Station Managers

[EbbwJunction1]

I was walking through the car park at the back of Newport Station a couple of days ago, and I noticed a bay marked "Reserved for Station Manager".

Now, apart from this being new (at least, I haven't seen it before!), I didn't know that Newport had a Station Manager! I was under the impression (possibly / probably wrongly), that these were a dying breed and the duties were now done by other staff with different titles.

So, my question is - How many stations have a Station Manager now?

 

[EM2]

I'd have thought all stations (or groups of them) have a Station Manager.
I'm a Shift Station Manager, a duty manager basically, my boss is the Stations Manager (he has two stations under his remit), he makes the decisions that affect those stations only and his boss is Head Of Stations who makes the decisions that affect all stations in her group.
None of us have a reserved parking space though

 

[boxy321]

Somebody probably painted it themselves...

 

[Tio Terry]

There's a sign, printed A4 sheet in a plastic wallet, on the fence at Ewell West saying that a particular space is reserved for SWT STAFF ONLY. I doubt it has been authorised by anyone at SWT but has probably been put there by the ticket office staff.

 

[DarloRich]

You want to try the front of Beltchely station. Booking office staff, driver managers and station managers seem to have the best spaces with disabled and drop off relegated to the second rank!

 

[thenorthern]

Derby has one still I think.

 

[pdeaves]

EM2 is right. All stations have a station manager. It happens that lots of stations share the same manager. Actually, some stations have more than one manager. Bristol Temple Meads has a NR and a GWR manager.

Edit: sorry for making all four sentences end with the same word!

 

[tsr]

In my area, as a general idea of the range of positions, we have Area Station Managers, Group Station Managers, Station Managers for larger individual stations, Duty Station Managers who may or may not be the same people, and often where there are multiple employees of each grade on duty at any one time, Team Leaders who will be responsible for the frontline actions of Dispatch / Gateline / Ticket Office / Station Support (or a combination of those) during their given shift.

The combination of staff present does depend on the job descriptions and staffing levels required for each specific station. Sometimes you may have a Team Leader in charge of a station because no SM/DSM is required at that time. Often an Area or Group SM will only be required to be present during certain types of major events/incidents, route "blockades" for engineering, etc., the rest of the time being occupied as roving senior staff who will also spend a fair amount of time in meetings or offices around their area. Sometimes their physical main office may be quite far removed from some of the stations they are responsible for. SMs or DSMs usually have a much smaller patch - one or two stations - and will have a certain number of hours they must spend on peak-time customer facing duties, a certain amount of time for people management, and so on. Often the Team Leader is the physical presence available on the most regular basis and will be the first point of escalation for safety issues, queries and complaints, liaison with replacement transport and so on.

 

[Gathursty]

In Northern land, there seem to be line managers, as in the Kirkby line stations (Kirkby, Rainford, Upholland, Orrell & Pemberton) share a point of contact that is responsible. Stations such as Parbold that are staffed, I imagine that the ticketing staff there would not be called managers but they are answerable to someone who is the manager of the local stations who would be based in Wigan or Manchester perhaps.

Happy to be corrected.

 

[DarloRich]

I believe all of the stations on our line ( Marston Vale) have the same manager

 

[CC 72100]

In Northern land, there seem to be line managers, as in the Kirkby line stations (Kirkby, Rainford, Upholland, Orrell & Pemberton) share a point of contact that is responsible. Stations such as Parbold that are staffed, I imagine that the ticketing staff there would not be called managers but they are answerable to someone who is the manager of the local stations who would be based in Wigan or Manchester perhaps.

Happy to be corrected.

While I'm not familiar with Northern land, all stations with TOCs I am familiar with will have an official designated manager, even if they are unstaffed halts - someone has to take responsibility. They will likely spend most of their time at their 'main' station of the stations they look after, they shouldn't have a desk in head office!

That said, as other have said, for day to day business they may not be there, or may not even have accommodation to be there!

 

[HH]

I know that in GA-land there are Area Managers and reporting to them are several Duty Managers, who each have responsibility for certain stations. So even though no-one has the title - the responsibilities still exist.

OFC I recall the old days, seeing as my father was a Station Manager when that meant living in a building on the station, called Station House.

Although there was more to do in those days - vast amounts of freight; hauling coal and livestock - the responsibilities are largely the same.

 

[northwichcat]

The station manager for most of the Mid-Cheshire line stations works at one station on the line but he isn't manager for the station he is based at!

 

[hairyhandedfool]

In Northern land, there seem to be line managers, as in the Kirkby line stations (Kirkby, Rainford, Upholland, Orrell & Pemberton) share a point of contact that is responsible. Stations such as Parbold that are staffed, I imagine that the ticketing staff there would not be called managers but they are answerable to someone who is the manager of the local stations who would be based in Wigan or Manchester perhaps.

Happy to be corrected.

Sort of there. Larger stations, like Manchester Victoria or Leeds, will have one specific Station Manager who is responsible only for that station. Smaller stations (including those of a medium size) will have what you refer to as a 'line manager'. They are still a Station Manager, it's just that they look after more than one station.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

Ah, thank you, folks, that's useful.

The sign specifically refers to "Manager" in the singular, which made me think that the user was only responsible for Newport whereas, of course, he could have been responsible for the area - Newport, Pontypool, Cwmbran, Severn Tunnel Junction and the Ebbw Vale line.

Ironically, on the day I saw it, it was empty, otherwise I wouldn't have seen the writing. Mind you, he / she may have been somewhere else in his / her empire!

"None of us have a reserved parking space though" .... You'll have to move to Newport!! (Sorry!)

 

[father_jack]

I think more the point is the need for a designated parking space. Most railway car parks have only a finite number of staff spaces due to the public ones being so financially lucrative to the TOC or contractor ! The SM also may need to park at any time when on call etc.

 

[AnonymousUser1]

Sort of there. Larger stations, like Manchester Victoria or Leeds, will have one specific Station Manager who is responsible only for that station. Smaller stations (including those of a medium size) will have what you refer to as a 'line manager'. They are still a Station Manager, it's just that they look after more than one station.

rather than the situation in 'Oh Dr Beeching' where the new Station Master at Hatley was previously the deputy StationMaster at KGX - but Hatley being a 'promotion' becasue it;s a Station Master's role ...
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

I think more the point is the need for a designated parking space. Most railway car parks have only a finite number of staff spaces due to the public ones being so financially lucrative to the TOC or contractor ! The SM also may need to park at any time when on call etc.

i suspect it's the on call nature of the role

not railsways - but when my dad had an on call aspect to his role as a Manager in enegineering support to a large food factory, he and his similarly graded colleague had dedicated parking spaces as they were in the organisational chart as the Senior accountable person for Engineering for that site ( and some smaller ones - they had similar colleagues at the other big site ), as did the factory General Manager and the 'Factory Engineer' who was the supervisor of the maintainance staff ... ironically his boss - based on the same site but in the office block , not the Factory side of the site didn't have a designated parking space as the designated parking spaces at the office block were for the Chairman / CE / couple of the other 'senior' Directors but not divisional Directors ...

 

[swt class 450]

I believe that the North Downs line has one station manager for all of the stations on the entire line.

 

[Clip]

Wish I had a parking space at my stations