Oral history interview with Robert Breakwell, conducted and recorded by David Maidment at the interviewee's home in Essex on 5 February 2019. Duration: 1 hr. 31 min. 6 sec. Joined as Clerk British Rail: Southern Region; station and area management; Train Crew Management British Rail: London Midland Region; Operations Planning Manager Great Eastern (GE); implementing Train Crew Agreement; Managing Director West Anglia/Great Northern; Managing Director GE Network SouthEast (NSE); preparing for privatisation; preparing bid with Compagnie Generale des Eaux (CGE); Drivers’ Manning Agreement; First Group successful bid; business plan; South West Trains (SWT) train crew problems; competition with Anglia; impact of accidents; merger with Anglia as First Greater Anglia; staff attitudes to privatisation; impact of rail defect problem; difficult relationship with Railtrack; preparation for new franchise bid; effects of privatisation on GE

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.