Railway Incident response Manager

Name: Robin Bennett. Age: 34. Salary: £15,000 plus. Special Requirements: Basic railway qualifications, advanced riding course, off-road training. Work Bike: Honda Transalp. Bike Extras: Tracking device, two-way data messaging system, video transmission equipment.

Robin is no ordinary biker. He’s part of a team of fast-response railway engineers whose job it is to keep the country’s train system running. He’d been a railway engineer for nearly a decade when Jarvis, one of the private firms now responsible for maintaining Britain’s rail network, started up their bike team. Before that, track and signalling engineers had been using Transit vans. Robin had been riding for years and jumped at the chance to combine his job and his love of bikes.

” The company get fined for every minute that a passenger train s late, ” says Bennett. ” Our job is to respond to any incident that could delay trains and try to get the service running again as quickly as possible. ”

For work he uses a Honda Transalp as it’s well suited to riding all day, both on and off the tarmac.

” We tried a BMW F650 Funduro, but they were too revvy, ” says Robin. ” We also had a Honda Varadero, which was the best of the lot on the road but just too big for the job. ”

All the bikes carry tracking devices that allow the control room to precisely pinpoint their location and carry video equipment that enables them to send live images from incidents to a control room. Despite initial jokes about being pizza deliverymen, the bike teams have earned the drivers’ respect. Earlier this year, Bennett assisted at the scene of the Selby rail disaster, where 10 people died after a car slewed on to the line. He carried injured passengers away from the wreckage and even made phone calls to loved ones for people in shock.

To many it may seem like the perfect job, getting paid to ride around the countryside all day on a company bike. You even get to take the machine home with you after work. It’s no wonder Jarvis was swamped with offers after they advertised for more riders in MCN recently. Even though you can’t be considered for the position without passing an approved riding assessment, and you need to possess a suitable background in engineering, the firm had over 500 enquiries for just 25 jobs.

For details visit: www.jarvisplc.com