Chris Gibb to Run Public Sector Scotrail

[LNW-GW Joint]

The Scottish Government has appointed Chris Gibb as Chief Exec of the new Scotrail when it transfers to public ownership on 1 April 2022.
Chris is ex-BR and has had senior roles at Wales & Borders, Virgin XC and Virgin WC, before joining the Network Rail board.
He has also produced several major reports into problem areas of railway operation (eg the GTR performance meltdown in 2017).
Plenty of experience there.
I had thought of him playing a senior role at GBR.
Senior posts filled for new ScotRail holding company (msn.com)

Transport minister Graeme Dey announced on Friday that Chris Gibb will serve as chief executive and David Lowrie has been appointed finance director on a fixed-term basis as the recruitment process continues.
Mr Dey said: “I’m pleased to announce that two senior management roles have been appointed to Scottish Rail Holdings, they both bring with them a wealth of knowledge in the rail industry.

 

[Dr Hoo]

So this is for the holding company (roughly equivalent to Directly Operated Railways in England) rather than the 'actual TOC'?

Genuine question.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

The Scottish Government has appointed Chris Gibb as Chief Exec of the new Scotrail when it transfers to public ownership on 1 April 2022.
Chris is ex-BR and has had senior roles at Wales & Borders, Virgin XC and Virgin WC, before joining the Network Rail board.
He has also produced several major reports into problem areas of railway operation (eg the GTR performance meltdown in 2017).
Plenty of experience there.
I had thought of him playing a senior role at GBR.
Senior posts filled for new ScotRail holding company (msn.com)

A fine Scottish learning experience , as he was Assistant Area Manager at Ayr , following on from management training - "proper railway" ......

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

So this is for the holding company (roughly equivalent to Directly Operated Railways in England) rather than the 'actual TOC'?

Genuine question.

They are a holding company for Scotrail Trains Ltd who will presumably be the TOC.

Both companies have been in existence for years looking at companies house. They will have to have a trading company to allow a legal entity to enter into new contracts.

Anyhow great to see old railway back in charge.

 

[fgwrich]

Good to see Mr Gibb back in the business, a fine railway pedigree indeed. I wonder what is next in store for Mr Hynes?

 

[Mag_seven]

Chris Gibb is one of a dying breed of railway managers who cut their teeth in the vertically integrated joined up railway. Soon there will be no more of his ilk to draw such experience from.

 

[AgentGemini]

Looks like Scotland's railways may have a bright future after the dark and ravaging years of Abellio.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Looks like Scotland's railways may have a bright future after the dark and ravaging years of Abellio.

I think we're still awaiting the white smoke of improvement after similar changes with TfW in Wales last year.
(25) TfW found to be worst TOC in the UK | RailUK Forums (railforums.co.uk)

 

[Bald Rick]

That’s a fair old commute for him.

 

[DarloRich]

EDIT: Actually I have the wrong person in my tired mind. forget it! I was thinking of Chris Green! doh!

 

[craigybagel]

Many years after his departure, he's still spoken of very fondly by the folks who worked with him at the former Wales & Borders.

 

[Goldfish62]

I think we're still awaiting the white smoke of improvement after similar changes with TfW in Wales last year.
(25) TfW found to be worst TOC in the UK | RailUK Forums (railforums.co.uk)

Or Northern...

 

[Carlisle]

Many years after his departure, he's still spoken of very fondly by the folks who worked with him at the former Wales & Borders.

Wasn’t that essentially a post privatisation honeymoon period, with increasing ridership & revenue, improved staff pay & conditions post BR & no impending major fleet renewal or workforce restructuring headaches to contend with .?

 

[seagull]

I may be wrong but I had thought he was the mastermind behind the XC Operation Princess fiasco (namely, the decision to run more frequent but much shorter trains and failure to take into account increased usage a higher frequency causes) - but as often on the railway it may be that he was a handy scapegoat, or even that my memory is completely wrong altogether.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

I may be wrong but I had thought he was the mastermind behind the XC Operation Princess fiasco (namely, the decision to run more frequent but much shorter trains and failure to take into account increased usage a higher frequency causes) - but as often on the railway it may be that he was a handy scapegoat, or even that my memory is completely wrong altogether.

My recollection is that the XC plans were hatched at Virgin Rail Group before they took over the franchise operationally - maybe by Richard Bowker and others.
I think Chris Green and later Chris Gibb just had to deliver the plans and sort out the consequences.
Operation Princess was in September 2002, when Chris Gibb was still at Wales & Borders; he joined Virgin in May 2003.
I didn't know he was an advisor to the Welsh government in the franchise changeover phase from ATW (Arriva) to TfW (Keolis-Amey).
His unusually-detailed CV is here:
Chris Gibb - Chief Executive Officer - Scottish Rail Holdings | LinkedIn

 

[seagull]

Ah, thanks, well that would certainly make more sense given his generally good reputation - it was certainly one heck of a mess they did have to sort out - arguably it never actually has been, really, but that was due to changing circumstances too.

 

[Pete_uk]

Imagine what he will be able to do now that all those millions of pounds won't be flowing into shareholders pockets!

[/Sarcasm]

 

[fgwrich]

My recollection is that the XC plans were hatched at Virgin Rail Group before they took over the franchise operationally - maybe by Richard Bowker and others.

God, there's a name to send shudders down anyone's spine. The omni-useless Mr Bowker, who went from the never particularly well regarded SRA, to National Express and oversaw the East Coast Franchise fiasco, to UK Athletics (and a vote of No Confidence). It seems not every protege from the Virgin Rail Group go on to do well in the leadership stakes.

 

[380101]

Good to see Mr Gibb back in the business, a fine railway pedigree indeed. I wonder what is next in store for Mr Hynes?

Alex Hynes is a Network Rail employee and MD of the ScotRail Alliance now known as Scotland's Railways. The internal memo to staff from the current ScotRail Chief Operating Officer mentions that Chris Gibb will be working closely with Alex Hynes when the new operator takes over.

Staff that knew him when he was the Traincrew manager at Ayr in the late 80s are very much looking forward to him being involved with ScotRail again.

 

[D6130]

Alex Hynes is a Network Rail employee and MD of the ScotRail Alliance now known as Scotland's Railways. The internal memo to staff from the current ScotRail Chief Operating Officer mentions that Chris Gibb will be working closely with Alex Hynes when the new operator takes over.

Staff that knew him when he was the Traincrew manager at Ayr in the late 80s are very much looking forward to him being involved with ScotRail again.

Really?

 

[Scotrail314209]

So does this mean that he may see sense and that the proposed service cuts won’t go ahead? Aka the very stupid addition of the Fife stations into the Perth and Dundee to Edinburgh fast services instead of a circular via Glenrothes

 

[John Bishop]

So does this mean that he may see sense and that the proposed service cuts won’t go ahead? Aka the very stupid addition of the Fife stations into the Perth and Dundee to Edinburgh fast services instead of a circular via Glenrothes

He may see sense, but he is working under Transport Scotland which doesn’t have a great reputation in Scotland. I think what Chris wants to do and is actually allowed to do are two very different things.
I suspect he will quickly become frustrated in this role.

 

[Bald Rick]

So does this mean that he may see sense and that the proposed service cuts won’t go ahead? Aka the very stupid addition of the Fife stations into the Perth and Dundee to Edinburgh fast services instead of a circular via Glenrothes

That’s Transport Scotland’s decision. And they don’t have enough money to run the pre Covid service.

 

[Ex-controller]

I agree that there’s probably no going back to the pre covid service, at least in the sort to medium term, but I’d suggest that the some of changes should still be reviewed.

For Fife, I’d suggest a decent compromise would have been to return Edinburgh-Aberdeen services to their previous stopping pattern, removing the need for the Edinburgh-Arbroath service, and perhaps to retain the Edinburgh-Perth service but run it sporadically, or every two hours.

Appreciate that costs have to be cut, but there’s more than one way to skin a cat

 

[Gerald Fiennes]

Well, he has been involved in the planning for the transfer for c.9 months at least so will be very au fait with the issues. He essentially (with others such as the late Stuart Baker) rescued XC from Operation Princess so is very used to the special kinds of messes that the railway can create. But whether or not the service cuts happen will be a political decision, of course: there will (optically) have to be some: it feels like this kind of process is more about trying to get more money from Kate Forbes and the Cabinet in Scotland In the shorter term, unfortunately, C-19 looks like doing much of the work on service cuts as cancellations mount ...

 

[Starmill]

So does this mean that he may see sense and that the proposed service cuts won’t go ahead? Aka the very stupid addition of the Fife stations into the Perth and Dundee to Edinburgh fast services instead of a circular via Glenrothes

Your view is that it's stupid, and that may or may not prove a popular view, but it's clearly being done to save money.

I agree that it would be nice if the government just gave the railway more money, but in the absence of that...

 

[Newtraveller58]

As I’ve said before on the “Fit for the Future“ consultation thread, the gross savings associated with the proposed timetable are small compared with the cost of running the railway in Scotland - suspect that after taking account of revenue loss, the net savings will be even smaller. At the same time the Scottish Government are pressing on with building new stations (Reston, Dalcross etc) and reopening the Levenmouth branch, which will increase the operating costs of the railway by, in my professional opinion, more than the total “Fit for the Future” savings for very little additional revenue.

 

[Starmill]

As I’ve said before on the “Fit for the Future“ consultation thread, the gross savings associated with the proposed timetable are small compared with the cost of running the railway in Scotland - suspect that after taking account of revenue loss, the net savings will be even smaller. At the same time the Scottish Government are pressing on with building new stations (Reston, Dalcross etc) and reopening the Levenmouth branch, which will increase the operating costs of the railway by, in my professional opinion, more than the total “Fit for the Future” savings for very little additional revenue.

There's absolutely no way that the Leven route would be returning to passenger train service if it had been possible to cancel its construction.

As for your estimates of gross costs I imagine that you haven't got access to the internal information over things like headcount and number abd type of roles in the future so I can't see how you could make accurate estimates. Same goes for price levels and elasticaties.

I imagine you're right to suggest that the savings from these cuts will be relatively small however, and that more would be needed to effect change.

 

[Newtraveller58]

While I haven’t got access to detailed current costs I did work in railway industry planning for many years before I retired, so I still have a fair idea. In any case, the Fit for the Future consultation estimates savings at between £30 and £40m which I suspect is on the high side and is almost certainly less than the cost of running a service on the Levenmouth branch. There would obviously be costs in stopping Levenmouth, but I am sure the biggest issue would be the political fall out!

 

[Bald Rick]

While I haven’t got access to detailed current costs I did work in railway industry planning for many years before I retired, so I still have a fair idea. In any case, the Fit for the Future consultation estimates savings at between £30 and £40m which I suspect is on the high side and is almost certainly less than the cost of running a service on the Levenmouth branch. There would obviously be costs in stopping Levenmouth, but I am sure the biggest issue would be the political fall out!

You’re comparing apples and oranges. The service changes save (say) £40m a year, Levenmouth is costing around £80m, once, plus (at a guess) a couple of a million a year to run. But will bring in new Revenue.