South Western Railway struck gold at this year’s Golden Spanner awards with wins for its fleet teams in 4 separate categories.
The prestigious Golden Spanner awards, run by Modern Railways magazine, recognise the country’s best fleet teams at an annual event which celebrates improvements in train maintenance practices and reliability.
Representatives from each of the winning depots, along with colleagues from Fleet Engineering and Fleet Performance, joined more than 350 representatives from across the rail industry at the gala award event in London.
Gold awards for the most reliable trains were won in the following categories:
Ex BR DMU – Salisbury Depot for the Class 158/9 diesel fleets
Ex-BR EMU – Wimbledon Depot for the Class 455 electric fleet
Second generation new EMU – Wimbledon Depot for the Class 707 electric fleet
Wild Card, repurposed traction – Ryde St. Johns Road Depot for the Class 484 fleet
The wins have been hailed an outstanding performance, especially notable for South Western Railway colleagues on the Isle of Wight who picked up their first Golden Spanner award in the repurposed rolling stock category, just a year after starting work on the Island Line’s Class 484 fleet.
James Wale, SWR’s Head of Fleet Delivery, has said:
“Reliable trains are a key part of delivering the consistent service our customers want and expect from us, so I’d like to congratulate all of those colleagues that have worked so hard to achieve this recognition”.
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Great to see the Island’s small “mainline” depot win an award, lots of big mainland depots to compete with. Well done to the team at Ryde St John’s. We now have two award winning railways on the Island, the Steam railway have success in recent years too.
Yes islandline has had difficulties with driver rostas in recent months, but that’s a management issue that has plagued several franchises.
Well said, great to see its happened here.
Agreed, but I don’t see them advertising for staff !