Davey’s railway career began in 1978 as a Traction Trainee, qualifying as a train driver by 1981 and becoming a trainer from the late 80’s. By the early-90’s he progressed into management where he has held various roles covering safety, standards, audit and assurance along with senior traincrew line management. Notably, Davey kept his train driving competence for many years after becoming a manager, helping him keep touch with the job at the “sharp end” whilst now being involved with decisions being made that had impact on that part of the operation.
GC is an “Open Access” train operator that commenced operating in 2007, providing direct high-speed passenger trains connecting parts of Northeast England and the West Riding of Yorkshire not directly served by other (franchise) operators, with London Kings Cross.
Davey joined GC in 2009 and has held several senior leadership posts. More recently he has worked part-time and from early 2020 took on the role as GC’s Business Change Manager for the East Coast Digital Programme (ECDP). This will bring about the introduction (in stages) of ETCS over the East Coast Mainline south by the mid-2020’s and whilst Network Rail led, requires involvement and collaboration with all parties that provide trains over this route (train operators, designers, maintainers, etc).
Aside from all the above, Davey is a tutor for the Chartered Institution of Railway Operators (CIRO) education programme, tutoring diploma and degree students on modules dealing with Safety Law and Management and Whole System Thinking in Rail. He has been tutoring for almost 15 years.
With more time away from work these days and his family now grown up, Davey often spends his spare hours out and about cycling the coast and countryside of North-East England. He is also a long-suffering season ticket holder at Newcastle United Football Club.