Oral history interview with David Dodd, conducted and recorded by Dick Fearn at the interviewee's home in Reading on 31 August 2018. Duration: 50 min. 17 sec. Overview of career; British Rail (BR) International marketing role in Paris; sectorisation; Organising for Quality (OfQ); franchising process; reaction to the split of Network SouthEast (NSE) Thames and Chiltern Division; decision not to join management buyout (MBO); joining Office of Passenger Rail Franchising (OPRAF); role of OPRAF; background of OPRAF colleagues; contract preparation; first franchise sales processes; first bidders; role in process; formation of Strategic Rail Authority (SRA); differences between OPRAF and SRA; conclusions on benefits of privatisation; passenger growth

One of over 150 oral history recordings made as part of the Britain’s Railway 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.