New rail franchise reveals senior management team

West Midlands Trains

Rail operator West Midlands Trains has revealed the management team that will undertake responsibility for the new service when it is handed control of the new franchise next month.

The team includes a number of experienced senior managers from the rail industry – not all of whom will transfer from outgoing operator London Midland.

They join newly-appointed managing director Jan Chaudhry-van der Velde, whose position was confirmed last week.

Adrian Thompson has undertaken a number of HR roles within Abellio – one of WMT’s parent companies – over the last 18 months including interim cover for the HR Director vacancy in ScotRail. Prior to this he was the HR Director at Northern Rail.

Current London Midland (LM) Asset Maintenance Director, Neil Bamford, will become Engineering Director. He started his career with British Rail and was Head of Fleet at CrossCountry before joining London Midland. He will be instrumental in bringing the new trains onto the network on time and within budget as part of the £680m investment WMT is making in rolling stock.

Andy Camp will be the new Commercial Director after several years doing the same job at Greater Anglia. He joined Greater Anglia in 2012 following a successful career in the commercial sector outside the rail industry. He will be responsible for maximising commercial value, while providing the best possible travelling experience for passengers.

Lesley Heath will stay on as Head of Safety and Environment with the role being upgraded to an executive position. She joined London Midland in 2015 and previously undertook a number of safety roles with operators East Coast, GWR, Merseyrail and ScotRail.

Moving into the Finance Director role will be David Lindsay, who was the finance lead on the Abellio bid team for WMT. He has been with Abellio for six years, originally joining as a finance manager before progressing.

Mark Steward will become Operations Director for the new franchise having previously spent a short time as Passenger Services Director for London Midland. He has a wealth of operational experience having worked in the former Silverlink franchise as well as for other operators, most recently South West Trains, where he was Operations Director up until August.

The West Midlands and West Coast Customer Service Director positions are new to the franchise, created to reflect the two business units within WMT.

Richard Brooks, the current Commercial Director for London Midland, will take on the role of West Midlands Customer Service Director, covering the area in and around Birmingham, and will work closely with West Midlands Rail and the West Midlands Combined Authority.

Doing his equivalent role for the West Coast part of the franchise will be Andrew Conroy. Mr Conroy has worked on the WMT mobilisation team for the last three months having previously been Customer Service Director for East Midlands Trains. He will cover the West Coast Main Line from Euston all the way to Crewe and Liverpool, as well as several branch lines, all under the new London Northwestern brand.

Also coming in from within the WMT bid team is Jane Fisher. She has worked on the West Midlands bid for the last two years, being Deputy Director when the bid was put together and Mobilisation Director thereafter. She comes in as Transition and Projects Director and will ensure the franchise stays on track to achieve everything committed to in the new contract.

Mr Chaudhry-van der Velde said: “This team provides an effective blend of Abellio experience, continuity from the existing successful London Midland team and some new talent, as we deliver nearly £1bn of investment into the network over the next eight years.”

The new franchise starts on December 10.

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