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The devil is in the<br />
detail: line by<br />
line, level by level,<br />
Marco Margadant<br />
develops his network<br />
plan <strong>–</strong> until<br />
everything is just<br />
right.<br />
cent of his working time is spent in coordination meetings <strong>–</strong> with colleagues<br />
from the Production side, or with members of the Human Resources<br />
department.<br />
Learning from scratch<br />
Margadant learned his craft from scratch. Initially he worked with the RhB<br />
from 1974 to 1978 as a mechanical draughtsman at the companyʼs works<br />
in Landquart. After training to become an engine driver in 1979, he drove<br />
trains across the entire network until 1990, including a year on the mountainous<br />
track from Chur to Arosa. "That was really interesting. Technically,<br />
as we were operating with a different voltage <strong>–</strong> 2,400 VDC. And in practical<br />
terms, as the special traction units had a tendency to malfunction and the<br />
track itself isn’t without challenges. In winter we often came across surprises:<br />
a fallen tree that cut overhead power lines or snow masses blocking<br />
the way." In the meantime Margadant knows almost every sleeper on<br />
the 384 kilometres of track. In 1990 he began training other engine drivers,<br />
in 1995 becoming head of this area. He has a passion for the 1,500<br />
to 3,200 kW RhB machines. "Being a train driver is a kind of disease. And<br />
even as a timetabler, I still like to visit my colleagues on the front lines."<br />
Margadant, who has been Head of Production (or more properly: Network<br />
Planning and Control) since 2001, is convinced that "travelling the routes<br />
in person is the best way to identify the trouble spots in scheduling terms<br />
so that I can plan more realistically."<br />
12<br />
www.rhb.ch/contura
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