Published on: Wednesday, 7 December 2022
Last updated: Wednesday, 7 December 2022
Richard Gauntlett at Dame Trott. Credit: Norwich Theatre Royal
An interview with a pantomime dame, tips on the cheapest fares for a night out in London and insights into how Greater Anglia makes sure customers are in the right carriage when travelling on trains longer than some station platforms feature in the new episode of the Life on Rails podcast.
Episode 8 of the podcast series which reveals behind the scenes facts about Greater Anglia releases on Wednesday 7 December on all podcast platforms.
Special guest in this episode’s “travel surgery” slot is Dame Trott, of Jack and the Beanstalk fame, aka Richard Gauntlett - longstanding pantomime dame at Norwich Theatre Royal.
Life on Rails co-hosts Juliette Maxam and Lucy Wright, from Greater Anglia’s media and PR team, talk to Dame Trott who talks about her love of fashion, how she keeps in shape and hints of a love interest.
Juliette and Lucy recommend a destination on the Greater Anglia network for her to visit once she’s finished her run in Jack and the Beanstalk at Norwich Theatre Royal which ends on Saturday 7 January.
Other slots in the magazine-style podcast include an interview with Keely Lopes, Greater Anglia head of business readiness, who was responsible for getting the company ready for its 191 new trains.
A complex piece of work which Keely talks about was working out a plan for making sure passengers know which carriage to use when new longer trains are longer than the platforms at some stations.
The project involved running a test train into every single platform on the network and then devising communications including posters, passenger information messages, announcements, videos and staff briefings to help passengers complete their journeys without a problem.
Alan Neville, Greater Anglia’s community and customer engagement manager, spoke about the work of the company’s station adopters, volunteers who keep stations across the network looking inviting, including tending station gardens and tubs and planters on platforms.
Their planting creates a haven for nature, helping Greater Anglia to play some part in combatting biodiversity loss. 61 station gardens have now been pledged to Wild East, which is aiming to give 20 per cent of East Anglia land back to nature.
Other features in the episode include Greater Anglia's fares guru Ken Strong explaining how London Night/Evening Out tickets are great value for people going to London for the evening.
Juliette Maxam, Greater Anglia senior media and PR manager, said: “We hope people will enjoy this episode. It was rather daunting interviewing a pantomime dame in character. Once again we’ve tried to include interesting features to give people more of an insight into how Greater Anglia works."
Life on Rails is available on all podcast platforms, or from greateranglia.co.uk/podcast. Tweet any suggestions for future episodes to @greaterangliapr.