Jon Burden, born in the USA in 1959, moved to London over thirty years ago and began as Duty Station Manager on King’s Cross Station in 2000. His day-to-day duties include dealing with passengers, organising security and working with staff and retail outlets. Occasionally the humdrum of maintaining the toilets in top condition, or deciding who is responsible for cleaning cigarette butts from the drains, is rocked by events of much greater magnitude. Jon shares his experiences of coping with IRA bomb-scares, the fallout from the Hatfield rail crash in October 2000, the Potters Bar crash of 2002 and the traumatic events of 7/7.
He muses on the changes to station life wrought by technological advance and the fragmentation of station services, which have altered career paths for station staff.