Ade Sodeinde, a 17-year-old Nigerian, became famous last week for making some of Britain’s trains run on time. Ms Sodeinde, who is spending a year working for Central Trains before going to Birmingham University to study engineering, solved the puzzle of why trains leaving the depot ran late.

She found that the tracks in the depot needed upgrading. They were slowing the trains’ journeys to their starting platforms. Drivers and conductors also had to wait before boarding because of the time taken for safety inspections and cleaning.
By refurbishing the tracks and reorganising inspection and cleaning, Central was able to eliminate the problem, potentially saving itself £750,000 ($1.37m) a year in fines for late running – and vastly reducing passenger frustration and delay.