Oral history interview with Dr. John Prideaux, conducted and recorded by Frank Paterson (session 1) at the interviewee's home in London on 28 March 2019. Duration: 50 min. 42 sec. Early career; Serpell Report; British Rail Policy Unit; Director InterCity; aim to make InterCity profitable; quality improvements; European railways comparisons; exercise with University of Leeds; Civil Service acceptance of methodology; relationships between sectors and regions; Geoff Myers; John Edmonds; development of InterCity strategy; Stephan Glaister; Policy Unit; Richard Brown; Chris Stokes; Sidney Newey; InterCity branding; into profit 1989; East Coast Main Line (ECML) electrification; Cross Country and West Coast upgrades; recession 1991; Special Trains sub-sector; relationships with politicians and trade unions; privatisation discussions with Malcolm Rifkind; John Welsby move from InterCity; Chris Green move from Network South East (NSE); Evening Standard; Heathrow Express

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.