RAIL CAREERS WEEK On Monday. Metro joined representatives from across the rail industry to launch Rail Careers Week at Southern Cross station. Rail Careers Week aims to encourage students, graduates and job seekers to consider rail as career choice. Australasian Railway Association Chair, Bob Herbert AM, led the proceedings and highlighted there is no better time to join the rail industry. Investment in rail is expected to increase and demand for skilled and talented employees continues to grow. Rail is a strong, exciting and growing industry with a prosperous future. It plays an important role in reducing carbon emissions, relieving congestion, improving health and safety, connecting communities and driving economic growth in Australia. We employ more than 110,000 people in over 180 companies. We help our customers take about 770 million trips on our trains every year and we move over 1 billion tonnes of freight across the country. Despite the benefits and opportunities, our industry is not always top of mind when students and graduates think about choosing a career. Rail Careers Week is all about challenging outdated ideas about rail. Our industry offers a wide More on page 2... Page 1
From page 1... range of opportunities for people of all ages, backgrounds and experience, said Mr Herbert. One of the highlights of the launch was 5-year-old rail enthusiast, William, who spoke about his love of trains, had a tour of a driver s cab and met train driver, Danny Edwards. Rail Careers Week will run until 27 September and features a range of events and activities to provide job seekers with a unique insight into careers in rail. Further information can be found at www.railcareers.net.au Budding train driver, William, receives a Metro cap, bag and tie from Driver, Danny Edwards, and has a tour of a driver s cab (bottom left). ARA Chair, Bob Herbert AM, opens Rail Careers Week on Monday. Page 2
$100million for Flinders Street upgrade Deputy CEO, Mike Houghton, Major Projects Victoria Executive Director, Tim Bamford, Minister for Public Transport, Jacinta Allan, and PTV Director Corporate Services, Graham Fryer. On Monday, Minister for Public Transport, Jacinta Allan, visited Flinders Street Station to announce works on the $100 million restoration and upgrade of Flinders Street station will begin next week. From next week, lighting on platforms will be upgraded and redundant departure and signage boards will be removed. Further improvements including better access to the station and platforms, upgrades to the dingy toilets and installation of bigger, more helpful passenger information boards will follow over the coming months. These works are in addition to the new, faster, next-generation myki readers that were installed on all gates last month. Urgent works to repair the building s crumbling exterior and clock tower and leaky roof will also begin in the coming months. Flinders Street is our busiest station on the network with more than 26 million passenger trips per year. This year, it celebrated its 105 th anniversary. Three little pigs on the network Metro has opened up its stations to Very Special Kids, the children s charity that helps more than 800 families across Victoria who have a child with a life-threatening condition. Customers were surprised and delighted to see the three little pigs at Melbourne Central, who were taking time out to fundraise for this great cause. Page 3
All aboard the AO engagement train Our AO division is working hard to shake its reputation of being ticket inspectors by engaging with the community through a range of initiatives. AO and member of the Community Education Unit, Luke Martin, said the division is a group of passionate people who are striving to not only keep the community safe, but to make customers feel safe as well. AOs aim to deliver high level customer service everyday, frequently going above and beyond the call of duty. To help shake the negative perception, our AOs got together and worked on a strategy to allow the customer to see the real AOs through social interactions...so the coffee mornings and engagement trains initiatives were created. Coffee mornings are conducted twice a week at two separate train stations across the network and AOs offer a coffee and a chat to the travelling public. Engagement trains are also conducted twice a week, with a view to increase these during the school holidays. Both the coffee mornings and engagement trains have been very well-received, which was highlighted by the number of compliments and Twitter posts that we have generated. These events are proving to be valuable activities for promoting our AOs, as well as enhancing the customer experience. Looking ahead, the plan is to have key focuses on a monthly basis, such as information about the Melbourne Cup Carnival, Seniors Week, Disability Week, the Christmas period and key timetable and network changes, he said. Page 4
Giving thanks on Gratitude Day We celebrated World Gratitude Day on Monday by creating gratitude boards and sharing notes of appreciation over some delicious food. Health Projects Advisor, Helen Barnes explained that the purpose of Gratitude Day is to bring people together to acknowledge the things we often take for granted. Having gratitude is more than just a virtue; it promotes a positive mind frame and boosts immunity and leads to better wellbeing, she said. Wellness Advocates were involved in organising Gratitude Day activities which included: South Kensington hosted a pizza lunch Station staff from the Northern group held a morning tea with disabled teenagers from Yooralla Hawthorn AOs hosted a dinner 700 Collins enjoyed a multicultural afternoon tea with gratitude speeches Balaclava invited passengers and a local pre-school to take part in Gratitude Day. Richmond, Pakenham, Clifton Hill and Parliament stations all contributed gratitude boards. More photos on following page The gratitude board at Richmond (above) and the team at South Kensington get together for a pizza lunch (below). Balaclava station s gratitude board filled the entire wall. Page 5
Giving thanks on Gratitude Day... From previous page... Gratitude Day celebrations at Hawthorn (above) and a collection for the Salvos (below). The gratitude boards at Parliament (above) and at Pakenham (below). Page 6
Successful pilot of renewal work orders in Ellipse Our Asset Information Systems Development (AISD) team has successfully launched a pilot model in Ellipse, creating renewal work orders for ballast activities that are linked with PASS Assets. This is the first time renewal activities have been captured and visually shown in PASS Assets. The project was led by Senior Business Analyst, Amber Lynch, who said that being able to see renewals overlaid in PASS Assets is a big step forward. It is an entirely different way to process claims and represents new ground in capturing renewal activities against our assets in Ellipse, she said. The project was originally undertaken to address a commitment to PTV to share linear asset information in PASS Assets for ballast activities. While currently limited to ballast, these interfaced work orders in Ellipse with PASS Assets will: Provide a historic view of Metro activities, which has been unavailable to date Provide a better output of information in PASS Assets Enable geospatial analysis of assets and renewal activities based on visuals on a map Support P6 planning activities with actual work completed, recorded and held in Ellipse. Next steps include automating the process of sending ballast renewal data to PASS Assets. In addition to meeting PTV s requirements, the development has pioneered a possible solution for implementing renewals across Track and Infrastructure Delivery. This is a significant achievement that has tapped into the future potential of implementing renewal work orders in Ellipse. Matt Wightwick, Renewals Project Engineer in the Track Department, assisted Amber with the successful implementation. They were supported by Simon Bull, Asset Information Systems Architect, who developed the technical solution and Ben Susskind, Systems Support Specialist, who assisted the transfer of information to PASS Assets. Amber Lynch and Matt Wightwick Page 7
In Brief MetroRecruit Closing 16 October Authorised Officer Crew Leader (Multiple positions for level 2/3 AOs and above) Full details on The Depot Metro Performance 28-day average as at Friday 25 September 2015 98.9% Delivery 93.2% Punctuality Pardon our Progress Werribee line 26 27 September While we undertake renewal works on the Maidstone Street level crossing at Westona Station, trains will run express between Newport and Laverton, and then stop all stations to Werribee on Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 September. Buses will replace trains for customers travelling to Seaholme, Altona and Westona stations. MTRconnects launches new Branding & Marketing Resource Centre Williamstown line 27 September While works are being carried out as part of the Bayside Rail Project, buses will replace trains between Newport and Williamstown, after 6.45pm Sunday 27 September. Full details at metrotrains.com.au MTRconnects presents the brand new Branding and Marketing Resource Centre! A common platform that is accessible by different hubs for knowledge and case study sharing in the arenas of branding and marketing. The Resource Centre features three major sections: The Guidelines for C&IB section will house all guidelines relevant to C&IB that have been issued. The Photo Library section is a collection of photos from the Headquarters and hubs. These photos can be used in any internal or external publications for promoting the Corporation, the MTR brand and its C&IB operations. Last but not least, the Case Studies & Tools section is where we will share some branding and marketing case studies, and a guide to create an effective marketing plan. The new Branding & Marketing Resource Centre can be accessed via the MTRconnects tile on The Depot or in the MTRconnects August highlights email sent earlier this week. The MTRconnects team welcomes your suggestions on what you would like to see in the Resource Centre. Simply email rpslau@mtr.com.hk. Major Events We re running extra trains to get customers to and home from: Royal Melbourne Show 19 29 September Showgrounds NRL Preliminary Final Melbourne Storm v North Queensland Cowboys Saturday 26 September, 7.40pm AAMI Park VFL Grand Final Box Hill v Williamstown Sunday 27 September, 3.00pm Etihad Page 8