Papers relating to the railway career of Dr John Prideaux

Archive material relating to Dr John Prideaux’s career spanning 1967-2009, the archive inclues; published technical reports Dr Prideaux contributed to such as the first International Comparison of Railway Economic Performance and the Leitch Report into Trunk Road Assessment; unpublished reports including the InterCity Strategy which led to profitability and its 1991 Revision, InterCity reports / analyses on upgrading East and West Coast Main lines, items such as the Investment appraisal for the InterCity 250 which was never built, and the earnings by train approach developed by Intercity East Coast, ealier career papers (1960s - 1970s) such as OR reports covering how to design container terminals, Superlink as an alternative to Crossrail and the London Airports Surface Access Study; personal copies of original and revised InterCity design guides; various documents building the brand such as brochures describing train types (InterCity 175, InterCity 225); a copy of the Programme at Royal Opera House which was sponsored by InterCity on the night of the great storm in 1987 which carries the InterCity logo on the cover, items relating to Union Railways; a mounted invitation, brochure and commemorative ticket: Northern Ireland Railways (InterCity) 40 years of the Enterprise celebration. First class Pullman lounge pass signed by Dr Prideaux and credit card sized card showing Intercity vision.

Dr John Prideaux joined British Rail as an Operational Research Trainee in 1965. He went on to work as Area Manager at Newton Abbott and in planning roles at the British Railways Board Headquarters. In 1980 he was appointed as Divisional Manager at Birmingham, and between 1986 and 1991 was the Director of the InterCity passenger sector. In 1992 he became the Director of New Ventures, staying until 1993. He was appointed as the Chairman of Angel Trains in 1995, serving in this capacity until 2002.

This collection was donated during the course of the Britain’s Railways All Change (BRAC) oral history project and provides context to the BRAC interviews with Dr John Prideaux. 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.