Oral history interview with Sir Michael Holden, conducted and recorded by Frank Paterson at the Union Jack Club, London, on 27 November 2018. Duration: 2 hr. 43 min. 10 sec. British Rail (BR) Traffic Student 1974; marketing Southern Region; Assistant Station Manager; staff relations; Station Manager Twickenham; engineering works experience; Clapham Junction; Assistant Station Manager King's Cross; Motorail; Class 43 High Speed Train (HST) coolant problems 1984; Area Customer Services Manager Slough; Area Manager Watford; driver only operation (DOO) Northampton; South Western Operations Manager; preparation for sectorisation; DOO safety issues; vertical integration; central control of marketing; considerations about move to Railtrack; signalling strike 1994; Zone Director East Anglia; Railtrack Investment Panel; zone team; relationships with train operating companies (TOCs); penalty regimes; minimum changes on privatisation; operational train performance improved; McKinseys consultancy; Zone Director Southern; Hatfield accident; Ladbroke Grove accident; collapse of Railtrack; renewal shortfalls; Railtrack in Administration; Managing Director South Eastern; early retirement; consultancy; Directly Operated Railways (DOR) East Coast; reflections; Williams Review

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.