Training for trains: turning in a Eurostar performance

Securitas Security Services holds a prestigious contract looking after both the guarding and cash handling operations of Eurostar in the UK. As a company, we're constantly in the spotlight while guarding the whole of the Eurostar Channel Tunnel Terminal at London Waterloo, as well as the International Terminal at Ashford in Kent and other sites dotted around the Capital.

Our overriding aim is to "protect the integrity of the Channel Tunnel", which has come under threat in recent times from would-be immigrants attempting to board trains illegally by way of the Red Cross refugee holding station at Sangatte. In essence, we're tasked with preventing anything – or anyone – that could harm the operation of the Tunnel and its trains from gaining access.

In turn, there's been a deployment of 164 staff (including 116 at Waterloo alone) who are involved with passenger and baggage screening and access control. People skills are thus of paramount importance, so too the ability to converse in foreign dialects.

All new personnel receive eight days' training, including TIP (Threat Image Protection) training which simulates the screening of batches of baggage containing suspicious items. We've also given our officers a wide variety of tasks to complete, including perimeter patrolling, monitoring baggage x-ray machines, managing queues and even ticket collection and checks.

Varied daily routines and training alongside the chance to work at other sites within the same contract to gain promotion has led to a very low staff turnover of just 11% per annum. That's well below the industry norm.