COLLABORATION IS THE KEY

When an extended dwell in Goring & Streatley can cause a delay in Seer Green, it’s essential to talk to the neighbours, Chiltern’s TOM MILNES tells Editor JAMES ABBOTT

Privatisation the railway. 25 Growth years in ago the fragmented subsequent quarter century has resulted in a congested network, with implications for performance. These are mundane truisms.

Hand-wringing is not the answer. Just because your neighbour introduces more trains with implications for your own services, that’s no reason to despair. The answer is to talk to the other players and work out operating procedures that can benefit everyone.

Oxford route loco-haulage: making use of the Oxford to Bicester line’s bi-directional capabilities, DVT No 82303 leads the morning peak 1Y12 Oxford Parkway to Marylebone service past Oddington, near Islip, on 20 April 2016. No 68012, which had earlier brought the empty stock from Wembley, is pushing at the rear.

Martin Loader

That’s the advice of one enterprising young operator, Tom Milnes, Current Performance Manager at Chiltern Railways, whose can-do attitude so impressed the Institution of Railway Operators’ judges that they awarded him the Golden Whistle for an Outstanding Individual Operator at this year’s Whistles ceremony (p68, last month). I went along to Banbury control centre to find out more about his approach.