Andrew Haines quits FirstGroup

Andrew Haines, the managing director, UK Rail for FirstGroup and the chief operating officer of First Great Western, has relinquished both appointments and left the Group. Andrew Haines explained in a statement that ‘having effectively performed two parallel demanding roles for some time, I have now decided to take some time away from work to consider the best direction for my future career’ – Sir Moir Lockhead, the chief executive of FirstGroup, praised Andrew’s contribution to the Group and particularly commended the recent improvements in the First Great Western franchise under his leadership. Andrew Haines joined FirstGroup in July 2005, from his previous role as managing director of the Stagecoach subsidiary, South West Trains – he became chief operating officer of First Great Western in September 2007.

Bus operators angered by fuel duty rise

Bus operators in South West England have reacted with anger to the increases in fuel duty, which were announced in the pre-Budget report by Alistair Darling. The Chancellor increased fuel duty by two pence per litre, to offset the impact in the reduction in value added tax from seventeen-and-a-half per cent to fifteen per cent – Alistair Darling also announced further increases in fuel duty from April 2009 and from April 2010. Operators are angry that the rise in fuel duty will increases costs, because they can already reclaim VAT payments. The Confederation of Passenger Transport (CPT) is requesting an urgent meeting with the Department for Transport, in order to lobby for a compensating increase in fuel duty rebate.

First Great Western New Carriages

The Secretary of State for Transport, Geoff Hoon, has announced that the new carriages for First Great Western, announced in the Government’s rolling stock plan, will now enter service within three years – the carriages were previously expected to be in service by 2014.

Stagecoach is Britain’s sixth most admired company

The annual review by the magazine, Management Today, of Britain’s top companies has placed Stagecoach as the sixth most admired company. The survey, undertaken by the University of Nottingham business school, is a peer review of corporate reputation of two hundred companies across twenty-four business sectors using responses from board level representatives of competitors, as well as City analysts/commentators. Stagecoach leapt eighty-one places from the 2007 survey to finish sixth with a score of 68.5 – other public transport groups were placed as follows:-

• National Express: Thirty-third with a score of 61.5
• Go-Ahead Group: Seventy-ninth with a score of 57.8
• Arriva: Eighty-second with a score of 57.6
• FirstGroup: Ninety-ninth with a score of 56.2

People (1)

Mark Hopwood, who has been the performance director of First Great Western since January 2008, has been appointed as managing director of the train operating company – before joining FirstGroup, Mark was the managing director of London Lines. Tom Joyner, the route director, high speed services, has been appointed as acting performance director of First Great Western – Tom is due to join First Capital Connect in March 2009 as the company’s operations director.

People (2)

Mark Keighley, who is currently the commercial officer at Stagecoach North West, has been appointed to the new role of business development manager with Transdev Yellow Buses – his role will be to identify new business opportunities from monitoring network performance and evaluating passenger and revenue data. Uses

And finally,

Cleaning staff at Edinburgh railway station were amazed to find a holdall containing over thirty thousand pounds in used bank notes on a CrossCountry train which had arrived from Plymouth.