James Morgan interviewed by Richard Malins

Oral history interview with James Morgan, conducted and recorded by Richard Malins at MTR Crossrail, Saint Mary Axe, London on 22 January 2020. Duration: 1 hr. 46 min. 13 sec. Early career: Divisional Civil Engineer Exeter and Newport; Valley Lines; Area Civil Engineer Glasgow; Infrastructure Manager Network SouthEast (NSE) South Western; Organising for Quality (OfQ); Zone Director South Western Railtrack; contract negotiations with British Railways Board (BRB); performance regime; station assets; incidents and derailments; cost and staff cuts; left Railtrack; Jeremy Long; GB Railways; dissatisfaction with Railtrack; rolling contact fatigue; Association of Train Operating Companies; Hatfield accident; John Nelson; Mike Jones; Hull Trains; Robin Gisby; Estonia franchise; Interim Managing Director First Capital Connect; European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) Sponsor Network Rail; Wessex Alliance; Chris Stokes; London Projects Director Railtrack; Thameslink 2000; British Rail flexibility; cost escalation; Williams Review; reflection on early problems with Railtrack

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.