Gordon Pettitt interviewed by Frank Paterson (session 2 of 2)

Oral history interview with Gordon Pettitt, conducted and recorded by Frank Paterson (session 2) in Woking on 17 May 2018. Duration: 1 hr. 26 min. 42 sec. Retirement from Managing Director Regional Railways; management seminars; creating awareness of parliamentary process; Office of Passenger Rail Franchising (OPRAF); encouragement of management buyouts (MBOs); reactions from participants; Organising for Quality (OfQ) financial systems facilitated subsequent privatisation; personal satisfaction from running seminars; reactions of participants to MBO opportunities; advisory roles; Advisor to John Swift (Rail Regulator); guidance to Rail Regulator from Secretary of State for initial period; track access agreements; Stephen Glaister; OPRAF and Office of the Rail Regulator (ORR) roles; External Board Member to ORR; Advisor to British Airports Authority (BAA) Heathrow and Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL) planning; John Prideaux (Managing Director Union Railways); North London Line to St Pancras option rejected; comparison between High Speed 1 (HS1) and High Speed 2 (HS2); Railtrack incentives to improve reliability; personal assessment of implementation of privatisation

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.