You're ahead of yourself - not until next month

 
Hasn't a woman very recently taken over Richard Rowland's Customer Services bit? To allow him to major on being Deputy MD & Operations Director.

 
A LONG time since this thread was updated - so from https://www.gwr.com/about-gwr/our-business/executive-team :

Mark Hopwood – Managing Director
Richard Rowland – Customer Service and Operations Director
Ruth Busby – HR Director
Joe Graham – Business Assurance Director
Duncan Rimmer – Finance Director
Amanda Burns – Sales & Marketing Director
Daryn McCombe – Train Service Delivery and Performance Director
Simon Green – Engineering Director
Chris Maxwell – Director of Safety and Environment

 
As announced by the Stock Exchange at 0700 this morning

http://www.londonstockexchange.com/exchange/news/market-news/market-news-detail/FGP/13660797.html

 
Waking up this thread a bit.
Over on Twitter Paul Clifton from BBC South has posted this morning that Mr Tim O'Toole is to step down from his position as C/E of First Group with immediate effect
https://mobile.twitter.com/PaulCliftonBBC.

 
Turns out it was someone else (possibly more than one) high up at FGW who is/are off to pastures new...

 

My sympathies, Ben: I've taken the past week off work as annual leave, to 'do some gardening, etc' ... but it's been pouring with rain 

 

whoops!.......just goes to show......you never know who's reading! "Loose lips sink ships!" 

 
Glad also that the rumour I read on another forum was unfounded. I was clear here to say rumour only.

I've put them straight at the other place. 

 
Pleased to hear you are still "on-board" and glad you've had the opportunity to put the record straight.

 

Only just spotted this. It made me laugh. You have been the victim of the rumour mill. My garden could really do with me having some gardening leave but I'm still hard at work. In fact I didn't even get any time off this Sunday!

 
Reading elsewhere that Ben Rule has been given 'gardening leave'. No independent verification and I post as rumour only.

Gardening leave normally precedes a move to a competitor.

 
Of course he doesn't - it'd be a pretty much a full-time job doing so.

 

He might read his emails but he doesn't reply to any of mine!  I once had a reply from his email address but signed off by Nicole Black of Customer Relations.  She said she would get back to me asap but never has.

 
Excellent! Is he based in the Swindon offices? And as for email addresses am I correct in saying that they are formatted <firstname>.<lastname>@firstgroup.com ?

 
Mark Hopwood....he reads everything addressed to him

 
Interesting...who would therefore be the best addressee (ie, the most likely to provide a considered response) for a complaint following a number of particularly disagreeable experiences on Paddington to South Wales services?

 
There is no Director of Customer Services. It was decided a number of years ago to make 'customer services' the responsibilty of all directorates. The reasoning being that having a specific directorate meant that anyone working under another directorate could argue that customer services wasn't their responsibility, when actually it is everyones.

 
Afternoon folks,

Can anyone help me with a name and postal address and/or email address for the current FGW customer services director? They don't appear to make that persons details readily available on the website for some reason...

Please feel free to pm me if it's info that can't be shared in the public domain,

Thanks!

 
e He was regarded as a complete *&$$ at NXEA ........ good luck ! (hope he don`t rub up FGW train crew the wrong way)

 

We're doomed.............

 

Not sure how correct the information is but I am told that Kevin Gale is now fairly high up in the National Express coach business.

Having just had a quick look at LinkedIn, it seems he is now operations director at National Express.

 
That National Express Rail Franchise Bid Team was headed up by Elaine Holt who has also moved on to pastures new, or should that be nouveaux p^turages?

I wonder if National Express are giving up on UK Rail, or have just decided not to bother with a franchise bid team now that it's known that there are no franchises to bid on for a couple of years. Except the East Coast franchise of course, but it would take some serious chutzpah for National Express to bid for that one!

 
As an outsider -
More recently Ben has been leading the strategic input for Operations as part of the
National Express rail franchise bid team.
Take out key players from the opposition?

 
From FastLine....

 
I guesss the post will go on First's jobs site?....:-)

 
Where do I send my CV? 

 
No - did confirm that the post will be advertised though.

 
Chris, did the Fastline mention a replacement?

 
Thanks for that update, ChrisB: I've taken the opportunity to merge three topics here, purely in the interests of continuity and ease of future reference. 

 
Staff Nerwsletter - FastLine

 
Can we ask where this confirmation has come from?

 
Confirmation today that Kevin Gale has left FGW

 
This is Wiltshire had this report at the beginning of the year...

http://www.thisiswiltshire.co.uk/news/10142619.Has_rail_boss_lost_job_over_the_travel_chaos_/

 

And even the list I found may be out of date. 

The previous issue of RAIL magazine (714) reports that FGW Operations Director, Kevin Gale, has been placed on 'gardening leave'. It doesn't expand further as to reasons. Just a three sentence article toward the back of RAIL that I missed on first reading, but one that may be of some significance.

Purely supposition on my part, but I wonder if he is jumping ship to another TOC or has been head-hunted by DOR? 'Gardening/Garden leave' is a euphemism most often used when a company requires an employee to see out a period of notice, but neither wants them to continue doing their current job or to immediately start work in their new job. Especially if they are leaving to join a competitor....

 
From FirstGroup's corporate website:

 
Sort of, except there is now no head of stations role. So the General Manager is in charge of there own area.
In all honesty I've not actually met my general manager, so no idea how involved they get.

 
Thank you for that comprehensive explanation, the void, and a very warm welcome to the Coffee Shop forum.  

I asked Glyn Beck the other day what role Mike Holmes now had and he said he was an Area Manager! Retail Manager seems an odd choice of name.

 
Thanks for that very useful explanation, the void - and welcome to the Coffee Shop forum! 

 
So, having gone from removing one layer of management (the old Area Managers), they hasve now managed to ADD a layer (the General Managers) - am I right?

 
Ok, so here's how it works...

Previously there was a Head of Sations, with three Area Managers (West, Central & East) reporting directly to him, with the Stations Managers reporting to their relevant Area Manager. In an ill-advised re-org, the Area Managers were removed and the Station Managers all reported directly to the Head of Stations. The Head of Stations suddenly realised he had 18 direct reports, rather than the previous three and that it simply wasn't workable, so some Station Managers were rebranded 'Senior Station Managers' simply to reduce the number of direct reports to the Head of Stations. But this caused more problems as the egos of the 'Senior' managers were inflated into believing they were 'Area Managers' but they weren't. Time for another re-org...
This time it was the Head of Stations position that was removed. Three new General Managers were created for each region - David Crome in the West, Steve Tyler in Central and Claire Mann in the East. The General Managers are responsible for everything in their region and reporting to them are the new area managers for stations, guards, drivers etc. The station area managers are known as Retail Managers, but they are essentially the same as the old station Area Managers. The three regional Retail Managers are - Lee Edworthy in the West, Mike Holmes in Central and Sean McBroom in the East. They are resonsible for all things station within their region and the Station Managers report to them. The current Station Manager at Temple Meads (and outstations) is Glyn Beck. Glyn reports to Mike, who reports to Steve. Simples.

 

Sean McBroom who was SM at Reading (he's still on the posters there) & Claire Mann.


Correct, except there isn't any North. Just East, Central & West.

 
Care to tell us what he is then? 

 
The managerial structure has been changed yet again in FGW land.

At PAD for example we now have a General Manager (a woman called claire), then a regional manager east (shaun mcbroom) and some other side managers who I dont know yet.

I suspect the same will be true of central, west and north.

 
No he's not

 
Yeah he's regional manager for central or something.

 

Ok let me re-word. He's been re-assigned to his previous location of Temple Meads!!!!

 
Makes it sound like a punishment. "... sent back to Temple Meads" 

 
Yep he has left PAD and we now have the station manager from RDG (shaun Mcsomthing) as regional manager - east.
Ive also heard hes been sent back to Temple Meads.

 
Mike Holmes, formerly Station Manager at Temple Meads and more recently Station Manager at Paddington, is, according to things I've heard from FGW staff, back in the west.

Anyone out there know what his new role is?

 

Royalty please......made that joke on another thread some time ago 

 
No connections with Burt's Crisps by any chance?

 
He is also very ruthless.......... enough said me thinks

 
Probably gone to Southern to try and reduce costs, lots of large premiums coming up!

 
Wow.....wonder what prompted that move? He's only been at FGW for 18 months. Bailing out before having to deal in depth with the coming fall-out from the Sept. fares rises perhaps? I had some personal correspondence with James Burt, who called me personally after a particularly disagreeable experience on a Pullman service. He seemed like he genuinely cared about Customer Service. Following so soon after Anrew Haines departure I worry about the future.
To lose one quality director is unfortune, two is careless.....

 
From TransportXtra:

 
Just a short piece about how FGW's performance has been changed:
http://www.railpro.co.uk/issues/pdfs/july09_fgw.pdf

Paul

 
First Group statement at http://www.firstgroup.com/corporate/latest_news/?id=000341

 
New M.D  Letter to staff on Wednesday announces Andrew Haines to leave the Company.

 
Don't get me started on those busybodies again!!

 
Doh.

Typical Shortsightedness from MTLTA!

 
Quote from Tony Ambrose (MTLS, article link below) :
http://thisisbristol.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=145365&command=displayContent&sourceNode=145191&contentPK=19962582&folderPk=83726&pNodeId=144922

 
Economy Klaus "analyses" Sheridan Flavin's appointment (link below.)
http://firstlatewestern.blogspot.com/2008/02/all-in-sheridans-mind.html

 
I've copied the press release into blog:

http://www.iworkforfgw.com/blog/#2202080145

Thought it might be of interest to some.

 
More on the new management structure from Insider:

http://indefenceoffirstgreatwestern.blogspot.com/

 
The Bath Chronicle published an article on Friday that is a useful Whos Who at FGW since the management shake up:

http://www.thisisbath.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=180730&command=displayContent&sourceNode=227209&contentPK=18787888&folderPk=106757&pNodeId=227220

 
just what I needed to brighten up my friday afternoon another poem from Economy Klaus. Next summer I think FGW should hire him to read poems alongside the lady with pink hair. The passengers could do with a laugh.

 

Here is a poem by Economy Klaus , mourning Glenda Lamont's departure (link below.)
http://firstlatewestern.blogspot.com/2007/10/poem-to-celebrate-departure-of-glenda.html

Quote :

"^Stakeholder management and customer service^?
You were about as useful as Peter Purvis"

 
Mark Hopwood is appointed to the position of Route Director High Speed Services.

As fotr Glenda Lamont she's still about I spoke to her ( only hello mind) last week!

 
Being from SWT terrority, hopefully he will have plenty of knowledge of the chronic overcrowding problems that is occuring at weekends on the Cardiff-Portsmouth route.

An example which is all too common can be found on Save the Train:
http://www.savethetrain.org.uk/forum/index.php?topic=4442.from1192513287;topicseen#msg8221

 
Where I said temporary I was referring to the person current filling his role until he joins us from SWT.

My bad wording, sorry.

 
James Burt is his name and he isnt a temporary anything. He has been appointed to post full time. He is leaving South West Trains to come and work for FGW. He is currently Operations Director at South West Trains and was previously Customer Services Director for South West Trains.

 
Glenda has left already, she is due to start at First Group America in November.

At the moment FGW has a temporary Customer Services Director until we get our new one, can't remember the name, but he is currently in the role at South West Trains.

 
Glenda Lamont is off to the US of A  according to BBC Points West this evening. Bet she is well chuffed (no pun intended) with this move, how exciting for her. Get away from all those whinging people who expect a decent train service.

Also one of the boses of First Bristol/Bath buses is on his way out. My, First really are having a jolly good clear out down in these parts, long overdue.

 
I remember it well, May 1988 when we said farewell to the 33s and Mk1 coaching stock with 155s taking over under the EXPRESS branding 'to compliment the existing IC network'. 155s lasted about 3-4 years before they were split to become 153s and 158s taking over the route. At the time it was real investment on the route. I think its long overdue for some new investment not just tarting up the existing 158s.

 
Under the new arrangements at FGW, Andrew Haines is the Chief Operating Officer while maintaining responsibility for First's Rail Group as well "one busy man".

Three new roles / appointments - route directors who will "Champion routes / act as lightning conductors, anticipating and reacting to issues before they surface".

John Curley - West
Mike Carroll - London and Thames Valley
t.b.a. - High Speed Services

These roles are being initially filled by very senior people to establish the positions and see how they go; the initial appointments are not seen as long term. I understand that it was John Curley who set up the hourly Cardiff - Portsmouth in the first place.

 
Never really left though. He was MD of FirstInfo which is the call centre at Plymouth.








Senior Management have always had to Answer to the First head of rail. Not much change there then except two more senior managers to oversee the operation!

 
Here is a further view on the shake - up (link below.)
http://ihatefirstgreatwestern.blogspot.com/2007/09/all-change-at-top.html

 
Alison will be giving a presentation at the Passenger Focus meeting in the Bristol Marriott Royal Hotel on the afternoon of Tuesday, 11 September. See the agenda at http://www.passengerfocus.org.uk/news-and-publications/document-search/default.asp?keywords=&topic=&year=&type=592&sdocsearch.x=15&sdocsearch.y=4

 
Someones woken up at last :-

I broke the news of Mike Carroll's return to FGW in the post on July 20th as the link below shows.

http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=447.0

 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/transport/Story/0,,2164195,00.html

At last some big rail news on what has been a fairly quiet week.

Report in today's Guardian on quite a major reorganisation of management at FGW by Firstgroup. Long overdue in my opinion. Don't fret though as Alison still gets to play with her beloved HSTs but hands day to day control of the problem parts of the franchise namely ex-Thames and Wessex franchises to others to sort out. Good to see Mike Carroll back at GW. All goes to show that First were way to ambitious in thinking they could easily merge three franchises into one under one managing director. Wonder if the first thing to happen would be for Thames and Wessex operations to move out of Swindon? I doubt it but you never know.

The most interesting move by First is the taking FGW under its wing along with its other rail franchises. Previously FGW was the only franchise run independently of First central control which shows at last they are taking things going on down here seriously.

These are only the highlights. There are also changes on the Western region of Network rail so the article is well worth a read. Lets see if any of these changes make any difference to services in the coming months. May be one reason why we are still to see any draft timetables for December making an appearance.

 
I have heard that Mike Carroll has returned or is returning to FGW as route director for the Thames Valley area.

For those who dont know who Mike Carroll is he was the MD of FGW before the present incumbent and her predessesor Chris Kitchen-Smith.



 

 
Another important bod is Moir Lockhead, head of FirstGroup, as you've mentioned before - if you copy him in on any complaints or communication with FGW it makes things speed up a little at FGW! For e-mail addresses they are all:

firstname.surname@firstgroup.com

but don't expect direct replies.

Susan

 

Yes, I have been rather disapoiuinted to see the need to have TWO coaches on Stand-by at Trowbridge

 

Good point , Duncan. Andrew Griffiths is Regional Manager of the First Great Western Severn & Solent area , for those who didnt know already.

 
I saw both Glenda Lamont and Andrew Griffiths at the Bradford on Avon 150th celebrations today.
She gave a short speech, promising re-furbished trains and a new waiting room with disabled access to the Bath-bound side of the station, she also remarked on how nice it was at this time to meet a crowd of smiling faces!
When I arrived, Andrew Griffiths (should be added to the list above) was being hand-bagged chastised by a Bradford lady for his 'glib' and 'dismissive' remarks on the BBC during the More Train Less Strain protest about how standing on trains is something people have to expect these days. I pointed out to him that being put onto coaches because you can't even board the trains is rather more serious, but he claimed that sort of thing should now be over... so that's all right then?!
Duncan

 
Here is a link with details of FirstGroup's board , which includes Dean Finch , who is Finance Director.
http://www.firstgroup.com/corpfirst/investor/board.php

 
I've seen "Dean Finch" mentioned and copied on correspondence. Where does he fit in?

 
Here they are (taken from the link below.)
http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Content.aspx?id=6

The team at First Great Western is led by:

Alison Forster - Managing Director
Glenda Lamont - Customer Services Director
Tom Stables - Commercial Director
Ben Caswell - Finance Director
Graham Boot-Handford - Engineering Director
Kevin Gale - Trains Director
Dawn Murphy - Interim Director of Human Resources
Richard Campbell - Interim Marketing Director
Sir Chay Blyth CBE BEM - Non Executive Chairman