Adrian Shooter | |
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 Shooter in 2014 | |
| Born | Adrian Shooter (1948-11-22)22 November 1948 London, England |
| Died | 13 December 2022(2022-12-13) (aged 74) Switzerland |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1970–2022 |
| Spouses | |
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Adrian ShooterCBE FREng FIMechE FCILT (22 November 1948 – 13 December 2022) was a British transport executive.
He is best known for leading thenewly privatisedChiltern Railways between 1996 and 2011, and for founding theVivarail engineering company in 2012. A lifelong railway enthusiast, he had many other involvements with railways, both commercial and preserved, including theFfestiniog Railway, theDarjeeling Himalayan Railway and his ownBeeches Light Railway.
Adrian Shooter was born on 22 November 1948 in London. His father wasReginald Arthur Shooter, amicrobiologist andFellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, best known for chairing the enquiry into the1978 smallpox outbreak in the United Kingdom. His mother was Jean Shooter (née Wallace), who was also a doctor. The two had met whilst serving in theRoyal Navy during the Second World War.[1]
Shooter was educated atKingswood House School andEpsom College. Having failed his mathematicsA-level, he lost his accepted place at theUniversity of Leeds and instead studied mechanical engineering atNorth Staffordshire Polytechnic.[2]
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Shooter joinedBritish Rail in 1970 as a management trainee. By mid-1974 Shooter was a mechanical engineer.[3] He became maintenance engineer atBletchley Depot in the mid-1970s, then depot manager atHeaton Depot, then moved toCarlisle as area maintenance engineer. He worked on expansion projects atBournemouth Depot andSelhurst Depot. Shooter became area manager atSt Pancras railway station. By 1988 Shooter was thebusiness manager involved in establishment ofRed Star Parcels[4] andRail Express Systems. Before joiningChiltern Railways in April 1994.[5][6][clarification needed]
During theprivatisation of British Rail he headed up the M40 Trainsmanagement buyout consortium that was awarded the Chiltern Railways franchise. Shooter was the first managing director of that franchise in 1996, and went on to become its chairman. In early 1999 three managers of Chiltern Railways, Shooter, Alex Turner and Owen Edgington, sold their controlling stake in Chiltern toJohn Laing Group for£1.5 million.[7] With the acquisition of John Laing byDeutsche Bahn in 2008, he became chairman ofDB Regio UK. He retired from this role in December 2011.
Shooter had introduced the use ofdriving simulators for training Chiltern Railways'train drivers.[8] During his time at Chiltern he is credited with the doubling of its passenger numbers through innovation and investment in the ambitious development of train services and infrastructure,[9][10][11][12] and overseeing "the strongest growth record of any rail business in Europe".[13] In November 2016 Shooter delivered the annual railway lecture to theInstitution of Engineering and Technology on "Innovation and Realism".[14] Shooter was a director of theAssociation of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) between 2001 and 2011. He chaired the organisation in 2007.[15][16]
Shooter was a fellow of theRoyal Academy of Engineering, theInstitution of Mechanical Engineers and of theChartered Institute of Transport.[17] He was chairman of the West Midlands and Oxfordshire region of theConfederation of British Industry, chairman of Bicester Vision, director ofWabtec, and was chair of the OxfordshireLocal Enterprise Partnership for three-and-a-half years until late-2015.[18][19][20] In mid-2011, Shooter had joined the advisory board of theNational Railway Museum.[21]
In 2012, Shooter foundedVivarail, a company purchasingLondon Underground D78 Stock andrebuilding them into theVivarail D-Train family, including dieselclass 230s and third-rail electricclass 484s.[10][22][23] During the2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) short demonstration trips with a prototype pure-battery D-Train were organised fromGlasgow Central station with Shooter andHenry Posner III ofRailroad Development Corporation (RDC) on board.[24]
In 2013 Shooter became chairman ofChurnet Valley Railway, and a vice-president ofRailfuture along withAndrew Adonis,Chris Green,Roger Ford and Barry Doe.[25] Shooter was a director ofVintage Trains from 2018 until 2020.[26][27]
During 2002 Adrian Shooter received an honorary doctorate (DUniv) fromStaffordshire University. the successor body to North Staffordshire Polytechnic.[28] A decade later in 2013, he received an additional honorary doctorate (DUniv), this time from theUniversity of Birmingham.[29] In 2005 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng).[30]
In the2010 New Year Honours list, Shooter was appointed aCommander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) "for services to the rail industry".[19][31][32][33] In June 2019 Shooter was recipient of the chairman's award of theInstitute of Directors West Midlands branch.[13] On 16 September 2021, Shooter received the lifetime achievement award at theRail National Railway Awards.[34]
On 30 August 2022, a 2.7-metre (9 ft) bronze statue with abust of Shooter created byLuke Perry and crowdfunded by rail industry leaders and close associates, was unveiled beside platform 1 atMarylebone station in London. The bust sits on top of a girder and plinth and is secured to the ground using railway-inspired loops and bolts.[35] At the same time,Class 168Clubman unit 168001, the very first train ordered by Chiltern Railways, and the first new train in the UK ordered following theprivatisation of British Rail, was namedAdrian Shooter CBE.[10][36]
On 23 November 2022, Shooter was awarded theJapanese Foreign Minister's commendation byHayashi Hajime [jp], Japanese ambassador to the United Kingdom, for work on rail safety and establishing the UK–Japan Railways exchange programme in 1993.[37]
Shooter married his first wife, Diana Crombie, in 1970 and they had a son and a daughter together. The marriage was dissolved in 2002, and in 2006 he married Barbara Harding.[38]
Besides his professional interest in railways, Shooter also owned theDarjeeling Himalayan RailwayClass 'B' steam locomotive 778 (originally No. 19),[39][40] which he operated on theBeeches Light Railway in the grounds of his residence inOxfordshire.[41][42][43][44][45] He also commissioned carriages to accompany the locomotive from theFfestiniog Railway'sBoston Lodge works,[46][47][48] together with a replicaSandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railroad'Model T'inspection locomotive commissioned from theStatfold Barn Railway.[49]
Shooter was chairman of theModel 'A' Ford Club of Great Britain.[50] In 2014 his Model 'A' suffered a seized bearing during aclassic rally race inMyanmar.[51] He also owned an IndianHindustan Ambassador car.[44][47][48] In April 2022, Adrian and Barbara Shooter welcomed two refugees into their home during the2022 Ukrainian refugee crisis with Barbara Shooter driving to the Polish border to collect them and drop off emergency supplies.[citation needed]
By early 2022, Shooter had been diagnosed withmotor neuron disease but planned to continue driving his Darjeeling steam locomotive for as long as possible. In March, he visitedSiliguri andDarjeeling in India in his role of president of the UK-basedDarjeeling Himalayan Railway Society.[52][53]
Adrian Shooter died on 13 December 2022, at age 74.[10][54][55][56][57] In a statement written by him and released by his wife after his death, he described how his symptoms had rapidly worsened, and said that "by the time you read this I shall have gone peacefully to sleep in a clinic in Switzerland".[53][54][58] Vivarail had entered administration almost a fortnight earlier. By late-December 2022[update] Shooter's memorial service had been planned to be held nearHenley-on-Thames on 7 January 2023 at theFawley Hill Railway museum, created by the lateSir William McAlpine.[59]
Reggie and Jean became engaged two weeks after they met and married in Bristol on 6 December 1946. Their first child, Adrian, was born in 1948 in London. He became, amongst other things, head ofChiltern Railways.
Thesafe was hit by the Euston‒Glasgow express, which was travelling at 80 mph and was carrying 130 passengers as it passed throughBerkhamsted,Herts. All the robbers got was £7 each. … Mr. Adrian Shooter, mechanical engineer forBritish Rail, said: "The safe was thrown about 20 yards. It could have caused aderailment."
In factRed Star was not born on the back of an inspired idea, but was set up to counter the widespread practice of giving train guards backhanders to drop off parcels at particular stations along their route. Adrian Shooter, Red Star's national business manager, recalls: "The quickest way to get a parcelfrom A to B was to slip aguard some money and have someone collect it at the other end. British Rail realised that his could be developed into a proper service. …"
1993: Adrian Shooter, British Rail's director of engineering performance, is invited to set up a new Chiltern train operating unit at British Rail as part of preprations for rail privatisation … 1994: The Chiltern train operating unit is formally set up within BR … 1995: Chiltern Railways becomes a separate legal entity, still within BR … 1995: Shooter's management team, … Laing … and … 3i set up M40 Trains to bid for the Chiltern franchise. … June 1996: M40 Trains wins franchise for seven-year period
a former trio of British Rail managers who backed the 1996 buyout, will share £1.5 million after selling a controlling stake to John Laing.
anecdotes are the difficulties of working with bodies such as theOffice of Rail Franchising,Strategic Rail Authority, andNetwork Rail. … every train was to be washed every day … use of simulators as part of their drive to improve driver training
During his tenure, he oversaw the strongest growth record of any rail business in Europe. … the final words should go to Adrian himself: "I have spent the last 50 years learning a little about people, engineering, railways, and how to encourage continuous improvement in many fields of endeavour. I am far from finished!"
in 2007Iain Coucher,Network Rail's Chief Executive, and Adrian Shooter, Chairman of the Association of Train Operating Companies, sent a three-page letter to theDepartment of Transport which strongly arguedthe case for electrification.
Chiltern Railways chairman Adrian Shooter is the new West Midlands vice-chairman of the CBI. He will take up the year-long appointment in December before becoming regional chairman in 2011. … Chairman ofDB Regio UK which ownedChiltern Railways, DBTyne & Wear Metro, 50 per cent ofLondon Overground Rail Operations andWrexham & Shropshire. He is also a non-executive director of theRail Safety & Standards Board.
chairman of Oxfordshire's Local Enterprise Partnership has stepped down after a "successful" three-and-a-half years.
National Railway Museum Advisory Board … Mr Adrian Shooter CBE – from 23.08.11
Departing from Glasgow Central station … The three-car unit concerned, 230 001, was the prototype diesel unit … On board, Vivarail's founder, Adrian Shooter, advised that the unit had been re-engineered as a battery-only train, with each coach having two 70kWh battery packs … Also on the train wasHenry Posner whoseRailroad Development Corporation (RDC) ordered a two-car, class 230 unit which is now running trips to demonstrate RDC's pop-up metro concept.
five 'big hitters' to become vice presidents of Railfuture:Lord Adonis, Adrian Shooter,Chris Green,Roger Ford and Barry Doe. … In May 2012 … Adrian Shooter CBE (who is a Railfuture vice president) becameMCR chairman.
2002; Honorary Degrees were bestowed on: … Adrian Shooter;DUniv
Adrian Shooter;DUniv; 2013
Chairman,Chiltern Railway Company Ltd. For services to the Rail Industry.
Adrian Shooter. Chairman Chiltern Railway Company Ltd. For services to the Rail Industry. (Steeple Aston, Oxfordshire)
Chiltern Railway chairman Adrian Shooter, who lives in Steeple Aston, was made a CBE.
presentation of a very rare Lifetime Achievement Award (only the second to be presented in 22 years of theNRA) to Adrian Shooter, chairman ofVivarail and career railwayman of more than 50 years.
On 23 November 2022, AmbassadorHAYASHI Hajime awarded the Foreign Minister's Commendation to Mr Adrian Shooter, Chairman of Vivarail Ltd. … In particular, he established the UK-Japan Railways Exchange Programme with Japanese railway companies in 1993
three-acre estate at Steeple Aston, near Bicester.
owns Beeches Light Railway. Indeed, it operates out of his residence in Steeple Aston, Oxfordshire.
Shooter bought an "arts and crafts" style house in Steeple Aston village, shipped in a Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR) steam locomotive and set up his own private railway—the Beeches Light Railway—in his three-acre garden.
model number 778 … run it in his personal garden … tracks over 1.5 km is in the form of a loop … Ambassador car that runs by the train when it chugs through his garden to give it a real feel of Darjeeling. … station that looks exactly like the original Sukna station
A Darjeeling Himalayan Railway B-class steam locomotive that originally went to an American museum now runs on a private steam railway belonging to British rail expert Adrian Shooter in Oxfordshire.
{{cite book}}:|work= ignored (help)two replicas of DHR carriages were constructed at the Boston Lodge Works of the Ffestiniog Railway. These and the locomotive run in Adrian Shooter's private garden railway.
Model T railcar … based on aSandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railway (Maine, USA) Superintendent's Inspection Car. … built for Adrian Shooter at theStatfold Barn Railway in 2008 and resides at Adrian's private Beeches Light Railway
Adrian and Barbara Shooter's 1930 Ford Model A was temporarily sidelined by a seized wheel bearing
By the time you read this…
contacted a Swiss voluntary-assisted dying organisation calledPegasos.
7 January 2023 atFawley Hill Railway,Henley-on-Thames … by kind permission of Lady Judy McAlpine.
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