Juliette Maxam (25:54):
Not the sort of thing that you'd normally take with
you on the train. I reckon he can be forgiven
for leaving that on the train. Although you'd have thought
he would've noticed it as he walked past to get
off the train. But there you go.
Lucy Wright (26:06):
I mean, how can you forget your front door? It's
not every day you travel with your front door. I hope.
Juliette Maxam (26:12):
Yeah. God, imagine that. Imagine the feeling when he got
home and realized he'd left his front door on the
train. Anything else unusual, Lucy?
Lucy Wright (26:21):
All kinds of unusual things. A wooden leg we've had
before, which begs the question how did the customer leave
the train without the wooden leg? We've had a large
amount of cash. And we're not talking coins here that have fallen out
the pocket. We're talking a lot of cash. It was
bag which had tens of thousands of pounds in it
(26:41):
in notes.
Juliette Maxam (26:42):
Blimey.
Lucy Wright (26:42):
Yeah. And as soon as any money is handed in,
it's put in a safe place and logged in in
front of another member of staff. And on this occasion,
it was tens of thousands of pounds. And the person
did come forward to claim it. And it was a
young person and they were a student and it was
their student fees. Their parents had given them the money
to pay for their university fees in a bag, which
(27:06):
they had then left on the train. So again, really,
really happy we could reunite the customer with their missing
money on that occasion.
Juliette Maxam (27:16):
Thank goodness for that. Otherwise that would've been an awful
lot of shifts in the pub that he'd had been
working to pay that off.
Lucy Wright (27:22):
Absolutely.
Juliette Maxam (27:23):
So what happens to the loss property then?
Lucy Wright (27:25):
So all loss property is collected and logged. Usually at
a station, sometimes at a depot if the train goes back to
the depot after it's last working. And we log it,
we keep it for a very short amount of time
before it's collected by a company called Pakex. And they
take it to their big warehouse really, where they store
it. And because of that, there's obviously a cost. There's
(27:48):
a cost to us in keeping and storing this lost
property. So there is a slight cost to some people
when they get their items back. It ranges from just
a couple of pounds to I think it's £ 20 or £25. So that it is
capped. But yeah, there is a cost because it is
a charge to us because it happens so frequently. So
the moral here is please, please, please don't leave your
(28:11):
items on the train. Please check before you leave the
train that you've got everything. Because it's horrible. The moment
you realize you've forgotten something your heart stops, doesn't it?
You think, " Oh my goodness. Where is it?" So please
try and take it with you in the first place.
Juliette Maxam (28:24):
Oh, that sounds like good advice to me. Thanks very
much, Lucy. That was really interesting. And I'm sure it's
extremely helpful to customers. And I look forward to talking
to you next time and busting some more myths together.
Lucy Wright (28:35):
Thanks, Juliette.
Juliette Maxam (28:39):
Up next is travel surgery. And today we're talking to
Robbie Knox. Robbie is an award- winning writer, producer and
director. His past credits include presenting for Soccer AM and
he's a proud Norwich resident. Robbie, how are you?
Robbie Knox (28:53):
I'm very well, thank you. The awards, I've sort of
put that on my Twitter bio, I've not really won
many awards. But we got an award at Soccer AM
for the best portrayal of stamp from the Norwegian Post
Office once. So I just put that, I thought that counts, doesn't it?
Juliette Maxam (29:08):
Deeply impressive. Deeply impressive.
Robbie Knox (29:09):
So it's not a BAFTA but it's honest work.
Juliette Maxam (29:13):
So stamp impersonating and everything else, you've had a very
varied career. Can you talk us through it a little bit? How
did it start? What are you doing now?
Robbie Knox (29:22):
Now was born, went to school, went to university, went
to Canada for a year, came back, started working in a TV
studio for a year. Then I went to Soccer AM and worked there
for seven years. Then I went to work at an
internet TV thing for a bit for a couple of years
with a guy called Simon Fuller who managed the Spice
Girls and David Beckham and things. And then I went
(29:42):
to start my own production company and more recently have started
doing YouTube because I'm having a midlife crisis. And I do
a podcast called JaackMaate's Happy Hour that is moderately popular.
Juliette Maxam (29:52):
And so your YouTube video, I've had a quick squizz at it.
You seem to cover all sorts of things. Tell us
a bit more about that.
Robbie Knox (30:00):
I describe it as it's... I started doing YouTube because of a
friend of mine, Will Brazier. I never really thought of
doing it. He said to me one day, " Why don't
you do a YouTube channel?" And I said, " I think
I'm probably a bit old for that." I'm 45. And
he said, " I don't want to sound rude, but I know
what it's like being an 18 year old starting uni
because every September there's 10, 000 vlogs on being an 18 year old. So
(30:22):
I don't really know what it's like being middle- aged."
So I thought, " All right, fair enough. I'll do that."
Juliette Maxam (30:26):
And then the podcasts, now you talk about being a
45 year old man, the first I heard about your
podcast was from my son who was first year at university.
Robbie Knox (30:33):
So this'd be Happy Hour. Yeah, so my friend Jack, who
I met years ago in a Chinese cooking competition, he's
a YouTuber and he has been for a long time. He's quite popular. He has
a podcast and they invited me along on it once.
And then I just sort of came back a couple
of other times. And then eventually, just through no real decision
making process, am now a permanent co- host of it
(30:55):
just by not really leaving. But yeah, it is popular.
We got these statistics from Spotify around Christmas time that
said a quarter of a million people listened to Happy
Hour more than any other podcast, which is mad. Because
no one had ever really told us any statistics up
until then. So I didn't really know.
Juliette Maxam (31:12):
Oh so it's a few more than Life on Rails then?
Just one or two more I think.
Robbie Knox (31:16):
For now. But we're looking over our shoulder.
Juliette Maxam (31:19):
Yeah, obviously. You're into brewing now as well. Aren't you?
How did that happen?
Robbie Knox (31:24):
Very good question. Again, through the YouTube channel I've worked
out that I make a bit of money from ad
revenue. The way it works is if once you've reach
a certain level of subscribers and watch time YouTube will
show adverts and you will get a percentage of the
money that they get from advertisers. So it's not always
a huge amount, but most of the time I'll probably
make 50 quid at least sort of thing. So I worked out that
(31:46):
I could try any idea up to the value of £
50 as long as I make a YouTube video on it. So
during the pandemic, I got a beer making kit and made
a beer. And then it surprisingly turned out pleasant. Because my
memory of home brewing was in the '80s and '90s, mate's dad
getting some kit from Boots and making beer in the
(32:06):
kitchen that was disgusting from all reviews. I didn't drink
it in the '80s because I was 12. I did.
Juliette Maxam (32:12):
I did. And I will concur, it was absolutely disgusting.
Robbie Knox (32:15):
Okay, good. But no, this turned out really well. So I got a bit
more kit, did a bit more brewing, went to a
brewery. A friend knew to make another video of getting
professional brewers to try my beer. They were quite complimentary
as well. And then my friend Mike and I thought, "
Well, let's just start up a virtual brewery if you will." And
we've just been around I think four or five different
breweries now brewing beer with them and selling it to to
(32:39):
people to drink.
Juliette Maxam (32:41):
You have partnerships and it's Bin Day Breweries, isn't it?
Robbie Knox (32:43):
It's called Bin Day Brewing. Yeah, I made a video
that was quite popular about taking the bins out. I
really want to manage expectations if anyone's thinking of going to my YouTube
channel, this is the level we are pitching it at
here. So Monday was not an exaggeration.
Lucy Wright (32:57):
That's not all you did in the pandemic, is it? Because
you moved to Norfolk.
Robbie Knox (33:01):
Oh God, yeah. Sorry. I thought, " What had I done?" That was terrifying. Yes,
I moved to Norfolk. So I went to university at
UEA in Norwich, University of East Anglia and I loved it.
Lucy Wright (33:11):
Good. Pleased you're here. So what is it you love
about the city?
Robbie Knox (33:15):
I like the culture of things. When I was at
uni in my first term, this is for the older people,
we had like Pulp, The Stone Roses, Black Grape all
play in my first term I was there because there's
not really many places nearby. I know now you get
gig at Thetford, but there's not many people, no one's
coming and playing Bungay. They're either coming here or not
(33:37):
sort of thing. So you get quite a lot of good
bands here, a lot of theaters, UNESCO City of Literature. I
like all that stuff. I think the people are friendly. I
think it's a beautiful place. There's lots of pubs. Everything
really. I think it's great.
Lucy Wright (33:48):
So what kind of things do you like to do
with your family?
Robbie Knox (33:50):
I like going out places and doing things. So vague.
We like going to beaches. We like going to the countryside.
The boys are quite into playing Fortnite and games like
that, I try and get them, when possible, outside away
from screens and doing things. So a lot of that
sort of stuff. I do like it if it can
(34:11):
involve a pub as well at the end of it sort of thing
for some lunch. Just seeing all the joys that the
Norfolk countryside has to offer.
Lucy Wright (34:18):
Brilliant. Well, as part of this part of the podcast,
we recommend a place for you to go and we'll
give you a ticket and send you on your way.
Robbie Knox (34:24):
How exciting. Did I have to go immediately?
Lucy Wright (34:26):
Right now. Bags packed.
Robbie Knox (34:28):
Right now. Good.
Lucy Wright (34:28):
Kids are waiting.
Robbie Knox (34:28):
Fantastic.
Lucy Wright (34:28):
No, not at all. So we are going to suggest a place called Chappel & Wakes Colne, which is in Essex. There's the East
Anglian Railway Museum there.
Robbie Knox (34:39):
I love a railway museum.
Lucy Wright (34:40):
Yeah?
Robbie Knox (34:41):
Yeah, I love a railway museum. My grandpa worked on
trains. He was a guard on trains in the olden
days for (inaudible) steam and stuff like that. But
I used to go with him all the time to Glasgow Transport Museum. So I'm
already convinced by this place.
Lucy Wright (34:56):
Oh, you'll love it then. Because there's something for everyone.
There's little children up to adults. And you can actually
sometimes actually drive the trains there.
Robbie Knox (35:03):
That's incredible.
Lucy Wright (35:04):
Steam days, diesel days, you can drive them.
Robbie Knox (35:06):
Why isn't this the biggest attraction in the country?
Lucy Wright (35:07):
Well, we're going to make it the biggest attraction.
Robbie Knox (35:09):
Good. I'm on board.
Lucy Wright (35:10):
It's a really nice place. Set in loads and loads of
acres. So good for picnics. Great for children. And also
there is a beer festival there.
Robbie Knox (35:17):
Oh wow. This is good. Can I go on the beer festival day or are
you just teasing me?
Lucy Wright (35:22):
You can choose.
Robbie Knox (35:23):
Okay. I'm in. I'm in. All right, perfect. This works out brilliantly.
Lucy Wright (35:26):
Brilliant. That's great. Thank you so much for joining us.
Robbie Knox (35:29):
Thank you. It's been an honor. And can I just
say an honor to be in the upstairs of Norwich
Station as well in the behind the scenes. Because I've
always admired from the concourse.
Juliette Maxam (35:36):
Our pleasure. Thank you very much.
Lucy Wright (35:40):
And that rounds things up for this episode of Life
on Rails. We hope you've enjoyed discovering a new perspective
into Greater Anglia.
Juliette Maxam (35:47):
Please do tweet us @ greaterangliaPR and leave a rating or
review on your podcast platform.
Lucy Wright (35:53):
Life on Rails releases every other month. So check back
soon for episode six.
Juliette Maxam (35:57):
And in the meantime, follow or subscribe to the podcast
and visit our website at www. greateranglia. co. uk/ podcast
for more information.
Lucy Wright (36:08):
Thanks for listening.
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