Steve White to leave SouthEastern

[markyl]

According to this X post

Steve White, Integrated Managing Director of Southeastern Railway and a man who is always willing to engage with passengers on SM, is to become IMD for Greater Thameslink Railway and Network Rail Sussex route. Steve will move over later this year.

Chime Whistle Publishing (@ChimeWhistle) on X

Steve White, Integrated Managing Director of Southeastern Railway and a man who is always willing to engage with passengers on SM, is to become IMD for Greater Thameslink Railway and Network Rail Sussex route. Steve will move over later this year. https://t.co/gwPQB0U3Wf

x.com

I wonder if his parting gift will be the placing of a new rolling stock order

 

[Deepgreen]

Forgive my ignorance, but what is an Integrated MD as a opposed to an MD..?

 

[James H]

MD for both the TOC and Network Rail side of things

 

[swt_passenger]

Forgive my ignorance, but what is an Integrated MD as an opposed to an MD..?

Integration of track and trains?

 

[brad465]

I would hope the new rolling stock order is approved before he leaves, as a change at the top before this is bound to slow the whole thing down further. He has said (ass discussed in the fleet replacement thread) that the procurement is done and they now just need funding, so hopefully this funding can be found before he heads over.

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

According to this X post

Chime Whistle Publishing (@ChimeWhistle) on X

Steve White, Integrated Managing Director of Southeastern Railway and a man who is always willing to engage with passengers on SM, is to become IMD for Greater Thameslink Railway and Network Rail Sussex route. Steve will move over later this year. https://t.co/gwPQB0U3Wf

x.com

I wonder if his parting gift will be the placing of a new rolling stock order

Good to see his skills being applied in a more complicated railway and probably to help unpick GN from the operation when the ECML IBU is established.

 

[CeeJ]

Big loss for Southeastern, Steve is great and his impact has been noticeable. Obviously great for GTR, very much the next step in terms of complexity.

 

[Omnishambles]

Good appointment in my opinion (Would rather see him managing however the WCML will be carved up from my own selfish view though)

 

[Minstral25]

Great to have Steve White in back in the Thameslink/Sussex region, GTR management has been floundering since he left. Plus, we will see better Public Relations.

 

[Class 170101]

The challenge is who will replace Steve White?

 

[Goldfish62]

If only he was moving to SWR!

 

[Park47515]

The challenge is who will replace Steve White?

Their existing Operations and Safety Director Scott Brightwell, who I believe was/is defacto deputy?

 

[vuzzeho]

That'll be great for the Thameslink IBU. As a TL user, I'm looking forward to seeing what he does!

It's also mentioned in RAIL magazine, but interestingly they mention the Thameslink IBU will be made up of TL, Southern, and NR's Sussex region.

What's going to happen to Great Northern, then? Will that merge with LNER and NR's East Coast route?

 

[rmHawk765]

Finally the glaring issues with GN & TL services might be fixed... it's not been great for the past few months on the ECML.

 

[43074]

Finally the glaring issues with GN & TL services might be fixed... it's not been great for the past few months on the ECML.

Worth pointing out Steve White was at GTR for a good few years before he went to SE, so had a chance to "fix" it then. Cynically, it won't make any difference.

 

[rmHawk765]

Worth pointing out Steve White was at GTR for a good few years before he went to SE, so had a chance to "fix" it then.

There were improvements on my side of GN in 2018-2019 actually, so he did something (spare for the 2018 timetable disaster though not sure how much control he had here).

I'm not sure how involved he was with this, but for instance the 717s were replacing the 313s, the positive effect of which cannot be overstated, and the ECML timetable was the best yet in terms of GN/TL frequencies.

I can't really comment on how reliable it all was, though - GTR always suffered with driver issues.

However I've definitely noticed an improvement in recent months with far less cancellations due to arbitrary crew reasons and a better effort to keep services on time.

Well, yes, okay, the Cambridge & Fen lines timetable situation is an absolute shambles, but hey, can White ensure the splitting/joining actually happens on time? I think so.

 

[MPW]

That'll be great for the Thameslink IBU. As a TL user, I'm looking forward to seeing what he does! It's also mentioned in RAIL magazine, but interestingly they mention the Thameslink IBU will be made up of TL, Southern, and NR's Sussex region. What's going to happen to Great Northern, then? Will that merge with LNER and NR's East Coast route?

Interesting change to the region or IBU. Is there somewhere I can see how all the different networks (what is correct terminology?) has changed over the last few years?

 

[Bald Rick]

Their existing Operations and Safety Director Scott Brightwell, who I believe was/is defacto deputy?

Scott isn’t the Ops and Safety Director. He is Safety, Planning and Performance.

The Chief Operating Officer is David Davidson.

 

[OneTrackMinded]

If only he was moving to SWR!

Live Lawrence Bowman reaction:

 

[Ticket_man]

What's going to happen to Great Northern, then? Will that merge with LNER and NR's East Coast route?

Great Northern will be part of the Thameslink IBU.

 

[rmHawk765]

Great Northern will be part of the Thameslink IBU.

I seem to remember reading it will continue to be branded as Great Northern though.

 

[Ticket_man]

I seem to remember reading it will continue to be branded as Great Northern though.

I've not heard anything about branding, but I have seen a brief that says Thameslink, Southern, Great Northern and Gatwick Express will be in the same IBU with Network Rail Sussex.