Performance Hero of the Month!

Next time your train - say from Birmingham New Street to Dudley and Wolverhampton - departs dead on time, remember to thank, not the Fat Controller or Mussolini, but a 17-year-old student with an eye for detail.

Ade Sodeinde arrived in Britain from Nigeria only last year. She is on placement with Central Trains before going to Birmingham University in October to study mechanical engineering. "I helped managers to identify what caused the trains to run late. It was just a problem with the system used - it just needed clarification," she said yesterday with due modesty.

"It took a few months because I had to analyse the trends to see the prominent problem there. I talked with my manager and we sat down and brainstormed and came up with a solution together."

Ms Sodeinde helped a team of managers find ways of smoothing the progress of trains from depots to stations and ensuring that crews are in the right place at the right time.

Her work has helped cut delays, which drive passengers mad and incur expensive fines for the train company.

Innovations and streamlining are thought to have already saved Central Trains £250,000, with that figure likely to rise to £750,000 by the end of the year.

Ms Sodeinde was placed with the company by Year in Industry, an independent project which gives gap-year students salaried experience of the real world in which they might eventually find jobs.

"We offered Ade the opportunity to come and work on a real-life scenario," said Rachel Webster, head of communications for Central Trains.

"We didn't want her photocopying and making the coffee. She has been down there at the dirty end of the rail industry to try to solve real problems and work alongside our managers. She has seized the opportunity with both hands and contributed a great deal. This has been very valuable to Central Trains."

Ms Sodeinde joined a team investigating ways to improve train performance, said Ms Webster. "Ade carried out a programme of data analysis, looking at all the performance indicators and the data to try to see where the problems were. It was a question of saving 30 seconds here, a couple of minutes there, making sure that everything happens in the right sequence."

Caroline Durbin, marketing manager for Year in Industry, described Ms Sodeinde, who has a brother and sister studying in Britain, as "an exceptional character".

"She was asked to assess why the trains were being delayed. But not only did she say what was happening, she suggested to managers what could be done to resolve the problem," she said.

"Ade is going to be head and shoulders above other engineering graduates with this experience. She is likely to go to a much better job on a much better starting salary."

Ms Sodeinde travels each day on a Central train from Birmingham Snow Hill to her office at Tysley depot.

"I think the British rail system is a bit complicated," she said cautiously. "It works for half of the time."

Article by David Ward, for The Guardian; Wednesday May 25, 2005

01/07/05