Gordon Dudman interviewed by Frank Paterson

Made:
2019-04-29 in National Railway Museum
maker:
Frank Paterson

Oral history interview with Gordon Dudman, conducted and recorded by Frank Paterson at the National Railway Museum, York on 29 April 2019. Duration: 2 hr. 58 min. 3 sec. Early career; Area Parcels Manager Brighton; Parcels Manager Waterloo; trade unions; Red Star Manager South West; preparation for privatisation; Purley accident; Adrian Shooter; reducing overheads; contracts; Total Quality project; Auditing processes to maintain standards; private sale not progressed; Rail Express Services changed approach; management buyout (MBO) team; sale to Lynx; Red Star Timetable; freight re-organisation rejected by government 1992; safety; making privatisation work despite reservations over structure; Wisconsin Central purchase; Royal Train; MBO irregularities; track access agreement; freight access agreements based initially on existing arrangements; Peter Kirk (civil servant); joined Privatisation Group 1996; 10 schedules in track access agreements; Access Implementation Group (AIG); Schedule 4 difficulties; Railtrack; privatisation team processes; AIG meetings; Schedule 8 performance regimes; ScotRail; business groups identified; Operational Research (OR) algorithms to determine revenue values; performance standards for delays and cancellations; Trains Running System TOPS - Total Operations Processing System (Trust) performance monitoring; calculation of value per minute; Railtrack difficulties in reaching performance targets; failure to encourage Railtrack improvements; Network Code Part 3 Network Change; Leeds re-signalling; impact on personal life; Schedule 8 Central Trains; Railtrack attitude; unintended consequences of monitoring points; John Welsby/ Brian Mawhinney discussion; Schedule 4 ongoing issues; working at Railtrack; Tom Winsor; Office of the Rail Regulator; arbitration; reflections

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.

Details

Category:
Oral Histories
Collection:
Britain's Railways All Change
Object Number:
2020-442
type:
oral history interview
credit:
Britain’s Railways All Change (BRAC) oral history archive, created in partnership with the Friends of the National Railway Museum, the Retired Railway Officers’ Society and the National Railway Museum.