Great Western Coffee Shop

With the return of Malcolm Holmes (General Manager Mainline) to London Overground on October 1st, the posts of General Manager North / Mainline and South are being abolished. Intsead, Chad Collins will become Head of Stations for the whole route whilst Alan Riley (currently Head of On-board Services) will become Head of Trains.

One of Alan Riley's initiatives on the Silver Sets - main meals served on a plate for ^4 - is continuing to be trialled BUT only when a particular member of staff (a trained chef) is rostered appropriately... Worth trying if you're lucky enough to hear the announcement on board - being Chiltern, there is no other publicity for this trial!

Many thanks for that, birm2lond, and welcome to the forum (I think we missed giving you a welcome with your first post, which was in the midst of the West Coast Virgin v First exchange). Our separate Chiltern board here's very new - and it's interesting to see as we start getting a few posts that things that have happened within the FGW area are echoed in other TOCs / franchises (shouldn't be a surprise, really!).  I recall that there were three area / general managers in the FGW area - if truth be known they were senior customer relations staff rather than directly operational - and that cut down to two with a merging of areas. And it's been noticeable at times that the remaining two (or rather the one that covers our area) has been noticabley scarcer / less accessible.

Are these Manager / Head roles on Chiltern operational or customer service ones?

Alan Riley was FGW Station Manager at Oxford up until a few months ago!

Its a small world!!!!

Graham - thanks for the welcome. A further update on the relevant management structure from Chiltern is as follows:

Jenny Payne ^ Customer Services Director

Is reported to by:

Chad Collins ^ Head of Stations AND Alan Riley ^ Head of Trains

Chad has reporting to him:

Sandra Harper ^ Regional Manager North (responsible for stations and staff Bicester North northwards)

Debbie Osborne ^ Regional Manager South (responsible for stations and staff south of Bicester North)

Good old Chad.  I remember him when he was a trainee at roughly the same time as I was.  Soon departing to NSE's Thames & Chiltern as it was then, he's a 'Chiltern' railwayman through and through!

Meals week commencing...

Monday 15/10/12    Chinese style curry with rice   
10.55 ex BMO, 13.37 ex MYB, 15.55 ex BMO, 16.46 ex MYB, 18.07 ex MYB
Monday 22/10/12 Sweet chilli chicken with noodles-low fat   
10.55 ex BMO, 13.37 ex MYB, 15.55 ex BMO, 16.46 ex MYB, 18.07 ex MYB
Monday 29/10/12    Meatballs in tomato sauce with pasta   
10.55 ex BMO, 13.37 ex MYB, 15.55 ex BMO, 16.46 ex MYB, 18.07 ex MYB

Had a chat with Alan on Monday - see

http://birmingham2london.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/talking-to-alan-riley-head-of-on-train.html

Erm, it's Thomas Ableman not Abelman.
Do you mean Jenny Payne (Customer Services Director)? While I haven't seen proof of her name, she goes by Jenny not Jennifer.

You did however get Alan's name correct.

Blog post corrected - many thanks

Peter

Figures from Thomas' interview in Sky yesterday - Chiltern don't make a profit...

http://birmingham2london.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/chiltern-railways-this-is-where-fare.html

Thanks for posting, birm2lond - I've taken the opportunity to merge topics here, in the interests of continuity and completeness.  ;)

An interesting aside (to me anyway - I didn't know).

See this (http://assets.dft.gov.uk/publications/rail-franchising-timetable/rail-franchising-timetable.pdf) - a DfT document that says in note 7 that Chiltern has a franchise extension possibility of 5 years from 2021 if mutually agreed.

Something that has been missed I think...

NB - THis document has been superceded by recent franchise re-letting problems, but there's no reason the notes don't remain applicable.

This didn't happen. Malcolm has taken a break over Christmas and is now deciding on what he wants to do. Travelling was mentioned....

Just picked up from Linkedin that Mark Cooper is now Regional Manager Heartlands for Chiltern.

Also, Malcolm Holmes is now Station Management and Passenger Operations Consultant at SLC Rail

Wonder where that eaves Chad Collins.... also check out the website for SLC RAil - you'll find a host of ex-Chiltern names.....