Almost 400,000 viewers tuned in to watch East Coast rail staff making their small screen debut on Sky 1 HD’s new series All Aboard: East Coast Trains.
The 10-part documentary series looks set to prove a surprise hit this Christmas. East Coast says it allowed Sky cameras unprecedented access to its trains, stations and depots. Viewers watching the opening episode saw East Coast Chef Mark Mclean, who lives in Newcastle with his wife and daughter.
Mark has been working for East Coast for 15 years, and was seen cooking breakfast on a London- bound service. He was filmed with On-Board Customer Services Assistant Karen Kerrison, also from Newcastle, and captured the great banter between the duo.
Darren ‘Daz’ Harrison, an information controller at Newcastle was seen dealing with raucous stag and hen parities on a busy Friday night.
More poignant was footage of train dispatcher John Rhodes – nicknamed ‘JR’ – at York on his last day before retiring. JR worked on the railway his entire career and the first episode showed his last day at work after 47 years. JR was seen dispatching his last train from York station, and then enjoying a party thrown by colleagues from the station – headed up by York’s Duty Station Manager Paola Vitolo.
