I’ve been with Great Northern for 17 years now, looking after train presentation. Before that, I worked in finance, but I was made redundant and ended up looking for something completely different. When I saw this job advertised, I thought it sounded interesting, although I didn’t really know what to expect. It was a bit of a culture shock at first, but 17 years later, I’m still here, so I must be enjoying it!
From tackling graffiti across entire trains to deep cleaning every seat, window and panel, there’s a lot more to train presentation than you might think. Here’s a look behind the scenes at Hornsey Depot, where my team works around the clock to keep Great Northern trains looking their best.
What goes into train presentation?
Train presentation is the first thing you notice when a train pulls into the station. Whether someone is commuting to work or travelling with their family at the weekend, they deserve a pleasant environment. We want to make sure our trains are clean, safe and pleasant places to travel, so customers can travel in comfort.
Train presentation covers everything from litter and toilets to vandalism and graffiti. My team is based at Hornsey Depot, where we clean around 20 trains every day and another 20 every night.
Getting a train ready for service involves litter picking, cleaning the toilets, and replenishing supplies. We hoover the floors, clean the drivers’ cabs, and make sure the windscreens are clean for the drivers. It takes about half an hour to clean the inside of a train to get it ready for service, but there’s a lot more to it than the everyday clean.
From everyday cleaning to deep cleans
We also carry out deep cleans, which involve scrubbing the whole train from top to bottom. We hoover every seat and scrub every window and panel. A deep clean can take up to five hours, with around five people working on each train for that time.
Cleaning the outside of a train can take up to five hours as well. We manually clean the exterior using brushes, and it makes such a difference to the appearance of a train.
Tackling graffiti and vandalism
Our biggest challenge is vandalism and graffiti, both inside and outside the trains. Windows get scratched, so we use a laminator to replace the laminates in the windows.
External graffiti can range from a small tag to something on an enormous scale. On one occasion, seven coaches of an eight-coach train were completely covered in graffiti, even the windows. It took us two days to clean that one train.
When you consider that we spent two days cleaning a single train because of one act of vandalism, you can see the wider impact. During that time, we weren’t cleaning other trains, so graffiti and vandalism affects all our customers.
Finding better ways to clean our trains
At Great Northern, we’re taking steps to improve train presentation and better face some of these challenges. We’ve started installing vinyl wraps in the toilets, and we’re trialling a new method of cleaning the outside of trains.
We’ve also introduced a new graffiti remover. Rather than being a liquid, it’s a gel, and the results we’ve seen in trials have been incredibly effective. It should make removing internal graffiti much faster, helping us maintain a better environment for customers. If we can remove graffiti more quickly, that means we can spend more time focusing on other areas of train presentation.
The team behind the trains
Over the years, we’ve built up a brilliant team. They genuinely care about what they do and regularly suggest ideas for improving the way we work. The team spirit and morale we have are reflected in the trains we put out.
It takes a lot of work to keep trains looking their best, from the everyday cleaning that gets them ready for service to the more time-consuming jobs. Having a team that cares about the standard of its work makes a real difference.
My favourite places to visit on the Great Northern network
I really enjoy working for Great Northern, and I love visiting places across the network. One of my favourites is Alexandra Palace, which is a brilliant venue. I love going there for the darts every year.
When my children were younger, I used to take them to Stevenage quite often to make the most of the cinema and bowling. I also enjoy travelling into London for concerts, so I’ve had plenty of opportunities to visit different places by train over the years.
Making every journey better
We try to give our customers the best possible experience. After reliability, the environment of a train is one of the most important aspects of the journey. Customers want trains to be clean and safe, and we do our best to make that happen.
We’ll continue working hard to keep our trains clean, tackle vandalism and graffiti, and improve the environment for everyone who travels with Great Northern.
