Simon Linnett interviewed by Philip Benham

Oral history interview with Simon Linnett, conducted and recorded by Philip Benham at the interviewee's office in London on 17 September 2018. Duration: 1 hr. 12 min. 55 sec. Margaret Thatcher (Prime Minister); privatisation; working as Director of Rothschild investment bank; rail privatisation proposals; 1992 Conservative manifesto; lack of government planning; attempt to gain employment as a Director of British Railways (BR); Rothschild advising on BR privatisation; BR preferred privatisation option; impact of EC Directive 91/440; Treasury Department philosophy; importance of Philip Rutnam (Civil Servant); privatisation structure; Office of Passenger Rail Franchising (OPRAF); rolling stock companies (ROSCOs); creation of Railtrack; Rothschild advising Railtrack; valuation of assets; determining access charges; Thameslink 2000; Railtrack finances; performance regime; possessions regime; open access operators; cost of operating performance regime; order of privatisations; impact of 1997 General Election; prospect of re-nationalisation; investment prospectus drafting; working as lead advisor to Railtrack; Bob Horton; John Edmonds; reasons for not taking a job in rail industry; Gerald Corbett; role of Rail Regulator; John Swift; effectiveness of privatisation structure; reasons to reintegrate rolling stock and infrastructure; Rothschild advising Railtrack post-privatisation; major rail accidents; Railtrack collapse; Network Rail; challenges of privatisation; Privatisation Delivery Group (PDG)

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.