Michael Beswick interviewed by Michael 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.