Sharing our stories

Sharing stories is a great way to exchange information about what people do in different parts of Transport and how teams come together to help us achieve our goals.

These stories really show how our people are doing great things for our customers and the community.

Sharing stories is a great way to exchange information about what people do in different parts of Transport and how teams come together to help us achieve our goals.

These stories really show how our people are doing great things for our customers and the community.

  • I’m Tamara

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    Tamara Simpson is a people person who has a great team and loves her job helping people from all across the state.

    I guess I’m pretty lucky as I like coming to work and I enjoy what I do.

    I’ve been working at Transport in the Procurement Enquiries Team for two years. It was great that I didn’t have to leave my home town of Dubbo to get a role.

    I’m a real people person, so I speak to other Transport people from all over NSW that ring in with queries. I love being able to help them out, particularly now when times are a bit tough, and I really try to go that bit further to get people the answers to help solve a problem.

    At the start of COVID-19, I stepped in to help on the Transport Helpline. It felt good to be there for concerned employees and give them some peace of mind. Because the situation and the regulations were changing so quickly, we had a team of about ten across Dubbo and Burwood working 24 hours a day to keep that line open, with constant emails going round between ourselves trying to work things out on the fly.

    It was also about this time we started working from home. It was a bit strange at first as I like coming into the office to see everyone. But it was good to try it and to now have the flexibility to mix up the week between the office and home.

    My team are supportive and I feel good when I can support them too. The culture in our team is very warm and accepting. When new people start, we all make an effort to be open and welcoming and that creates a nice atmosphere.

    Every day I come into work it’s a new fresh day with new people and new things to learn, but always the same great team.


  • I’m Alex

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    When a little boy accidently stepped off a train and was separated from his parents at Wynyard Station, Alex Lee stepped in to help the station team reunite the family.

    Some days you really feel like you can make a difference and that was definitely one of those days. I remember I was working on a terminating train at Strathfield and my colleague who was working at Wynyard called me to say she had found a lost little boy.

    The boy didn’t speak any English and so my colleague asked me to translate.

    It turned out he was only nine years old and was on his way to the airport with his parents to fly back to China when he got off at the wrong stop! The station team were trying to track down his parents who were still on the train.

    They put me on the phone to him and I helped him answer the police questions. He did his best with the questions but thinking back on it, he was a remarkably calm and composed little bloke. We were so worried for him, but I think he was less panicked than we were.

    I stayed on the phone with him until we tracked down his family and got them all back together – just in time to catch their flight.

    I originally joined Transport as a Customer Service Attendant but I’ve moved on to a role as a Transport Officer now. I really like being able to help people and being out and about on the network with our customers.

    I’m enjoying my career at Transport. There’s a broad range of jobs here and opportunities to take secondments and that kind of thing. I have a supportive manager and a good team, so let’s see where I end up.

  • I’m Tathia

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    Tathia Wells brings her passion for education into everything she does at Transport because she knows it has the power to improve lives and help the community.

    I always want to work where I’m serving the community and education has long been part of what I do. Initially as a high school teacher and then later as a university lecturer and tutor, I really saw the power of education to change and improve lives.

    Then I joined Sydney Metro as an Education Officer in 2017. The project was literally going into people’s backyards to build this big piece of infrastructure, so we looked for ways to involve the community, particularly young people and to connect them with what Transport was doing.

    We created the Metro Minds competition, where school students had to use design thinking to come up with a real life challenge at Sydney Metro. At the judging of the event I was amazed to see all these future engineers and scientists pull together a prototype and pitch their ideas and I felt like it connected my passion for education and the Sydney Metro project in a really exciting way.

    Now I’m working for the Point to Point Transport Commissioner as Manager, Education and Engagement - and I’m still in education. There are legal responsibilities for taxi, hire vehicles and ride share providers and drivers, so I’m taking these laws and putting them into plain English so they can understand their safety obligations to ensure the safety of everyone using or providing point to point transport in NSW.

    It’s such a diverse industry and it has been challenging to listen to what the industry needs and design something that is relevant, accessible and that they would engage with, while also staying within the law. We've already created webcasts, online tools and our first podcast series is due soon, but drivers and service providers spend a lot of time near their phones, so we’re building online learning courses delivered through an App with videos, interactive information and quizzes, that can be accessed easily whenever they like, wherever they like.

    So even though I’m not in the classroom anymore, I’m still listening and educating people in a different way.

  • I’m Scott

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    Scott Hoskin is a proud Wiradjuri man. His role on the Reconciliation Action Committee means that as well as driving buses he also has an important role in driving Aboriginal employment across Transport.

    Did you know that most of the big roads and transport lines in Sydney city and the east are based on traditional Songlines – our Indigenous paths – set down thousands of years ago? I learnt that from some Elders and I sometimes think about it when I’m driving along my routes.

    As well as driving buses I’m an Aboriginal Liaison Officer at Transport. I sit on the Reconciliation Action Committee where we’ve been working on the Reconciliation Action Plan. The Committee has people from all over Transport involved, including the Secretary, Rodd.

    I enjoy working with people across the organisation and I really like seeing when the actions are implemented. I’m keen to see us hit our targets of three per cent Aboriginal employment across Transport, with more Aboriginal people working at all levels. As a liaison officer I’m always encouraging people in the community to think about a career at Transport.

    I’ve been driving buses in Sydney since 2011. It’s a job where the view from the window is always changing. The Eastern Suburbs is my home, so being a local, I’m often giving tourists who board my bus a bit of advice.

    Customers are quieter now than they used to be. Most people have headphones in or maybe reading. The technology changes in the last few years mean travel is a bit easier for our customers, with things like Opal cards and the fact all our buses are now accessible.

    There are still times you need to step in and look after the customers and safety will always be the most important part of the job.

Page last updated: 27 Apr 2021, 03:00 PM