No Pitt stop, as Andy chairs fleet money men

This from Cross London Trains...

Cross London Trains (“XLT”) the company established to finance and purchase Desiro City  trains from Siemens plc and to lease them to the Operator of the Thameslink rail franchise has made two senior appointments following the recent contract award for 1,140 new rail carriages.

Andy Pitt has joined XLT as Executive Chairman. Andy previously held a number of senior roles within the rail industry including Managing Director Stagecoach South Western Trains Limited and Rail Business Development Director for Stagecoach Group plc. He is a former member of the Association of Train Operating Companies Board and former Chairman of the Operations Council. Andy led a £1 billion private sector procurement for train supply and maintenance that delivered Siemens Desiro rolling stock for South West Trains.

Charles Doyle will join Cross London Trains as Managing Director from Transport for London where he has spent the last seven years in various financial positions, most recently as a Principal of Commercial Finance.  In his time at TfL Charles was involved in a number of rolling stock and infrastructure PFIs and procurement programmes. 

Ends

XLT’s shareholders are 3i Infrastructure plc, Innisfree PFI Secondary Fund 2 LP and Project Ventures Rail Investments I Limited, a Siemens Project Ventures group company.

Interesting.

John Dennis RIP

John Dennis 1948-2013

It is with great sadness that Eye has learned of the passing of John Dennis, a railwayman with a rich and varied career spanning nearly 40 years, who died on 8th July aged 65 years, after battling against cancer.

Originally from Newcastle upon Tyne, John Dennis was a Geography graduate from the University of London.  He joined British Rail as a graduate trainee in September 1970, joining the same day as other industry stalwarts such as Mike Mitchell and Richard Goldson.

John’s career saw stints with BR Midlands at Stoke on Trent and he went on to become head of Customer Relations for Regional Railways.  He then joined Railfreight Distribution – the BR Board’s international freight business – to prepare for the opening of the Channel Tunnel.

Following privatisation, John joined The Railway Forum as Communications Director working for its highly-respected Director General, Adrian Lyons.  In December 2003, he was tempted away to ATOC as Communications Manager where his deep knowledge of the railway was much appreciated and deployed in the development of initiatives to promote the industry’s success and growth.

Says Edward Funnell, former Director of Communications at ATOC: “John was a wonderful colleague for nearly seven years and a great asset to ATOC where he contributed so much.  He was a real professional as well as a kind and patient colleague.”

John lived in Kemble, near Swindon in Wiltshire.  Eye sends its best wishes and heartfelt condolences to his wife Sue and their three grown-up daughters.

Perhaps the final word should go former colleague and friend Diana Lucas of RSSB, who on his retirement in 2009 said: 

“People like John make up the backbone of the industry. He was there to offer a considered judgement and professional eye on proceedings while maintaining a sense of humour. I speak for all when I say we will miss him a great deal."

Rest in Peace John