Inspiring Change: How Southeastern Railways is Driving Social Impact through Purposeful Leadership
Welcome to Fit For Purpose, the podcast where we explore the stories and strategies of individuals and organizations striving to create purpose-led and inclusive cultures. In today's episode, we have a very special guest with us - Steve White, the Managing Director at Southeastern Railways. Steve shares his insights on transforming a company one conversation at a time and the importance of creating a culture that supports diversity and inclusion. From implementing innovative strategies to improve service delivery to championing social mobility, Steve reveals the exciting future of the railway industry and the steps Southeastern is taking to make a lasting impact. Get ready to be inspired as we delve into the power of purpose and inclusion in the world of transportation. Tune in to this episode of Fit For Purpose with your host, Justine Greening.
Transcript:
Rt Hon Justine Greening (00:02.358)
Welcome to the latest Fit for Purpose podcast. Today I'm joined by Steve White He's the managing director at Southeastern Railways. It's actually one of the busiest railway networks in the country. And we'll hear a little bit about just how challenging that makes Steve's job in a second. But we're delighted to have Southeastern as part of our Purpose Coalition and to talk about all of the fantastic work that's going on.
around the network and within the company on really making it literally an engine of social mobility. Anyway, Steve, it's fantastic to have you on the podcast. Tell us a little bit about your own journey, managing director of one of these very, very busy relevant networks we have. How do you end up in that role? And also, I mean, what's it like day to day? Give people a sense of what you do.
Steve White (00:54.116)
Well, it's lovely to see you again, Justine, and thank you for the invitation to talk to you. My journey is not that interesting from a career perspective. I've got to be honest with you. So I was born and brought up in Derby. I loved physics and maths at school, but I didn't want to study them in their purest form. So my idea was to move into engineering. If you come from Derby, you have basically two big choices. You can join Rolls Royce or as it was then you could join British Railways. And all my family are part of the Rolls-Royce Association. That's grandfather, father, uncle, sister, brother-in-law. So I joined the railways. I wanted to be different. And it kind of got under my skin, part of my DNA. And my journey has been a career in railways. In the public sector, in the private sector, and in the supply chain.
I've worked for companies like London Underground, where we run Metro services. I've worked for suburban operators like Silverlink trains. I've worked for Eurostar, so had some exposure to high speed. And now I work for Southeastern trains, which has a little bit of all three actually. And it's a fabulous business to be part of. I always say you never actually own a railway, you just write the next chapter in its history.
So my job involves writing that chapter with my colleagues and try and make it the best it can possibly be. We try every day to create a railway which is better, which is more reliable and which is sustainable. And in doing so, we have to balance three needs really. What do our customers need? What do our colleagues need? And what do our stakeholders need from us? So some days I have the best job in the world. Literally I go home so satisfied.
and others it feels like I'm doing a bit of tightrope walking. But that's the day in the life of a train operator, managing director.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (02:52.462)
Mm-hmm.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (02:58.606)
I guess, you know, as I found when I was transport secretary, the rail industry itself, I mean, it really draws you in, whatever you think about it before you started to look at it in detail. I mean, it's just a fascinating sector to be part of. And of course, you know, it's part of how we literally drive social mobility because connecting up to opportunities physically is just at the core of all of this. So give us your sense about where some...
A business like Southeastern really fits into that whole opportunity connection piece of it.
Steve White (03:32.46)
To be honest, that's always been part of the purpose of railways, hasn't it? In the past, there would be whole towns created, enabled by railways, which would allow people to live in garden towns and commute into London. When cars were for the few, the railways were for the many, and they would enable day trips to the seaside and other places of interest. And the same is true in the modern era.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (03:36.648)
Mm.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (03:39.85)
Yes.
Steve White (03:59.908)
when I worked for Transport for London, that used to describe their mission as helping London to live, work and grow. And I thought that was a lovely description of the sense of purpose of a true transport organization.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (04:15.806)
And so for your passengers and for your employees, let's get into a little bit about where you see the biggest opportunities to drive social mobility, some of the stuff you're doing internally, but then some of that work that you're doing with communities as well.
Steve White (04:32.508)
Yeah, well, we recognize we're a public sector organization. We employ about 4,500 people. So as well as our output, which should facilitate social mobility, as I've described, internally, we have the similar responsibility as an organization. And employability is a classic way of achieving that. So for example, we're about to run another program with the Princes Trust, and we're going to look for young people in the Thanet and Medway areas.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (04:58.017)
Mm-hmm.
Steve White (05:02.364)
who are looking for an opportunity to get started in their careers. And we will give them a training program that gives them a skillset, but we will employ some of them to become part of our organization. And we've run that program previously and it has literally brought tears to my eyes with young people joining the railway and saying, I've now found a family. I've found a sense of purpose. I'm doing something that I believe in.
but I've found colleagues who are there to support me. And this is from some people who may never have had quite that family background that you would wish them to. So that's an example of ourselves using our capability as a large employer to make a difference to people's lives in the way we recruit and also nurture our people.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (05:47.544)
Mm-hmm.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (05:54.378)
And do you feel for the rest of your employees, and I want to come on and talk about almost that economic growth that you're driving as well, but presumably for the rest of your employees, it's also, it's really important for them to see that sense that the opportunities the companies has is changing lives for people as well.
Steve White (06:14.732)
Yeah, I think our perspective on the world has changed, particularly through the pandemic. So for example, I worked for GTR during the pandemic and we took three of our trains and we branded them to say thank you to the NHS. And at eight o'clock every Thursday evening, we asked our staff where they would like the trains to be placed. So when I've one at Eastbourne, one at Potter's Bar and one at London Bridge and the...
Rt Hon Justine Greening (06:19.787)
Mm-hmm.
Steve White (06:44.024)
train planning team would spend all week making sure that those three trains, exactly at eight o'clock on a Thursday night, would arrive at those stations and we would applaud the NHS and we would thank them for what they did but we would also have our own sense of purpose in helping the country through the pandemic. And that feeling that we are here to help society has continued beyond the pandemic.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (06:47.079)
Yeah.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (06:51.425)
Yeah.
Steve White (07:10.948)
We recognise that in full-time employment, we're in something of a privileged position. So we want to help the communities we serve. We do that in very practical ways, by for example, having a defibrillator on every station, which is registered for the local community to use. And we do it in other ways, such as offering employment opportunities.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (07:35.726)
I think, I mean, I think it is, you've got almost a unique footprint. And of course, as you were talking about earlier, I mean, often those rail connections are how communities develop, aren't they? I mean, you know, you talked about the Tuba and I can certainly think of the district line literally connected the districts like, like Putney and beyond to central London. So your sense for Southeastern, I suppose Steve, is that that's what it's historically done for really a part of the country that
now becomes this bigger conurbation to really help London and the southeast be successful, but it's on the back of the connections that Southeast Railways does.
Steve White (08:15.9)
Yeah, there's no doubt transport links can help create connectivity and they can shrink geography to the benefits of local residents. So for example, when high speed came to Kent, Southeastern operates the fastest domestic services in the UK. They've made it entirely possible to live in places like Dover and Ramsgate and Folkestone and commute to London.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (08:22.723)
Mm-hmm.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (08:29.079)
Mm-hmm.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (08:39.246)
Mm-hmm.
Steve White (08:42.644)
daily if you wish to. So they've shrunk the size of this county, brought tremendous economic development and the region has prospered as a result.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (08:50.22)
Mm-hmm.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (08:53.67)
And when you look ahead, you know, can you tell us about some of what's next almost for South Eastern and some of those projects that will continue to enhance services and drive growth locally?
Steve White (09:06.572)
Yeah, we can. We work in really close partnership with Network Rail because they're obviously the landlords in perpetuity of the nation's railway and between Network Rail, ourselves, local boroughs, local councils, we're trying to work out what their needs are and how we might achieve them. So a really good example of that is with Folkestone and Hithe District Council. They've recently given outline planning permission for a new garden town.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (09:11.508)
Mm-hmm.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (09:30.322)
Mm-hmm.
Steve White (09:35.908)
It's called Otterpool Park. It's just outside of Folkestone. And they're developing an integrated transport system for a brand new town, which will see the development of the local railway station, providing fabulous connectivity to London and out along the coastways. So that's a great example of railways working with local councils to facilitate housing, housing that will be connected, housing that will be.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (09:38.143)
And that's it.
Steve White (10:05.68)
desirable housing that will be sustainable. And that's where infrastructure can have a greater purpose than simply employment or connectivity.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (10:12.462)
Hmm.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (10:17.046)
I suppose at the same time, those projects also create more opportunities within Southeastern. I mean, I think one of the things that's been really interesting to see over recent years is just that workforce diversity and opening up your own business and your own opportunities to ever more people. Tell us a little bit about how you go about doing that as someone who
is MD at Southeastern. And maybe also some of the challenges, you know, it doesn't happen overnight and you have to really work hard at it, don't you?
Steve White (10:53.38)
We do, and this is really important to us. So the workforce of Southeastern is over 4,000 people, and only just over 20% is female. I mean, that's a remarkable statistic when you consider our railway has been around since 1836. We are nowhere near representative of the communities we serve, but we are changing, and that is improving.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (11:05.451)
Uh huh.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (11:16.182)
Yeah.
Steve White (11:20.368)
But it's really important to us that we do a lot more in this space. That we make an employer like Southeastern available and inclusive for everybody who wishes to be part of it. So inclusion and diversity are really at the heart of, you know, our social purpose. If we can make this a welcoming place and if we can make it a place where everyone can thrive, then we will become an increasingly.
successful business. I truly believe that because of diversity of thought, diversity of opinion, diversity of lived experience. We talk a lot about the railways being a family. Now there's a lot of good things in that the family often supports you, it often has your back, but families aren't without their problems. So we need to be clear that we want this to be an inclusive family where everybody is genuinely welcome, everybody has the opportunity to
Rt Hon Justine Greening (11:55.746)
Mm-hmm. Mm.
Steve White (12:18.844)
to develop and thrive. And one of the leveling up goals that we've signed up with the Purpose Coalition is about fair career progression to ensure it's equal opportunity for all. So those agendas are really important to turning Southeastern into something that represents the communities we serve is better able to understand their needs and will better meet their expectation.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (12:27.662)
Mm.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (12:46.51)
And then, you know, I was involved in an event that you did as part of your women's, effectively the network supporting aspiring women in South Eastern recently. And, you know, it seems to me that there's a whole variety of different aspects that you're looking at as a business to try and make sure that, A, people can get in, but once they're into South Eastern railways, they can also make sure they can get on. And that...
that internal mentoring and support is crucial. I mean, you were part of that event as well.
Steve White (13:20.416)
I was and the women in rail work we do and thank you for supporting it. Honestly, my team could not believe they had Justine Greening, former Secretary of State with them for an hour discussing, you know, female careers and what a great role model you and Ellie Burroughs, our regional managing director are. So the women in rail agenda, I think is particularly mature. It's something we've been done for a number of years.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (13:29.186)
Yeah.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (13:37.56)
Mmm.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (13:47.977)
Mm-hmm.
Steve White (13:50.724)
got a number of female friendly policies and we've got a very active women in rail colleague network group. But we've got five other colleague network groups including LGBT including accessibility. The most recent has been neurodiversity. We've got one for former colleagues from the armed forces. So we're trying to ensure that this is a holistic approach and there's a place for everybody who wants a community.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (14:01.998)
Mm-hmm.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (14:08.733)
Mm-hmm.
Steve White (14:20.324)
within a community. And we're doing a couple of other things. We've just done a big launch of equality impact assessment training. So this is managers and senior managers in every department in Southeastern, really learning what an equality impact assessment is. Learning how you view what you are trying to do from the perspective of the different protective characteristics. To try and take a much more complete view.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (14:27.935)
Mm-hmm.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (14:37.092)
Mm.
Steve White (14:48.48)
of any change that we make. And I think that training has been a real eye-opener to some railway professionals who have a learned capability to do a particular task, but are now seeing the world differently through that training. And the other thing we started recently is reverse mentoring. So I've been in the railway just over 40 years, Justine, but I now have a reverse mentor for the first time ever, a young female BAME.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (15:07.028)
Mm-hmm.
Steve White (15:18.564)
station manager who I sit down with once a month and she gives me a different perspective on what I do, the leadership shadow that I cast, how the actions of South Eastern reflect on her and her colleagues. And this is all part of changing our perspective to become more inclusive.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (15:19.466)
Mm-hmm.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (15:38.67)
And if I can just jump in there, Steve. So for people who are maybe watching or listening to this and they think, hmm, that sounds interesting. Maybe it's something I should think about or maybe I should do in my business. You know, I'm leading a business or maybe I should suggest that someone does. In practice, how have you got that set up and what's it like when, because you can imagine somebody a lot more junior in the business, you know, may think twice before.
you know, stepping forward for this. How have you actually got it going?
Steve White (16:11.116)
Well, first thing I'd say is definitely do it. You know, I think it's an eye-opener, you know, to... I look forward to those meetings because I will get a different perspective on the world that I work in. How did we do it? We found a trainer that trained both the mentees and the mentors to explain how reverse mentoring was different to conventional mentoring.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (16:14.126)
Mm-hmm.
Steve White (16:40.332)
And then we just started, you know, we took the brave step. And I think my, my mentors say they must be so brave. Imagine volunteering to mentor the managing director of your company. She's so brave to take that on. Um, and I give a tremendous credit for that, but through the training we both had and through the approach we've taken, we now look forward to our, to our sessions.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (16:43.64)
Mm-hmm.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (16:50.556)
Hahaha
Rt Hon Justine Greening (17:05.758)
Mmm. Mm-hmm.
Steve White (17:07.344)
We agree the kind of things we want to talk about, and I ask for honest feedback. So reverse mentoring is a great way of getting honest feedback from more junior members of the team about what you're doing and how it's landing and whether our priorities really were the priorities that people would want them to be. Another simple way of doing it is just to invite lots and lots of feedback. But reverse mentoring, I think, is superior to that because it is struck...
Rt Hon Justine Greening (17:23.137)
Mm-hmm.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (17:37.161)
Mm-hmm.
Steve White (17:37.457)
and it becomes a trusted conversation really quite quickly. So I'd highly recommend it to anybody watching this podcast.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (17:40.379)
Mm.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (17:47.082)
And I think it's something that actually helps people's development as well. So you can imagine in the years to come, the person that you're getting the 360 degree mentoring, you know, reverse mentoring from, will that intern themselves do and have 360 degrees. So actually it is creating a better leadership culture and it's sort of interesting when you see, you know, reports how something like a third of people have left.
roles because they didn't have a good boss or there was poor management and I think for a long time in Britain we've really probably not focused as much on how to create those cultures that mean their strong management and strong progression and that means everyone actually being part of part of that journey.
Steve White (18:35.432)
It really does. We talk a lot about creating the inverted pyramid. So you try and turn the organization upside down. If your customers are the most important thing to a business, then it's your frontline colleagues that are serving the customers. And therefore it's the job of the directors and the senior leaders to enable our frontline to thrive and to be successful in their role. Not to tell them what to do, but to nurture them and listen to them. So by today,
In order to turn the organization upside down, we've got to do a lot of listening and switch from direction to support, which I can tell you after many years, it's not an easy switch to make. But that listening allows us to, I say, take a different perspective on what a long-term sustainable future for Railway looks like. And that's with empowered frontline colleagues who believe they've got a future.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (19:08.454)
Yes, yeah.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (19:16.525)
No.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (19:31.534)
Sorry.
Steve White (19:34.12)
that's a promising one. Sorry Justine, another thing that nurtures this is up-skilling our team. So we've got over 400 apprenticeships live in our business. I went to a graduation ceremony last Wednesday where about 50 or 60 colleagues were graduating in anything from a level three to a level seven apprenticeship.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (19:36.322)
And I think, sorry, go on, Steve.
Steve White (20:01.164)
And we treat them because for some people it will be a second or third career, the first time they've had to deal with English, maths and IT, you know, in a formal setting for many, many years. And we treat this truly as a graduation ceremony, a celebration of the learning that they've done and the standard that they have achieved. And I think if we can listen to our people and upskill our people and give them fair career progression, then this railway has a very bright future.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (20:31.63)
I think it's really exciting and it's brilliant listening to you talk about these nuts and bolts. You can see how actually you have the support networks, you put in things like 360 degree mentoring, you have that broader leadership culture that goes right down the organisation. It does start to be a different place perhaps for people to feel like they can have really successful careers if it's complemented with all the re-skilling and up-skilling.
that starts to become a really exciting mix.
Steve White (21:05.296)
I think it does. We said we want to change this company fundamentally and irreversibly, but we do so one conversation at a time. And actually, I don't think it takes as long as people imagine that it does. As you say, if you think the way that we recruit people with blind CVs, the way that we train people to have the skills they need, the way that we support people with the colleague network groups.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (21:11.086)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Steve White (21:31.792)
the way we listen to people with regular PULT surveys or reverse mentoring. These fit together like a giant jigsaw puzzle and I'm confident that we will create the kind of culture we want in this organization, a purpose led culture, an inclusive culture. I think we'll get there quicker than people imagine we will.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (21:39.31)
Mm-hmm. Mm.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (21:53.51)
I think that's right. And I think the reason for that is actually because everyone's behind this. So if you're creating a culture that everyone supports, then it really is self-fulfilling. And I think one of the reasons we wanted to bring together the Purpose Coalition, businesses, universities, NHS Trust, everyone, was because actually, you can do this faster by sharing all of that experience. And this sense that actually Southeastern
a number of different, really different businesses that are all challenging themselves quite strategically and but doing it successfully and I think you know your leadership can then inspire other businesses both in your sector but also beyond to think about what they can do and it really is a race to the top isn't it?
Steve White (22:44.084)
It is, and to be honest, I'm inspired by some of the people I work with. I've got a gentleman called Darren O'Brien who created the National Rail to Refuge Scheme. And he spoke on one of our old colleague briefings about why he had instigated this scheme to help people flee from domestic abuse. And he had us all in tears. And I think in that, you know, we have people like that within our organisation.
who are driven by this overriding sense of purpose, who've done something that started as an idea in one company and became a national proposition. And I'm so inspired that, you know, he's created this legacy that it drives the rest of us to facilitate that kind of belief and those kinds of sentiments and do more each day. So I'm very lucky, I'm inspired by many of the people I work with.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (23:36.658)
It takes a lot of people to deliver, you know, an organization like that. But I know that part of what you do is obviously work outside of Southeastern. We've talked a lot about what happens inside the business, but tell us a little bit about, you know, those partnerships you've got externally on issues like mental health, all sorts of things that you're working on. You know, you talked about the local authorities, for example, that you're working hand in hand with. Tell...
give us a broader sense of those partnerships, but also how easy or hard it is to get them really working in a productive way.
Steve White (24:13.66)
I think we've found generally a lot of organizations very willing to partner and nurture with us. So we're keen to work with government, keen to work with local councils and local authorities. So I'll give you one example. You know, the government has set out an ambition towards net zero. We think rail has a big part to play in that. So the Rail Safety and Standards Board has created a blueprint for sustainability.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (24:20.75)
Mm-hmm.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (24:31.841)
Mm-hmm.
Steve White (24:41.772)
And that's allowed us in Southeastern to create our own plans to that effect. So I literally yesterday signed off the foreword for our first decarbonization roadmap. We want to be net zero on our own emissions by 2035. We also have plans for air quality, noise reduction, biodiversity and modal shift, taking people out of cars and onto rail. If you take those holistically.
we can work in partnership with local councils and local boroughs to make things like that a reality. For example, many local councils have given us funding to create secure cycle hubs at our stations to help make that first to last mile a more effective one and to combine active travel with public transport who are sort of natural partners. So we love working with councils and with government.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (25:26.017)
Mm-hmm.
Steve White (25:40.988)
to drive forward the sustainability agenda. And frankly, we want to do a lot more of that in future. If I had a railway that just ran itself every day that we could just leave it alone, we would do this all of the time. But in truth, when we go looking for partners to work with us on green travel agendas, on modal shift, on biodiversity, on health and wellbeing, on tackling antisocial behavior.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (25:51.318)
Yes.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (26:06.651)
Mm-hmm.
Steve White (26:11.388)
There are people queuing up to work with us, which is a good thing. We just need to resource the priorities. And that's what I think we found helpful working with the Purpose Coalition, to try and refine what our priorities should be in this space and where we can make most difference by targeting our efforts.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (26:29.302)
Yeah, and I think you've been doing that brilliantly. And I think what we've really valued is not only in the engagement with you and your senior team, but almost this sense of a whole company really engaging with all of that issue of social mobility and the purpose coalition work. It's been brilliant. And I think that, you know, in your own way, you've really brought it alive. And actually, as we see the rail industry continue to shift, both in terms of the physical infrastructure.
Steve White (26:46.332)
Do you want to know?
Rt Hon Justine Greening (26:56.918)
what happens at stations, but also digital. You can see almost this next phase opening up of opportunities actually. Change brings opportunities, doesn't it?
Steve White (27:06.936)
It does. Honestly, the biggest challenge I've got is that everyone wants to be part of this. The social agenda is so fabulous that, you know, could naturally be led by the people function or the commercial team could add it to our customer, inclusive proposition, or the team that lead climate change, we're really keen that social mobility becomes part of the sustainability agenda. So we all want to contribute to this because it's the kind of thing when you look back.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (27:12.599)
Yeah.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (27:19.189)
Mm-hmm.
Steve White (27:37.26)
after a period of tenure and say, did we make a difference? These are the kind of things where we can honestly say, yes, we did.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (27:45.118)
And do you think tech will be a bigger part of the industry going forward? You know, and how does that lend itself to all of all of this social mobility mission?
Steve White (27:55.924)
I think tech's really important. So essentially the railways had three phases up until now. It started off with a steam railway and we're about to celebrate, you know, 200 years of passenger rail in the UK in 2025. So it started off as steam, it moved to diesel, it went to electric, but the fourth era of the railways will be the digital era. And that's one that I think will be the most exciting and potentially the most transformational.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (28:04.08)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm, yeah.
Steve White (28:25.74)
I'm really excited about what it can mean, for example, for our customers. There are things that we've given customers today that weren't imaginable even a few short months ago. You know, there's a live map on our network that shows every train that's running, how long it is, how busy it's expected to be, and when it's expected to run. If we know what regular journey you made, Justine, and that train is delayed, we will ask you if you're on that train. And if you were,
Rt Hon Justine Greening (28:51.479)
Mm-hmm.
Steve White (28:54.116)
Within seconds, we can give you your delay repay compensation. We've got e-tickets, and we weren't selling any e-tickets at Christmas. Last period, we sold over 600,000. So we're making it easy for people to buy queue-free, simple tickets on their smartphone. And there's more coming soon. We're going to introduce an accessible journey planner. So if you want to go from A to B, it'll tell you the best way of doing that using step-free access.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (29:06.455)
Wow.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (29:18.291)
Mm-hmm.
Steve White (29:24.144)
We're going to introduce a carbon planner. So if you want to go from A to B, we'll show you how much CO2 you will emit by traveling by train. And if you chose to drive, what the Delta would be. And we're going to introduce him something called track and share my journey. So if you're going to travel by train, you can share your journey with the person that's meeting you at the other end. And then they will see, obviously it doesn't happen very often, but they would see if your train was delayed.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (29:27.991)
Mm-hmm.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (29:32.485)
Uh-huh.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (29:41.204)
Mm-hmm.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (29:47.842)
Britain.
Steve White (29:53.516)
And even if your phone goes flat, they will be able to track your journey to the point of meeting you. I think for parents meeting their children at a train station, group of friends socializing, being able to see when a colleague or a friend is arriving, you know, is a simple but helpful device. And we will have that shortly. So from a customer perspective, digital is going to make a real difference.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (29:53.628)
Mm-hmm.
Steve White (30:22.268)
from the ability to operate our railway, sharing data is everything. We've got this huge data lake now of information that we've absorbed. And we've got 50 different dashboards that are live today. I can see every ticket machine on the network today, live, whether it's working or not, and if it's got a problem, what that problem is. I can see if there are any queues at those ticket machines. We can tell that.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (30:35.147)
Mm-hmm.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (30:41.333)
Wow.
Yeah.
Steve White (30:50.164)
by the waiting time between transactions, we can tell whether gate lines are open or closed. So we are giving people running the railway more information than they've ever had to be able to deliver a better and better service to customers. So we, you know, digital enablement of our railways will be amazing. We started to use chat bots. So if you want to know where the first off-peak train from your local station is, that's a mechanistic
proposition, we can answer that, you know, with a chat bot that will get the answer right every single time, have no ongoing operations costs. So we can use our people to care for our customers, rather than answer mechanistic questions, which we can do, you know, online with a chat bot. So it promises to be a really exciting future. I don't think I can actually imagine what life is going to be like in even five or 10 years time.
I sat down with my senior leadership team for a business planning session a few days ago and we all said to ourselves, what's AI going to do? Where could we be in five years time with AI? And we quickly realized we were asking the wrong people. We weren't qualified to say what this might actually be able to bring. So we need to go find partners that will. Often small companies, people much younger than ourselves and people who understand this technology.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (32:04.175)
Hehehehe
Rt Hon Justine Greening (32:08.368)
Mmm.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (32:14.388)
Oh.
Steve White (32:18.716)
So I'm really excited about the digital future for rail, both for our customers and for our colleagues.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (32:25.37)
And so, yeah, you started off by talking about, you know, your own, your own start, you know, you were into engineering and physics and maths and it's fascinating how now essentially you're describing a business that's tech industry driven as much as anything else. So it shifts on again. And if you were giving some advice to an aspiring, you know, rail sector person, someone who loves...
Steve White (32:41.273)
Yeah.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (32:51.178)
loves the industry, wants to get in, can see your role and thinks that's what I want to be doing. What advice would you give them?
Steve White (32:59.832)
Okay, well I'm biased of course, but I say go for it. If you wanna join an industry that's got a huge purpose, if you wanna join an industry that's highly relevant in the world of climate change and the carbon challenge, if you wanna join a railway where you wanna help write the next chapter in a long and proud history, then railways are a great industry to be part of. When I ever meet people that join us, I recently met.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (33:02.203)
Oh yeah.
Steve White (33:29.008)
five young graduates that joined our railway as project management trainees and I promised them one thing and only one and that is that they will never be bored. You know this is the kind of industry where they will never be bored so I hope my advice would be to go for it to embrace this industry because it can offer a wonderful diversity of opportunity and it can give you a sense of
Rt Hon Justine Greening (33:41.92)
Yeah.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (33:45.952)
No.
Steve White (33:57.424)
purpose in all that you do. So give it a go.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (34:01.062)
Steve, I think that's a brilliant point in which to finish. It's fantastic having Southeastern part of the Purpose Commission and I think, you know, the discussion we've had gives people a real sense of just how powerful Southeastern Railways can be in driving social mobility but it's part of a bigger mindset you've got beyond that on what you can bring to communities more broadly and the careers and opportunities. So, Steve White,
Managing Director of Southeastern Railways it's been fantastic having you doing the podcast and looking forward to getting this podcast published and out to a wider world.
Steve White (34:38.268)
It's been lovely talking to you.
Rt Hon Justine Greening (34:40.29)
Thank you.
