I’d like to nominate Keelie Hall for the Apprentice of the Year, recognising her exceptional passion, drive, and commitment to safety and performance in the rail industry. Following in her dad’s footsteps a driver on the East Coast Main Line for 40 years, Keelie joined LNER with a personal determination to make a meaningful difference. Growing up, she saw both the good days and the more difficult moments that came with his role, particularly around fatalities on the railway. These experiences inspired her to get involved, contribute meaningfully to railway operations, and play an active role in improving how the industry supports colleagues, families, and communities during such events. As an apprentice at LNER, Keelie hasn’t just met expectations, she’s exceeded them. She’s helped shape how safety and performance are understood across the organisation, and taken on responsibility well beyond her role level. One of her standout achievements was tackling a long-standing industry challenge: the lack of a clear, shared definition of performance. Keelie took this head-on, gathering feedback from frontline colleagues, managers, and senior leaders, including our executive team, to co-create a definition that now guides how we explain and embed performance at LNER: "Performance is how we deliver on our promise: to get customers to their destination safely, reliably, and on time. Strong performance builds trust, pride, and loyalty for our customers, our people, and the railway itself. When we perform well, we attract passengers, support communities, and strengthen the railway’s future. It shows we take ownership, deliver on our word, and learn from every challenge. Good performance isn’t just about meeting targets, it’s about making every train, every journey, and every day better. In short: performance is how we show up, build trust, and move the railway forward." She didn’t stop at words, Keelie took the next step and has developed training materials on performance, which are in the process of being embedded into the onboarding process for new recruits across LNER. Her work is helping colleagues understand their role in delivering a safe and punctual railway-and most importantly, why it matters. She’s also forged strong working relationships across LNER and with Network Rail, particularly in the Route Crime space - an area that links directly to reducing risk and impact around trespass and fatalities. Her values were also brought to life through community engagement, including her involvement in Leeds Station Safety Week. Keelie supported the delivery of simulator sessions as part of a wider event that reached almost 1,000 children with important messages about railway safety - an incredible achievement that shows her commitment to supporting the wider community and preventing harm before it happens. Alongside all of this, she’s been a powerful advocate for apprentices, speaking up for their contributions and encouraging others to step forward. Keelie’s confidence, curiosity, and emotional intelligence set her apart - not just as a future leader, but as someone already making a meaningful impact. Keelie's dedication, initiative, and the maturity she’s demonstrated throughout her apprenticeship make her an outstanding contender.

I am honoured to nominate Tracey for the Charity Award. Throughout her time at Amulet Security, she has consistently demonstrated exceptional dedication, leadership, and professionalism—both in her role and in her charitable endeavours. One of Tracey’s most significant contributions has been her work with Missing People, a charity that supports the families and friends of those who go missing during the search and beyond, while also standing up for their rights to be treated fairly and equitably. In 2025, Tracey took part in the Manchester Marathon, Newark Half Marathon, and Berlin Marathon, raising an impressive £630 to support this cause. In 2024, Tracey dedicated her efforts to The Ben Kinsella Trust, a UK charity established in memory of 16-year-old Ben Kinsella to prevent knife crime through education, campaigning, and awareness initiatives. By running in the London Marathon, Manchester events, and the Half Marathon, she successfully raised £660 to support the trust’s vital mission of making knife carrying socially unacceptable and protecting young people. In 2023, Tracey supported Oasis Community Learning, a multi-academy trust educating over 32,000 children and young people across 52 academies in England. With a vision of delivering exceptional education alongside community support, Oasis greatly benefited from Tracey’s fundraising efforts. Through her participation in the London Marathon, she raised an outstanding £2,105 to help further their impact. Tracey also extends her generosity to other organizations, such as Railway Children, a UK-based charity working with vulnerable children at risk on the streets in the UK, India, and Tanzania. In May 2025, she participated in the Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge, raising £120, and later took part in a “Sleep Out” initiative, raising an additional £46 to support the charity’s mission. Across these initiatives, Tracey has shown an extraordinary ability to inspire collaboration, raise awareness, and drive meaningful change. Her passion and determination have not only advanced charitable causes but also left a lasting, positive impact on the wider community. Beyond her charitable work, Tracey embodies the values of integrity, teamwork, and excellence. She is a role model within Amulet Security—always willing to support colleagues, share knowledge, and create an environment where others can thrive. For these reasons, I wholeheartedly believe Tracey is a truly deserving candidate for the Charity Award, and I am proud to put forth this nomination.

Sheree is an inspiring force for good across the railway, exemplifying dedication, compassion, and leadership in the fields of health, wellbeing, and community engagement. A passionate advocate for safety and mental health, Sheree’s work has made a lasting difference to thousands of colleagues and members of the public. Her leadership in the rollout of AEDs (automated external defibrillators) at SWR is a prime example of her proactive spirit. Recognising that many staff felt anxious about responding in emergencies, she completed formal training and created an internal programme to empower colleagues — delivering AED and CPR education to over 1,500 individuals, including station volunteer adopters and senior leaders. She sourced funding for equipment from different departments and built the initiative from scratch, ensuring access and confidence were at the heart of her approach. Sheree extends her impact beyond the railway by collaborating with The Alex Wardle Foundation to raise awareness of Sudden Arrhyth Death Syndrome (SADS). At local events, she speaks to the public and demonstrates AED and CPR usage, ensuring that life-saving knowledge reaches people of all ages.

Alex and our team at The Signalling Company have received ETCS Certification for the industry's first TRULY software-defined on-board safety platform. The platform has been developed and certified in less than 6 years with less than 60 staff which, based on independent feedback, we believe is an industry record. The platform is currently in commercial operation on the Lineas HLD77 fleet. Using common off-the-shelf hardware, it is the first safety platform to completely decouple ETCS and National Class B safety applications from the underlying hardware, making it obsolescence proof. This factor combined with the platform's tiny installation footprint means it optimizes energy consumption, installation material, weight, and payload space, and in doing so dramatically improves the financial performance of rail vehicles over their entire operation life. Alex and his team have remained steadfast in the face of what the safety industry considers the ultimate challenge - developing and certifying an ETCS system. Software-defined safety was a vison that all but TSCs founders seemed to believe was possible. It is no longer a vision, it is here, it is now and it is real. The company's ETCS Certification publicly announced on the 24th Sept at the Trako event in Gdansk, Poland. It is currently available on the ERADIS site.