First day

Suited up fully today. No tie last week, but still wore I suit. So I guess I "tied up!"  "tie.. up", not sure. Very excited to try my new employee pass for all train, bus and ferry as I drove to induction week instead of taking the train.

We met at 477 Pitt Street, Central side, to get our photos taken and then our managers met us and escorted us away. I am to be working in Station and Buildings - under project management. Met my manager Richard Mumford. Very nice guy, and gives me the feeling that if you give him a task, he can quite easily and systematically knock down the tasks that need to be done in a clear and logical manner in the most efficient way possible.

He explained to me again and more in depth from meet and greet what project management was and asked me what my expectations were and to see how he can try to accomodate me to gain such experiences.

We took a look at Central station, seeing the works in progress. Easy Access is the program that is currently going around the different stations. That is, all people should have equal opportunity to access trains and stations. Ramps and elevators are being built. That being said. Very difficult and not often noticed by the public. Railcorp cannot close off some important passageways in Central station. which makes working very difficult. Noise is also another issue, so with pushing a wall back, or removing a hole in the ceiling to install elevators, it is not easy at all. I asked about night works, and it turns out Railcorp has to follow regulations of not exceeding 5db of the ambient night noise, that is almost as if someone is talking. As you can imagine, jack hammering and drilling is out of the question.

These are some of the challenges posed to Railcorp. Working with high volume traffic, adhering to all regulations, continuous improvement, technical aspects and limited space are just the tip of the iceberg of issues with working with high traffic high volume stations. I was going through Townhall station with Richard with a painting contractor explaining problems to realize how hard it is to physically alter stairs if regulations for emergency evacuation deem those narrow staircases inadequate.

First meeting today. Richard brought me along. Can't say very much about what went on specifically but it was nice to see people so vocal, so different to university. Everyone had their responsibilites and roles and saw things from different perspective and had valuable input. The meeting made me realize how by my manager bringing me in, I was in a room in the presence of many important authorities and where fundamental concepts, ideas, goals and models were developed in reaching a desired outcome. One thing I would note from the meeting is that in any project... although you may get things done, maybe ahead of schedule, or under the estimated cost, if it is not following the plan, it is still considered a failure. If it happened by accident it can be seen as something losing control. Projects must follow plans and models. Very enriching experience.

So my office is based in Burwood, used to be in Pitt street but moved. Travel will be longer than I anticipated but Burwood I wouldn't consider too far away. People in the office are very friendly and very helpful. No initiation. Thankfully. Contrary to common belief, it's very busy. Especially so with the election coming up, political agendas push projects. The state government is increasing projects and aims to have them completed to show results as an aid for the election. The department is running crazy with so many projects.

Richard mentioned I am to follow station upgrades manager Eddy... Eddie? Will follow up on the correct spelling later. He mentioned that with so many starters and with so much activity it may be hard to throw me in the pool so to speak and completely understandable. Let's see how things go. Adapt, absorb and work hard :P that's all I can do for now.

Induction Week of Railcorp

First week was mostly training. Code of ethics, culture, fraud, corruption, safety, security and getting qualifications to work on the track called RISI.

Saw a lot, learnt a lot and met a lot of new people and friends. Petersham training centre is like a TAFE for Railcorp, it has so many classrooms and different courses going on simultaneously it felt like it was buzzing with life at all times.

The dull boring drone of the trainer's voice mixed with the food in the stomach in the afternoon, or even the dark room as we watched information dvd lulled nearly all to sleep. It was all good fun though, learning together, doing mini assessments at end of each module and learning a great deal about Railcorp as an organization and the expectations for them to perform and from us as individuals.

Interesting Facts:

• Railcorp move approximately 1 000 000 people on an average weekday

• How many cars, buses and eight carriage trains does it take to transport 1000 people?
• 200 - 250 cars
• 15 buses
• 1 train

• Railcorp costs around 2.5 BILLION. Yes. Billion to run each year. Tickets are heavily subsidized by the government, if it Railcorp sought to recover all costs of running the railway, tickets will cost about 3x as much. For the extensive area, Railcorp actually is not expensive at all for rail. Europe trains cost a lot, as does other countries globally. Germany and Hong Kong are examples of cheap systems though. So although we like to have cheaper tickets and complain, we lose sight of the fact, or didn't know, that Railcorp is actually quite cheap for the area it covers.

• Railcorp has around 16 000 employees, possibly bumping it up soon.

• The first NSW train opened in 1855, running from Sydney to Parramatta

• Central turned 100 in year 2006.

What I also found was the Railcorp has many rules to follow, lot of regulations and Acts designed for Railcorp to follow. In a way it's an unique environment for them, not many companies have acts applied solely for them and that in itself creates a lot of challenges as I learnt later on the first day of my non-training week.

Rules governing employees are very strict. Random breath tests and urine tests are conducted. I mean who wants someone high driving a train or someone that's high designing the tracks? Railcorp's committment to safety is fairly impressive. Also the way we behave and act is governed by a Code of Conduct which we had to go through during training. Being in an organization that gets slammed and scrutinized for everything means employees must... well.. try at least... to act in a way that public sees acceptable.

Running on time? Railcorp's stats right now for on time running are quite impressive, around 94%, so... of 2000 services daily, that's 120 services late, but overall, 94 is pretty impressive. I learnt that many customers were dissatisfied when a train arrived early and it's sitting at the station. So you get negative feedback when trains are early and when trains are late. It has to be just right... well.. according to the public. What most people don't realize are lots of delays are caused by people jumping into trains, delaying it as it has become a crime scene if death occurs and the train cannot move until police and ambulance have arrived. That being said, I looked up the stats for 2004-2005, the on time running was around 61%. So I can understand why people have "running late again" stereotype imprinted in their brains.



What I have posted here may not be accurate figures and in no way do I speak on behalf of Railcorp. They're my personal opinions only.