New to the RailStaff Awards in 2024 was a very special prize.
Awarded in honour of Tom O’Connor, founder of Rail Media and visionary behind the RailStaff Awards, the Rail Ambassador Award celebrates those who champion the industry, serve as positive advocates, and inspire others. This inaugural ward was sponsored by Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR).
Heather Waugh, a rapid deployment driver at Freightliner, was a very worthy winner in a hotly contested category.
Heather is passionate about promoting and championing the industry whilst also challenging it to improve. She volunteers more than 1,000 personal hours every year, as well as working long, challenging hours in a job that has no access to emails or social media – meaning all this is done in her free time.
Heather takes the time to learn about the needs of her industry and champions it tirelessly. She is a dedicated ambassador, who gives so much whilst asking for so little. She deserves to be recognised.
“It’s obviously a very special award, and being the first year it has been presented makes it extra special,” she said. “Hearing the story behind the award is also very humbling.
“Rail is a wonderful industry, so it’s easy to be a cheerleader for it. I’ve had huge support from everyone at Freightliner and from my former employer ScotRail. The support from across the industry has also been incredible. Rail is a very unified industry and it’s brilliant to be able to demonstrate that.”
Jenny Saunders, customer services director at GTR presented the prize.
“Awards like this are the heart of the railway,” she said. The railway is all about the people. Whether they’re engineers, station staff, supply chain, it doesn’t matter – it’s the staff who make the railway and awards like this are just so special.
“It’s an absolute honour to sponsor this new award. The field was so tight and everybody who was shortlisted could have won. It was an absolute joy to judge it.”
Highly commended
Callum Marius, GTR
Satty Potiwal, South Western Railway
