Chris Green (born 7 September 1943) is a British railway manager. He has a reputation for the adoption of business-led management of passenger services both in the

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

and

privatised Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...

eras, and has been described as "the best chairman BR never had".

Early life

Green was born in

Winchester Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...

and educated at

St Paul's School, London (''By Faith and By Learning'') , established = , closed = , type = Independent school Public school , religion = Church of England , president = , he ...

and

Oriel College, Oxford Oriel College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. Located in Oriel Square, the college has the distinction of being the oldest royal foundation in Oxford (a title formerly claimed by University College, wh ...

(where he read History).

Railway career

Early career

Green began his career in 1965 as a trainee manager with British Rail in the West Midlands, becoming area manager at

Hull Hull may refer to: Structures * Chassis, of an armored fighting vehicle * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a ship * Submarine hull Mathematics * Affine hull, in affi ...

in 1973.

Senior management

In 1984 Green became manager of

ScotRail ScotRail Trains Limited, trading as ScotRail ( gd, Rèile na h-Alba), is a Scottish train operating company that is publicly owned by Scottish Rail Holdings on behalf of the Scottish Government. It has been operating the ScotRail franchise a ...

, building its new identity. In January 1986 he became BR Sector Director, London & South East. In April he announced that

Marylebone station Marylebone station ( ) is a Central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in the Marylebone area of the City of Westminster. On the National Rail network it is also known as London Marylebone and is the southern ter ...

in central London would be reprieved from closure, and in June he launched

Network SouthEast Network SouthEast (NSE) was one of the three passenger sectors of British Rail created in 1982. NSE mainly operated commuter rail trains within Greater London and inter-urban services in densely populated South East England, although the netwo ...

to unify London suburban rail services. In October 1989 Green briefly appeared on BBC '' Challenge Anneka'' in an episode covering the re-opening of

Northiam railway station Northiam railway station is on the Kent and East Sussex Railway. It is located to the west of the level crossing on the A28 road linking the Kentish village of Newenden and the East Sussex village of Northiam. Having served the area for over si ...

. At the beginning of 1992 he was appointed managing director of the InterCity sector, with a remit to create a new integrated and profitable business (from that April) which he achieved with a particular emphasis on customer service.

Heritage interlude

Owing to an interest in the built heritage in 1995 Green became chief executive of English Heritage. He resigned from this post after 14 months having breached rules on the proper conduct of public business, described in an auditor's report as relatively minor matters and not amounting to fraud. He then became a director of consultants Gibb Rail and an advisor to the Transport Select Committee of the House of Commons. In 1995 he was appointed a board member of Eurotunnel.

Return to the mainline rail industry

In 1999 Green was invited back into active rail industry management as chief executive of Virgin Rail Group on a five-year contract with a twofold mission – to deliver a markedly improved service on the existing network and ensure the £1.8bn worth of new Class 390 ''Pendolino'', Class 220 ''Voyager'' and Class 221 ''Super Voyager'' trains would be delivered on time. He also served as non-executive chairman of Virgin Rail Group Holdings in 2004/05.Chris Green
Railfuture From 2005 to 2010 he was a non-executive director of Network Rail. Green has also served as a non-executive director of Connex Rail; chairman of The Railway Forum, 2005–2006; an advisory board member of

Cranfield University , mottoeng = After clouds light , established = 1946 - College of Aeronautics 1969 - Cranfield Institute of Technology (gained university status by royal charter) 1993 - Cranfield University (adopted current name) , type = Public research uni ...

; and a trustee of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Since 2012 he has been a Vice President of the advocacy group Railfuture, having been appointed at the same time as his peer

Adrian Shooter Adrian Shooter (22 November 1948 – 13 December 2022) was a British transport executive. Career Shooter joined British Rail in 1970 as a management trainee. He became maintenance engineer at Bletchley in the mid-1970s, then depot manager at ...

Books

He has co-authored two books; one about Network SouthEast and one about InterCity.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Green, Chris 1943 births Living people Alumni of Oriel College, Oxford British Rail people English Heritage People educated at St Paul's School, London Businesspeople from Winchester Virgin Trains