1999-06-15 Regulator says rail industry faces testing time (Office of the Rail Regulator)

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date 5 July 1999
source Office of the Rail Regulator
type Press release

note ORR/99/24

Tom Winsor, newly appointed by the Government as the independent Rail Regulator and International Rail Regulator, takes office with effect from today, Monday 5 July 1999. Commenting on the tasks that face him as he assumes his new responsibilities, Tom Winsor said:

"I am wholly committed to a policy of tough and effective regulation in the interests of the passengers and the public. The public have been patient enough. The regulatory agenda has changed, and I am prepared to use the considerable powers at my disposal to stimulate investment in the railway industry and to improve confidence, reliability, punctuality and quality of service on our railways. It will not be easy, but I am determined to drive this forward as hard as I can."

A biographical note of Tom Winsor is below.



Biographical Note

TOM WINSOR - The Rail Regulator



Tom Winsor was appointed Rail Regulator and International Rail Regulator with effect from 5 July 1999.

He was born in 1957 and brought up in Broughty Ferry, Dundee. He was educated at Grove Academy, Broughty Ferry and then at the University of Edinburgh where he graduated with an LL.B. (Scots Law) in 1979. As a solicitor, he qualified first in Scotland, where he is a Writer to the Signet, and subsequently in England and Wales. After general practice in Dundee, he took a postgraduate qualification in oil and gas law at the Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy of the University of Dundee.

In the course of his legal career, Tom Winsor specialised first in UK and international oil and gas law, later adding electricity, regulation, railways and public law. He joined Denton Hall as a partner in 1991, where he was responsible for the design of the regulatory regime for the eletricity industry in Northern Ireland. In 1993 he was seconded to the Office of the Rail Regulator as Chief Legal Adviser and later as General Counsel. He returned to his partnership at Denton Hall in 1995 as head of the railways department, part of the firm’s energy and infrastructure practice.

Tom Winsor is an Honorary Lecturer at the Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy of the University of Dundee, where he directed the UK Oil and Gas Law summer course from 1993 to 1997. He is married and lives in Kent, travelling daily to his office in London by train.

Railhub Archive ::: 1999-07-05 ORR-001