Staying on Track
£14.95
Stock type: -
Stock reference: 107.001
£14.95
Stock type: -
Stock reference: 107.001
Staying on Track is Zeitlin's fascinating account of years of frustration and enjoyment during a 50 year career in the railway industry, including privately-owned Great Western Railway, British Rail, Freightliner, and the private sector.
It covers the struggle to achieve efficiency and business success in an area dominated by politicians and civil servants. His personal experience included nationalisation, privatisation, the Beeching Plan and the opening of the Channel Tunnel.
His wide experiences, starting as junior clerk and rising to Senior Executive enable him to make fact-based comparisons between various forms of ownership, management styles and efficiency giving him all the ammunition needed to present a powerful critique of our crisis-ridden rail network.
On a lighter note, readers share his often delightful experiences travelling round Europe, dealing with other railwaymen, clients and suppliers of different nationalities. In the end Zeitlin shows that rail management can be enjoyable and rewarding.
It is an inside story of privatisation of British Rail Freight - a tale of dithering, incompetence and conniving.
This book, while easy to read, explains the benefits and disadvantages of different forms of management and ownership. It highlights the problems created by political interference, with specific reference to Margaret Thatcher, Barbara Castle, Neil Kinnock and Brian Mawhinney. The book is the only one on the market written by someone who spent his whole career in the railway industry, starting at the bottom and rising to the top.
The author, Graham Zeitlin, started work on the Great Western Railway, working in Birmingham and the Black Country. He moved to London and gained experience at Depot, Divisional and Regional level. He then transferred to Railway Headquarters, working on Mechanical Handling, Traffic Intelligence and Marketing. After involvement with the Beeching Plan, he anticipated the advantages of Liner Trains and joined the new Freightliner Company, under the control of National Freight Corporation. He blossomed in the more commercial environment and was rapidly promoted to Senior Manager. He became responsible for the container services from Britain to Ireland and the Continent, the latter giving scope for his marketing flair when he started a door-door rail-based service. After achieving considerable success he then produced a robust plan for freight through the Channel Tunnel. Finally he made a bid, sadly unsuccessful, for Freightliner under the privatisation process.
By Graham Zeitlin
Table of Contents:
Introduction - Chocolate and Cream or Dairy Milk?
Changing a Dinosaur
Taking the Great out of Great Western
Ernest Marples
Dead men's shoes.
The Kremlin.
Beeching and after.
The Beeching Plan.
Sir Stanley Raymond.
Liner Trains.
Trade Union Obstinacy.
Quality of Service.
Selling the Crown Jewels.
Nationalised industry or state-owned company?
Freightliner Ltd.
Best of road and rail.
Pricing policy.
Route Management.
Management is fun.
Freightliner Services.
Freightliner Europe.
Intercontainer.
Selling on the Continent.
Success.
Management is still fun.
Back to the Railways bosom.
Privatisation of Sealink.
Across the Sea to Ireland.
Continental Ports.
Channel Tunnel: Opportunity or Red Herring.
Executive Control.
Who runs the Railways?
The Thatcher years.
The shadow of Whitehall.
Life after the Railways - Private Enterprise.
Railway Privatisation.
Freightliner Ltd.
Railtrack : negotiating with a monopoly.
My support for privatisation.
The future of freight on rail.
Charitable work.
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