Accessibility Lead in Manchester

We are TransPennine Express and we are going places. Whether that’s helping customers reach their destination, or ensuring our colleagues feel fulfilled and supported in their careers, we are looking for people with drive and enthusiasm to join our amazing team and help push for more progress within the rail industry.

We have a fantastic secondment opportunity for a proactive, strategic, and dynamic individual to join the Customer Experience team as our Accessibility Lead for 12 months. Here at TransPennine Express (TPE), customers are central to everything we do, and that means ensuring all our propositions across the end-to-end journey, be that trains, stations or digital, are accessible to everyone, and that anyone who requires assistance receives an exceptional standard of service.

You will be leading all aspects of our accessibility strategy, driving transformation across customer touchpoints through an action-orientated culture, and leading the people and performance of the accessibility team. The aim of increasing independent travel for customers, including door-to-door travel, will sit at the heart of these strategies, recognising the railway can be a daunting or overwhelming experience for some people.

The upskilling of our frontline workforce in the delivery of assistance, and the way in which we identify and support those with hidden disabilities, and those who may be more vulnerable and require additional assistance when using our services, will also be a critical aspect of the role.

You will be setting, monitoring, and enhancing the experience for customers who require assistance, striving to exceed their expectations, and working closely with teams across the business to monitor consistency in delivery, quickly putting things right when they go wrong, and sharing learnings and best practice from within and outside the rail industry to remain on top of our game.

You will get stuck into our accessibility insights, drilling into a deep range of data to get to the core of what customers are telling us about their experience with our services and where we need to target investment, resource, and infrastructure developments, as well as devising improvements through collaboration across TPE, other train operators, rail industry organisations, and service delivery partners.

You will also engender a forward-looking and thorough approach in our ongoing compliance with public sector duties on equality, and the business's alignment and responsiveness to other regulatory or legislative changes impacting accessibility and equality.

This is a key leadership role in TPE, where you will be championing the voice of accessibility, implementing transformational change projects through high profile and visible leadership, promoting our purpose, 'Vision and Values', embedding requirements of the Equality Act and collaborating with a can-do attitude, always seeking opportunities to delight the customer.

Who We’re After?

• Positive, outgoing and personable – you will be working with a range of different people across the business, from directors to frontline colleagues, along with other key stakeholders, so you need to be emotionally intelligent and adaptable in your communication style, whilst having strong people management skills.
• Proactive – you are a self-starter and naturally think about opportunities to continuously improve, challenge and introduce new ideas and initiatives.
• Self-starter – you will be curious, inquisitive and tenacious enough to get on with things, you won’t wait around to be told what to do but will also ask for help when needed.
• Customer focused – you understand and are empathetic to customer needs and expectations and understand accessibility and transport policy goals.
• Organised – to deliver an industry leading accessibility customer experience, an organised and strategic approach will be key - keeping on top of insights, benchmarking and managing the end-to-end customer journey standards.
• Analytical – You will be required to prepare a high standard of reports and be comfortable with analysing data.

The main location for the role is flexible across our network, and there will be a requirement as part of this role for Customer Experience On Call duties.

If that sounds like the right fit for you, we would love to hear from you — please click apply and complete an application form.

What can we offer you?

• Competitive salary paid on a 4-weekly basis.
• Generous annual leave entitlement.
• Free TransPennine Express rail travel for you and your dependants.
• Travel discounts of up to 75% on other train operating companies, plus international rail travel after 1 year’s service.
• Free & confidential Employee Assistance Programme and Wellbeing Portal, 24/7.
• Option to join the Railway Pension Scheme with significant employer contributions.
• Family-friendly maternity and paternity benefits.
• High street and lifestyle discounts, plus a cycle to work scheme.
• A welcoming, inclusive workplace that values diversity and supports your wellbeing.

At TransPennine Express, it’s our goal to help people reach their full potential. We offer the opportunity to not just join the transformation of the rail industry, but to lead it. Our values are designed with every team member in mind; whether it’s ensuring you feel free to be yourself at work, or encouraging everyone to pull together and support each other. We promise to value our people for the individuals they are.