THE RAIL PROFESSIONAL INTERVIEW ANTON VALK CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF NEDRAILWAYS

摘要

Coming from a country with a privatised railway which has as many similarities to the UK as it does differences, the chief executive of Nedrailways has some interesting perspectives on the UK rail industry.rn'There is one thing I want to say about the railway in the UK,' he ventures. 'I think the structure in the UK industry is a structure where you don't have clear leadership. It's a model where nobody is really sitting there saying "that's the way it goes". So contrary to the mayor of London who can say "I want this", which Ken Livingstone did with congestion charging, for example, that doesn't exist. It's a co-operative industry and everybody has his role.'rnThe mild-mannered Dutchman keeps pointing out that he doesn't want to come across as critical, he is merely advocating the sharing of best practice across international borders. Nedrailways is the foreign arm of Nederlandse Spoorwegen, the former Dutch state operator, which is now a private company and still runs the majority of the country's railway services. Valk himself, 59, dreamt up the idea of the Nedrailways subsidiary.