Whistleblower Trevor Capps at Fenchurch Street station

Londoner of the Day goes to a man who has been keeping commuters in London trains on the right tracks for almost half a century.

Trevor Capps is a familiar figure at Fenchurch Street station—but is now giving it all up after 48 years in the rail industry.

But now he is hanging up his whistle.

Mr Capps joined British Railway in 1963 straight from school, before it became modernised as simply ‘British Rail’ in the wake of the Beeching era cuts.

Trevor just missed the steam age when he started on the Fenchurch line four years after it was electrified—but has still seen many changes in the rail industry and retires this week from C2C, the privatised operators now running the Fenchurch-Southend network.

That was when swathes of railway and stations in the UK were condemned by Whitehall for being out of date and under-used.

He has kept his career ‘on track’ in a variety of jobs including customer service and stints in the ticket office and even as a shunter.

Trevor looks forward to getting out and about on the railways more himself, travelling around the country.