Oral history interview with General Adrian Lyons, conducted and recorded by Richard Malins at the interviewee's home in West Berkshire on 21 March 2019. Duration: 1 hr. 50 min. 30 sec. Army involvement with railways at Longmoor and in Germany; privatisation impact; retirement from Army; joining Railway Forum; Hatfield accident; Great Heck accident interviews; Railway Forum formation; stakeholder involvement; Railtrack collapse; Strategic Rail Authority (SRA); Richard Bowker and Tom Winsor relationship; Railway Forum improving industry image; passenger growth; Rail Review 2005; SRA and Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) relationship; abolition of SRA; Network Rail; John Armitt; Iain Coucher; leaving Railway Forum 2006; effects of privatisation; Railway Conversion League; press tactics; Department for Transport (DfT) taking control; retirement; military railways in Germany; military railways; Royal Engineers (RE); cultural similarities between military and railways; technology change; Train Protection & Warning System (TPWS); integration of external technology; Crossrail; management culture change; South West Trains (SWT); Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB); standards to combine theoretical and practical; reflections on accidents; Network Rail

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.