Michael Jones interviewed by Charles Devereux

Oral history interview with Michael Jones, conducted and recorded by Charles Devereux at the interviewer's home in Cambridgeshire on 22 May 2018. Duration: 1 hr. 28 min. 9 sec. Early career; management training in Sheffield Division; Manager Poplar Docks; political activity; Chartered Institute of Transport (CIT) report; Serpell Report; private haulage; General Motors Class 59; National Business Manager for petroleum; Malcolm Rifkind (Secretary of State) 1990; privatisation reports; 1992 manifesto; accounting structure; sectorisation; moderation of competition; British Rail Telecommunications (BRT) 1990; John Drake; management buyout (MBO) tutorials; sale to Racal; Great Western franchise; failure of bid; Hull Trains; Renaissance Trains; Railtrack open access paths; conflict with West Anglia Great Northern (WAGN); Great North Eastern Railway (GNER); hostile environment; Hatfield accident; Operational Research Computerised Allocation of Tickets to Services (ORCATS) issues; Strategic Rail Authority (SRA); high passenger satisfaction

One of over 150 oral history recordings made as part of the Britain’s Railways All Change (BRAC) archive project. BRAC was set-up to cover gaps in documenting the railway privatisation process in the United Kingdom, between 1994 and 1997, when the government-owned British Rail was dismantled into over 100 privately-owned companies. The interviews capture the recollections of people involved in the planning and implementation of the privatisation process, the management of change and running the railway during privatisation.