{"id":600693,"date":"2026-08-30T14:48:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T14:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/600693\/"},"modified":"2026-08-30T14:48:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T14:48:11","slug":"without-us-no-wheel-would-turn-the-unsung-heroes-keeping-englands-transport-moving-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/600693\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Without us, no wheel would turn\u2019: the unsung heroes keeping England\u2019s transport moving | Business"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not many people get to park their car here \u2013 bang in the middle of Heathrow airport<\/a>, on the taxiway just a stretch of grass away from where a line of passenger planes is coming in to land.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s close enough to see the shimmering air and smoke as nose tyres hit the tarmac. \u201cAn A380 will put down as much rubber as a car\u2019s entire tyre,\u201d Jack Quantick-Thorne says. He knows \u2013 part of his job is to ensure the runway team scrapes it off and patches things up overnight. And it is all recycled, he adds.<\/p>\n

The airfield operations officer is not in the limelight much, but is one of a host of unsung workers keeping transport moving. And some jobs far from the public eye turn out to be not only essential, but surprisingly challenging.<\/p>\n

Jack Quantick-Thorne, airfield operations officer, Heathrow<\/p>\n

Passengers might only catch a glimpse of Quantick-Thorne from a window seat on landing, if he grabs the paddles to marshal a plane into the exact designated spot at the stand. \u201cPeople just think you\u2019re that person with the table tennis bats,\u201d he grimaces slightly, as the Guardian requests a demonstration. \u201cThat\u2019s like 5% of my job.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, most planes are now brought to the stand via laser-guided electronic displays. But human marshalling remains a crucial backup. Brandishing the paddles, Quantick-Thorne beckons in a taxiing British Airways arrival, the pilot peering down from the cockpit and steering 50 tonnes of plane straight towards him. The nosewheel travels bang on the guideline, stopping exactly in position for the airbridge to swing in and allow passengers to disembark.<\/p>\n

Nerve-racking? \u201cNo. When you\u2019ve got a really big plane, an A380, you need a second marshal right by the wheel to check it\u2019s stopped in the right place,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Back in the car, the job continues: \u201cI\u2019m patrolling, I\u2019m looking around, scanning everything \u2013 is the refueller doing his job properly, has the aircraft got chocks under its wheels?\u201d<\/p>\n

That includes monitoring the road system under Heathrow\u2019s airfields, recognising every vehicle and checking any infringement: drivers here can also clock up points on their licence, if he spots them.<\/p>\n

Officers also need to look out for wildlife \u2013 particularly birds, a serious danger for jet planes (and vice versa). How does he deal with them? \u201cWe\u2019ve got methods of dispersal,\u201d says the airfield operations officer.<\/p>\n

These, marvellously, turn out to be speakers on the roof of the van, which play a range of bird sounds: \u201cIf I saw a flock of starlings, if I played a starling noise, the starling would think, \u2018Oh, maybe there\u2019s a predator nearby,\u2019 and they fly off.\u201d<\/p>\n

And, he demonstrates, \u201cI\u2019ve got common gull. Black-headed gull. I\u2019ve got a falcon\u201d.<\/p>\n

Are there falcons? \u201cNo,\u201d he explains patiently. \u201cSo you think about it from a bird\u2019s point of view. If there\u2019s a pigeon over there, best play a falcon so it will fly off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jack Quantick-Thorne at work. Last year he had to tow the Concorde that still stands at the edge of the airfield across for an exhibition. Photograph: Graeme Robertson\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

If he now knows birds, it\u2019s the planes that drew him here. He was previously at Nats, the air traffic control centre in Swanwick, managing the planes, but never up close. There is more to it than the paddles \u2013 but, he confesses, he takes every opportunity to use them, and records each plane that he has marshalled, including every aircraft in BA\u2019s short-haul fleet.<\/p>\n

Being a pilot is the dream, he admits, but the prohibitive training costs \u2013 \u00a3100,000 or more \u2013 put it out of reach. For an enthusiast, he reckons the job is the next best thing. Last year he had to tow the Concorde that still stands at the edge of the airfield across for an exhibition: \u201cIt was the first time one had moved in years \u2013 incredible to see in the rear-view mirror.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chris Thackaberry, network traffic controller, Transport for London<\/p>\n

The day starts in Victoria Station House overlooking the bus terminus, a grand old building that looks considerably less so inside, where Chris\u2019s desk is surrounded by hundreds of cardboard diversion signs.<\/p>\n

About 500 of the capital\u2019s 19,000 bus stops are on his patch in Westminster \u2013 home to some of Britain\u2019s most congested streets, where dozens of bus routes cross. Roadworks are the bane of the bus and Thackaberry\u2019s job is to keep them moving \u2013 armed with a van, pliers and zip ties.<\/p>\n

Sometimes he can plan for roadworks months ahead. But other days are less predictable, when life suddenly blocks a route: \u201cIt could be a broken-down vehicle or a burst water main, but I\u2019ve had windows falling out of buildings, I\u2019ve had a collapsed horse on a bridge. I had an upside down Lamborghini in Piccadilly \u2026 I don\u2019t know if it was sticking to the 20mph limit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Christopher Thackaberry, a network traffic controller with TfL, in his van. Photograph: Linda Nylind\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

His incident response van contains an orderly standing desk area and even a printer to rustle up more signs if needed, as well as spill dry sacks, ready to suck up any diesel or oil leaked over the road.<\/p>\n

It also has two cylinders affixed to the wall containing \u201cspit kits\u201d \u2013 swabs to pick up any saliva aimed at staff, with clear bags to seal, ready to take the evidence to the police. \u201cIt\u2019s just part and parcel of when you\u2019re working in London<\/a>, for anyone in uniform.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a sweltering Trafalgar Square, as he hunts in the midst of four lanes of traffic to hitch his cardboard signs to any available piece of spare street furniture, the complexity of the puzzle becomes clearer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so many routes go through here, we\u2019re fighting with ourselves for space.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Sarah, railway signaller, York<\/p>\n

Gone are most of the signal boxes of old: these days, Britain\u2019s railway is mostly controlled from one of 12 remote centres. From a windowless room in York<\/a>, trains right down the East Coast mainline are guided on their way.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the old days, it was lever pulling,\u201d says Sarah. \u201cNow it\u2019s a click of the mouse instead. Like a computer game scenario, but it\u2019s real track, real trains, real people. We have to manually click, signal to signal, for every train that comes through our patch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Signallers have five screens at eye level showing the railway, and five above with timetables and traffic management information.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you first start the job, it feels so far removed. There\u2019s no windows, it\u2019s like a black hole in the middle of the building, but you are signalling trains from York all the way into King\u2019s Cross. I remember thinking: \u2018How many hundreds of people are on that train we\u2019re signalling?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Anything from a circuit failure to a trespasser to a sick passenger on a train can hold up the lines. \u201cOur job initially in any incident is to make the area safe \u2013 that\u2019s first and foremost. And then we look for a workaround, to keep trains moving. The days when there are serious incidents are few and far between. But every day there\u2019s something.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jamie *, public service vehicle engineer, Manchester<\/p>\n

At Jamie\u2019s bus depot, servicing the Bee Network, the first shift starts at 5am and the last ends at 1am, but engineers might stay through the night with a breakdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the daytime it\u2019s routine: vehicles are inspected by law on a monthly basis,\u201d he says. \u201cBut engineers have bus driving licences too, if a bus was to break down, often we\u2019d take another one out to the driver to keep the service running.\u201d<\/p>\n

With city buses that stop and start frequently, there is typically more treatment and maintenance. And newer vehicles don\u2019t necessarily mean less work, he says: \u201cThey bring a lot of new issues and we\u2019re constantly learning, going back to college on courses to learn the tech.<\/p>\n

\u201cElectric buses haven\u2019t made the job easier \u2013 but they and the new diesel engines are clean. Working back in the day, it was a hell of a lot dirtier, especially in depots indoors or undercover,\u201d says the vehicle engineer.<\/p>\n

He will check each bus\u2019s brakes, emissions tests and inspect the nuts and bolts everywhere from the underside to the driver\u2019s cab. \u201cWe see a lot in the press about the conditions in the cab, but we\u2019re cleaning those buses: it\u2019s like a greenhouse, and the heat from the engines also comes into our workshop.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven the drivers don\u2019t understand what engineers do \u2013 I always say we are the forgotten people. But without us, no wheel would turn.\u201d<\/p>\n

Frankie *, baggage handler, Gatwick<\/p>\n

The thing people don\u2019t understand, explains Frankie, is that the placement of bags in the hold is not random. \u201cIt\u2019s all done on weight distribution. You have to put baggage where you\u2019re told \u2013 it is a very specific job, you do not deviate.\u201d<\/p>\n

At many airports, larger aircraft such as long-haul planes are loaded with bags already in large crates, lifted into position by machine. But short-haul flights at Gatwick are loaded manually. \u201cAn average bag is about 20kg and the average load is 90 bags off, 90 on, for three or four people. If you do eight turns a day, that\u2019s nearly 30 tonnes your team is lifting. You get fitter \u2013 it\u2019s like going to the gym, you end up lifting heavier and heavier bags.\u201d<\/p>\n

Passengers who fear for their luggage often make the job harder: \u201cThe worst thing is shrink-wrapped bags. It\u2019s slippery, harder to hold on to, and less grip for the belt to pull up. And those straps around bags, they can get jammed in the belts and break them.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople don\u2019t realise how damaging it can be \u2013 and pointless. If you\u2019re on a flight where customs do spot checks, they go for the bags that are wrapped. And there is so much CCTV and security. If I get caught opening a bag, I\u2019d lose my job \u2013 why would I risk that?\u201d<\/p>\n

There are, says Frankie, more women doing the job now: \u201cIt\u2019s getting more female-friendly. A lot of people choose this type of job to get into aviation: they want to be pilots or crew eventually, and just want to be around planes any way they can.\u201d<\/p>\n

* Names have been changed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Not many people get to park their car here \u2013 bang in the middle of Heathrow airport, on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":600694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[114,85,46],"class_list":["post-600693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=600693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}