{"id":691320,"date":"2026-01-12T15:29:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T15:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/691320\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T15:29:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T15:29:10","slug":"new-chairs-of-network-rail-and-dfto-named","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/691320\/","title":{"rendered":"New chairs of Network Rail and DFTO named"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>Secretary of State appoints new chairs of Network Rail and DFTO at pivotal time for industry\u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>appointees will draw on their significant industry experience to deliver for passengers\u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>this\u00a0marks\u00a0next chapter\u00a0for railway\u00a0as\u00a0government moves closer to establishment of Great British Railways<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Two key rail leaders have been appointed\u00a0to oversee the railways at a monumental time for the industry today (12 January 2026).<\/p>\n<p>Richard George has been appointed Chair of Network Rail,\u00a0the public body that owns,\u00a0operates, maintains and develops Britain\u2019s railway infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p>Sir Andrew Haines will become\u00a0Chair\u00a0of\u00a0Department for Transport Operator Limited (DFTO), the government body\u00a0bringing all currently privately-owned train\u00a0services\u00a0into public ownership ahead of the creation of Great British Railways (GBR).<\/p>\n<p>With\u00a0significant experience\u00a0in\u00a0the rail industry, both appointees will support the government\u2019s mission\u00a0to bring\u00a0together track and train \u2013 delivering a better service for passengers.<\/p>\n<p>Richard has 45 years\u00a0of experience\u00a0operating\u00a0at the most senior level in the UK transport\u00a0industry and\u00a0is the current chair of DFTO. His extensive career includes roles as Managing Director of Great Western Trains and HS1 Project Director for Eurostar, as well as an advisor to DfT on matters relating to rail performance and investment in the north of England. Prior to privatisation, Richard had 20 years of railway management experience with British Rail.<\/p>\n<p>Sir Andrew has\u00a0overseen rail and transport at the highest level, most recently as CEO of Network Rail between 2018 and 2025, where he\u00a0maintained\u00a0a strong focus on putting passengers first and driving improved performance.\u00a0Prior to this, Sir Andrew had a wide-ranging career in the rail industry,\u00a0including roles as Managing Director of\u00a0South\u00a0West\u00a0Trains and Managing Director of the Rail Division for First Group plc.<\/p>\n<p>Their new positions will take effect\u00a0on 2 February 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Transport Secretary, Heidi Alexander, said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>With legislation now making its way through Parliament, we\u2019re making good progress with our ambitious programme of rail reform. When\u00a0Great British Railways is established, it will help us to deliver a network which is run for the public, owned by the public.<\/p>\n<p>Richard and Sir Andrew both bring a wealth of experience, helping to improve passenger experience\u00a0and operational performance, supporting the integration of our\u00a0railways\u00a0and\u00a0building\u00a0towards the world-class railway we will see under Great British Railways.<\/p>\n<p class=\"last-child\">I\u2019d\u00a0like to thank\u00a0Mike Putnam for his work\u00a0overseeing\u00a0Network Rail\u00a0at this pivotal time.\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0pleased we will continue to benefit\u00a0from his knowledge and skills as he remains part of the Network Rail board.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Sir Andrew Haines said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>I am delighted to be joining DFTO at this pivotal time, as it focuses on its mission of successfully bringing more services into public ownership, improving passenger\u00a0experience\u00a0and helping create Great British Railways.<\/p>\n<p class=\"last-child\">I look forward to working closely with so many talented colleagues from across the publicly owned train operating companies, Network Rail, the Department for Transport and the wider rail industry.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Richard George\u00a0said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>I am delighted and honoured to be appointed Chair of Network Rail. The rail reform journey we are on towards the creation of Great British\u00a0Railways is\u00a0an exciting one with changes across all railway organisations, including Network Rail, as we work to create an integrated railway fit for the 21st century.<\/p>\n<p class=\"last-child\">But those changes must never be at the expense of safety and operational performance, and the\u00a0whole system\u00a0relies on Network Rail to deliver that. I am excited to be a part of this, leading Network Rail, alongside DFTO and the\u00a0publicly-owned\u00a0train operators, to improve performance on the railway and drive rail reform.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The new appointments come\u00a0as legislation to\u00a0establish\u00a0Great British Railways goes through Parliament, marking the next phase of the Government\u2019s bold rail reforms. Great British Railways will build a simpler, more unified railway that delivers reliable,\u00a0safe\u00a0and more affordable journeys.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Secretary of State appoints new chairs of Network Rail and DFTO at pivotal time for industry\u00a0\u00a0 appointees will&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482837,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[748,393,4884,1144,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-691320","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"category-uk","9":"category-united-kingdom","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-northern-ireland","14":"tag-scotland","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115882843483872207","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=691320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=691320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=691320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=691320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}