King's Birthday Honours: Chris Green amongst rail industry honours

Former British Rail director Chris Green was one of the leading names from the rail industry to receive an honour in the King’s Birthday Honours. Green has received an OBE for services to the rail industry, commemorating nearly 60 years in the industry.

Green joined British Rail in 1965, before becoming a director in the eighties. Initially, Green was instrumental in the branding of ScotRail before moving to the South East region, during the period of sectorisation, setting up Network SouthEast in 1986. The sector was a success and Green’s vision, and approach was adopted more widely in 1990 across the network. In 1992, he became the director of the InterCity sector before moving onto Virgin Rail during the early years of privatisation. He has also held roles at Network Rail, Connex Rail and Eurotunnel as well as serving as an advisor to the Transport Select Committee.

Other recipients of honours include Professor William Powrie, who has been awarded a CBE. A professor in engineering at the University of Southampton for 30 years, Powrie’s research has focused on climate resilient, low maintenance railway infrastructure.  He has conducted technical reviews for Network Rail, HS1 and HS2, and chairs the HS2 geotechnical expert panel.

The chair of London St Pancras Highspeed (LSPHS), Keith Ludeman has been awarded an OBE for his services to the transport industry. Ludeman was formally CEO of the Go-Ahead Group before taking up his current role at LSPHS in 2018. He is also the Chair at London Transport Museum.

The Railway and Safety Standards Board’s Vaibhav Puri and Bridget Eickhoff have received an OBE and MBE respectively. Puri has been influential in the development of the country’s railway legislation post-Brexit whilst Eckhoff played a key role in updating rail infrastructure standards.

Jenny Hamilton, Lead Sponsor at Transport for London (TfL) is the recipient of an MBE for her work improving accessibility at some of London’s key stations – including Bank, Victoria and Tottenham Court Road.