Dyan Crowther interviewed by Frank Paterson

Oral history interview with Dyan Crowther, conducted and recorded by Frank Paterson at the interviewee's office at HS1 Ltd. Headquarters, London on 7 May 2019. Duration: 3 hr. 2 min. 4 sec. British Rail graduate entry; London Bridge; staff attitude to women; Peckham Rye; West Croydon incident; trade union support; New Cross Gate; troubleshooter; Network SouthEast (NSE) strategic planning; Organising for Quality (OfQ); Brian Burdsall; Bob Reid; Retail Manager; Ray Price; Brian Burdsall (East Coast Director); privatisation 1992; Railtrack; Independent Station Opportunities (ISO); management buyout (MBO); Channel Tunnel impact on King's Cross; relationship with train operating companies (TOCs); Railtrack station opportunities; station cleaning outsourced; signalling strike; Railtrack property; move to Account Executive Chiltern; Adrian Shooter (Managing Director); Project Evergreen; Railtrack in Administration; Managing Director; Arriva Trains Northern (ATN); business plan; first female TOC Managing Director; building partnerships; joining Network Rail; Hatfield accident; organisational changes; interface for Thameslink; East Coast Main Line (ECML); Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL); Union Railways became HS1; Operational Director; cable theft; level crossings fatalities; West Coast Main Line (WCML); Thameslink franchise bids; personal reflections on privatisation; attitudes to women

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.