Andrew Bliss interviewed by Gordon Dudman

Oral history interview with Andrew Bliss, conducted and recorded by Gordon Dudman at the interviewee's office at Network Rail, Crewe on 23 March 2018. Duration: 1 hr. 5 min. 16 sec. Early career; changing nature of parcels business; Rail Express Systems (RES); InterCity allowed development of premium parcels business; business needed the support of all operations staff; realisation that privatisation would allow Red Star to control costs; impact of privatisation on decisions as Red Star Manager Birmingham; responsibility for 110 staff; Red Star Production Manager; first steps of privatisation early 1990s; Adrian Shooter (Managing Director Parcels); Ivan Coucher (Managing Director for Red Star); managerial appointments; different priorities of ex-British Rail (BR) managers and external managers; new general managers; appointment as Production Manager; early management buyout (MBO) discussions; early decisions to restructure Red Star; privatisation appropriate for parcels distribution business; outside management practices in Red Star replicated; views on privatisation of Red Star and wider rail industry

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.