Peter Field interviewed by Theo Steel

Oral history interview with Peter Field, conducted and recorded by Theo Steel at the interviewee's home in Surrey on 8 May 2018. Duration: 2 hr. 24 min. 20 sec. Personal background; early career; Assistant Station Manager Liverpool Street; area management; working with Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (ASLEF); Gordon Pettitt; industrial relations changes; Network Director Eastern Liverpool Street; Chris Green; transfer of responsibilities from Regions; King's Lynn and Royston – Cambridge electrification scheme approvals; Operations Manager British Rail: Southern Region; splitting region; vertical integration; John Nelson; Organising for Quality (OfQ); preparation for privatisation; culture change; early years of Railtrack; John Edmonds (Chief Executive Officer Railtrack); contrast between management buyout (MBO) bid and Stagecoach bid; MBO team; exposing London, Tilbury & Southend (LTS) ticket fraud; rolling stock companies (ROSCOs); Stagecoach; BR forecasting issues; move into consultancy; joined Transport for London (TfL) as Rail Strategy Director; political issues; difficulties with train operating companies (TOCs) and lack of Mayoral control; fare evasion levels in TOCs; North London line to TfL and expansion; structuring of TfL concessions; retirement

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.