Michael Beswick interviewed by Michael Lee

Made:
2018-09-10 in Hertfordshire
maker:
Michael John Lee

Oral history interview with Michael Beswick, conducted and recorded by Michael Lee in Hertfordshire on 10 September 2018. Duration: 2 hr. 3 min. 13 sec. Personal background; pre-1992 considerations on InterCity privatisation; 1992 election; implications for InterCity business and brand; John Ellis (InterCity Deputy Managing Director); Roger Salmon (Franchising Director) and John Swift (Rail Regulator) appointed; government urgency; Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC); Roger Freeman (Minister of Transport); paper on fares regulation leaked; joining Office of the Rail Regulator (ORR); ORR initially a small organisation; privatisation structure goes live; plans to privatise Railtrack; approving track access contracts; moderation of competition; Project Control Group; performance regimes; preparing to privatise Railtrack; Relationships with Franchising Director; regulating Railtrack; sale of Railtrack; benefits and disappointments about privatisation

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.

Details

Category:
Oral Histories
Collection:
Britain's Railways All Change
Object Number:
2020-281
type:
oral history interview
credit:
Britain’s Railways All Change (BRAC) oral history archive, created in partnership with the Friends of the National Railway Museum, the Retired Railway Officers’ Society and the National Railway Museum.