With 35 years of experience, I've witnessed parts of the rail industry transform in ways I couldn't have envisaged as a teenager back in the late 80s. From giving information via printed timetables over the telephone to a more customer focused and tech-driven industry. I feel very grateful to have had the opportunity to grow and evolve alongside this, and now, as Managing Director of the MTR Elizabeth Line, I reflect on how much we've achieved and where we're headed.
How It All Began
My journey in rail began during a school in a work placement at a British Rail Travel Centre. That experience sparked an interest in rail that soon turned into a part-time role at Reading station, handling customer inquiries by telephone at weekends while attending college during the week. The atmosphere, friendship among colleagues, and the challenge of serving customers made for an exciting introduction to an industry that felt both welcoming and fast-paced, albeit slightly chaotic at times.
After college, I joined the railway full-time. Those early experiences with customer service have stayed with me. Back then, training was minimal, in my case it consisted of just an hour of shadowing a colleague on how to read a timetable. Technology was either non-existent or basic. I worked from paper-based timetables, supplemented by a machine called CATE (Computer Analysis of Train Enquiries) an early computer system used by British Rail to handle timetable inquiries, which was notoriously slow and sometimes inaccurate. It didn't tell you if a train had been altered due to engineering work and fares information needed to be found from bulky fares manuals. Handling these inquiries and dealing with a range of customer issues taught me the fundamentals of what makes rail attractive (or unattractive) to people, from pricing to journey simplicity. I learned that, for many passengers, it's the small things that make a big difference.
The People Who Shaped My Journey
I've been fortunate to have worked with some extraordinary mentors and colleagues who've inspired me. Early on, I worked under Chris Green, a respected figure in the industry known for his transformative work with InterCity and Network South East. Working as a young assistant drafting replies to his customer letters, I learned firsthand about the importance of a clear and consistent commitment to customer service. Chris Green had the ability to inspire colleagues, a skill I saw again in Adrian Shooter, another influential leader who took Chiltern Railways from a small Buckinghamshire back water operation to a thriving railway serving many new markets.
From these mentors, I learned that leadership is about inspiring your team and creating a sense of shared purpose. That lesson has been crucial in my own career, particularly in managing and influencing teams, where alignment across a range of stakeholders can mean the difference between success and failure.
Career Highlights and Key Milestones
My time at Chiltern Railways was an early career highlight. I was there right at the dawn of rail privatisation in 1994, when Chiltern Railways was carved out from what was previously the Network South East Thames and Chiltern division. I had the privilege of contributing to Chiltern's transformation from a railway that had been significantly rationalised in the sixties and although modernised in the early 90s, still consisted of single-track sections with passing loops. Over several phases, track was doubled, new stations were built and signalling upgraded. Part of my role was designing a timetable that would attract new passengers and grow revenue. This work determined where infrastructure interventions were needed, which in turn drove the revenue growth. I became Commercial Director in 2002, my first big leadership role, managing customer facing front line staff, the planning and marketing and revenue team. This role gave me all the leavers I needed to deliver the best service for customers and drive revenue growth to deliver Commercial Success.
At Arriva Trains Wales, the challenge was different but equally formative. As Performance and Planning Director, and later Commercial Director, I was tasked with boosting performance and growing revenue within a 15-year franchise that had limited planned investment. This required creative solutions: improving efficiency to increase capacity, employing innovative pricing and yield management strategies to drive revenue without worsening overcrowding, and working closely with the Welsh Government to enhance connectivity across Wales. With very little planned investment, we achieved notable passenger growth, improved punctuality, and, through strong government partnerships, opened new lines and stations and introduced extra services. Navigating this role required careful handling of stakeholders with strong views, especially given the media and political landscape.
Then, of course, there's the Elizabeth Line, a project that's been both complex and rewarding. When I joined MTR Elizabeth line (then MTR Crossrail), the organisation, led by Steve Murphy had been built from the ground up to initially run the local rail services from Liverpool Street to Shenfield working with TfL, Crossrail, Network Rail, and various other partners, to deliver what is now the Elizabeth line.
Delays to the Crossrail project and the COVID-19 pandemic added layers of complexity, but the teams remained resilient. I joined initially as Planning and Performance Director, tasked with navigating the train planning activity to deliver high performance timetables at each stage of the Crossrail Staged Opening Plan. The plans had to be extensively re-written (many times) to accommodate how the various elements of the Crossrail project were coming on stream.
Through some great work in my Planning team, we accelerated the timetable phases so that we could open the Elizabeth Line end-to-end, as soon as possible once the tunnel was opened. This happened in November 2022, with the full specification in place by May 2023, compressing a process that would typically have taken much longer following normal industry process. Achieving this required significant alignment (and some compromise) from all the stakeholders involved (including NR, DfT, TfL and GWR) to align timetables on east and west of the route. We carried out several rounds of performance modelling (re-planning and re-modelling) to prove that the chosen timetable could work.
Crossrail has been talked about for much of my career. I can remember attending presentations in the 1990s about this aspirational project to build a great tunnel under London, linking the east and west. It had many setbacks, but a career highlight is witnessing the Queen open the line in May 2022 and watching the very first passengers come down the escalators at Paddington and travelling on the first Elizabeth Line train. It's a real privilege to have been part of this project and now, as Managing Director, to lead the fantastic team at MTR Elizabeth Line as we focus on delivering a high performing railway, day in day out.
Reflecting on my career to date, the roles that I have enjoyed the most are where I've had the levers to make a real difference in making the railway better, to drive passenger growth, and better serve our communities.
Final thoughts
The rail industry has given me a rewarding career with endless opportunities to grow, learn, and connect with people. With new technologies, the industry continues to evolve, and as I look to the future, I'm excited about what lies ahead for not just the Elizabeth Line but the UK's rail sector as a whole. It's a fantastic time to be part of this industry at a moment of seminal change, and I feel privileged to keep contributing to its future.
