Steven Kalinski, we salute you for genuinely caring about people around you and going the extra mile each and every working day

IN A year of awful news, here’s a beautiful Christmas tale about the most helpful Aussie train station worker ever. You won’t believe the lengths he goes to.

Meet the best train station guy in Australia

WE LIVE in a cynical world. Companies tell us that they “put the customer first” and that “they really care” but thpppffft, who actually believes that?

But every now and then, you meet a special person who really does care. This is the story of one such man. His name is Steven Kalinski.

Steven, 43, is the “customer service attendant” at Banksia Station, a small, neat train station in Sydney’s south. (Translated into English, which is the language Steven prefers over bureaucratic doublespeak, that means he’s the guy who mans the train station office and ticket window.)

Steven on the job

One day back in March 2012, it rained like crazy and Banksia Station flooded. Banksia has an underpass, not a pedestrian bridge so if you want to buy tickets or move between platforms, you have to go under the tracks. Problem is, there was a metre of muddy water there.

No problem for our man. Steven kicked off his shoes, rolled up his pants and personally carried as many as 200 people across the murk.

“Well it was either that or close the station,” Steven says in response to the rather obvious question of why.

This is a still from a Seven News report on the flooding that day. Steven said “pfft, what’s a little water?”

But what about OH&S and all those other modern reasons for not even coming close to touching people?

“I was a bit worried, but I know hundreds of people here and I know a lot of the people that I helped by name,” Steven says. “Basically I saw there was a problem, I thought of a solution and I didn’t think about it.

“I don’t think the bosses were too happy but in the end, they thanked me for helping the people.”

So here’s a guy who acts on impulse in the name of helping the public without consulting the rulebook. Someone clone this man! And triple his pay!

But it’s not exceptional days like the March 2012 deluge that make Steven Kalinski the greatest train station guy in the history of trains, stations or guys. Steven saves a smile or a kind word for every customer who approaches his ticket window, the majority of whom he knows by name.

Not that he calls them customers. “I’d say they’re friends,” he says. And because it’s Steven saying it, you know he actually means it.

Steven has worked for Sydney trains for 10 years. He spent the first five years at Central Station before landing the role at Banksia.

“I enjoy working at Banksia,” he says. “I actually look forward to coming to work because it’s such a nice place to work. When I first came here, I didn’t even know where Banksia was. But a lot of the locals adopted me and have made me feel at home. It’s kind of like a second family.

These commuters at Banksia Station look a bit miserable, probably because Steven wasn’t working that day.

Steven lives in Baulkham Hills. For those not up with Sydney geography, that’s almost 50km away. He rises at 2:30 am to make his standard 6.30 am shift on time. That includes time for a spot of exercise. The question is, how long will residents (like this reporter) be lucky enough to have him around?

Will Sydney Trains management recognise Steven’s talents in interpersonal relations, and promote him? And what does Steven himself want?

“I like looking after the locals here,” he says. “Eventually, you know, advancement is always good because you learn new things, and I think later on there will be that opportunity to do it. But I’m a pretty simple bloke who just enjoys his job I think.

“Unfortunately, the way technology is going, there may not be people at stations in the future, and I think we’re all going to be worse off for that.”

We’d all be worse off with less people like Steven in the world, that’s for sure. Happy Christmas and thanks for making the daily trip to work an absolute pleasure, mate.

Is there someone out there with a regular job who inspires you? Please share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below!