Adrian Shooter

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Adrian Shooter
CBE FREng FIMechE FCILT
Shooter in 2014
Born
Adrian Shooter

(1948-11-22)22 November 1948
London, England
Died13 December 2022(2022-12-13) (aged 74)
Switzerland
Occupations
Years active1970–2022
Spouses
Diana Crombie
​
​
(m. 1970; div. 2002)​
Barbara Harding
​
(m. 2006)​
Parents

Adrian Shooter CBE FREng FIMechE FCILT (22 November 1948 – 13 December 2022) was a British transport executive.

He is best known for leading the newly privatised Chiltern Railways between 1996 and 2011, and for founding the Vivarail engineering company in 2012. A lifelong railway enthusiast, he had many other involvements with railways, both commercial and preserved, including the Ffestiniog Railway, the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway and his own Beeches Light Railway.

Early life[edit]

Adrian Shooter was born on 22 November 1948 in London. His father was Reginald Arthur Shooter, a microbiologist and Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, best known for chairing the enquiry into the 1978 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 the Royal Navy during the Second World War.[1]

Shooter was educated at Kingswood House School and Epsom College. Having failed his mathematics A-level, he lost his accepted place at the University of Leeds and instead studied mechanical engineering at North Staffordshire Polytechnic.[2]

Career[edit]

Adrian Shooter bust beside platform 1 at Marylebone station

Shooter joined British Rail in 1970 as a management trainee. He became maintenance engineer at Bletchley in the mid-1970s, then depot manager at Heaton, then moved to Carlisle as area maintenance engineer. He worked on expansion projects at Bournemouth and Selhurst, before becoming area manager at St Pancras, then was involved in the establishment of Red Star Parcels and Rail Express Systems, before joining Chiltern Railways in April 1994.[3][clarification needed]

During the privatisation of British Rail he headed up the M40 Trains management 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 to John Laing Group for £1.5 million.[4] With the acquisition of John Laing by Deutsche Bahn in 2008, he became chairman of DB Regio UK. He retired from this role in December 2011.

Shooter had introduced the use of driving simulators for training Chiltern Railways' train drivers.[5] 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,[6][7][8][9] and overseeing "the strongest growth record of any rail business in Europe".[10] In November 2016 Shooter delivered the annual railway lecture to the Institution of Engineering and Technology on "Innovation and Realism".[11] Shooter was a director of the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) between 2001 and 2011. He chaired the organisation in 2007.[12][13]

Shooter was a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and of the Chartered Institute of Transport.[14] He was chairman of the West Midlands and Oxfordshire region of the Confederation of British Industry, chairman of Bicester Vision, director of Wabtec, and was chair of the Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership for three-and-a-half years until late-2015.[15][16][17] In mid-2011, Shooter had joined the advisory board of the National Railway Museum.[18]

In 2012, Shooter founded Vivarail, a company purchasing London Underground D78 Stock and rebuilding them into the Vivarail D-Train family, including diesel class 230s and third-rail electric class 484s.[7][19][20] During the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) short demonstration trips with a prototype pure-battery D-Train were organised from Glasgow Central station with Shooter and Henry Posner III of Railroad Development Corporation (RDC) on board.[21]

In 2013 Shooter became chairman of Churnet Valley Railway, and a vice-president of Railfuture along with Andrew Adonis, Chris Green, Roger Ford and Barry Doe.[22] Shooter was a director of Vintage Trains from 2018 until 2020.[23][24]

Recognition[edit]

The plinth at Marylebone

During 2002 Adrian Shooter received an honorary doctorate (DUniv) from Staffordshire University. the successor body to North Staffordshire Polytechnic.[25] A decade later in 2013, he received an additional honorary doctorate (DUniv), this time from the University of Birmingham.[26] In 2005 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng).[27]

In the 2010 New Year Honours list, Shooter was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) "for services to the rail industry".[16][28][29][30] In June 2019 Shooter was recipient of the chairman's award of the Institute of Directors West Midlands branch.[10] On 16 September 2021, Shooter received the lifetime achievement award at the Rail National Railway Awards.[31]

On 30 August 2022, a 2.7-metre (9 ft) bronze statue with a bust of Shooter created by Luke Perry and crowdfunded by rail industry leaders and close associates, was unveiled beside platform 1 at Marylebone 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.[32] At the same time, Clubman DMU 168 001, the very first train ordered by Chiltern Railways, and the first new train in the UK ordered following the privatisation of British Rail, was named Adrian Shooter CBE.[7][33]

On 23 November 2022, Shooter was awarded the Japanese Foreign Minister's commendation by Hayashi Hajime [jp], Japanese ambassador to the United Kingdom, for work on rail safety and establishing the UK–Japan Railways exchange programme in 1993.[34]

Personal life[edit]

Adrian Shooter (right) with Jeremy Davey (left) onboard locomotive No.19 (DHR 778) at Beeches Light Railway in 2019.

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.[35]

Besides his professional interest in railways, Shooter also owned the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway Class 'B' steam locomotive 778 (originally No. 19),[36][37] which he operated on the Beeches Light Railway in the grounds of his residence in Oxfordshire.[38][39][40][41][42] He also commissioned carriages to accompany the locomotive from the Ffestiniog Railway's Boston Lodge works,[43][44][45] together with a replica Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railroad 'Model T' inspection locomotive commissioned from the Statfold Barn Railway.[46]

Shooter was chairman of the Model 'A' Ford Club of Great Britain.[47] In 2014 his Model 'A' suffered a seized bearing during a classic rally race in Myanmar.[48] He also owned an Indian Hindustan Ambassador car.[41][44][45] In April 2022, Adrian and Barbara Shooter welcomed two refugees into their home during the 2022 Ukrainian refugee crisis with Barbara Shooter driving to the Polish border to collect them and drop off emergency supplies.[49]

By early 2022, Shooter had been diagnosed with motor neuron disease but planned to continue driving his Darjeeling steam locomotive for as long as possible. In March, he visited Siliguri and Darjeeling in India in his role of president of the UK-based Darjeeling Himalayan Railway Society.[50][51]

Adrian Shooter died on 13 December 2022, at age 74.[7][52][53][54][55] 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".[51][52][56] By late-December 2022 Shooter's memorial service had been planned to be held near Henley-on-Thames on 7 January 2023 at the Fawley Hill Railway museum, created by the late Sir William McAlpine.[57]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c "Shooter, Reginald Arthur (1916–2013)". Plarr's Lives of the Fellows. Royal College of Surgeons of England. 18 June 2014. Retrieved 15 December 2022. 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 of Chiltern Railways.
  2. ^ Shooter, Adrian (30 April 2018). A Life in Engineering and Railways (Autobiography). Pen & Sword. ISBN 9781473893191.
  3. ^ Fact panel: Adrian Shooter Rail issue 324 11 February 1998 page 29
  4. ^ "Chiltern Railways sold". Business roundup. The Times. No. 66457. 10 March 1999. p. 29. Retrieved 15 December 2022 – via Archive.org. 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.
  5. ^ Smith, Roger (13 March 2022). "Book Review: Chiltern Railways – The Inside Story by Adrian Shooter". book review. Rail Advent. Retrieved 16 December 2022. anecdotes are the difficulties of working with bodies such as the Office of Rail Franchising, Strategic Rail Authority, and Network Rail. … every train was to be washed every day … use of simulators as part of their drive to improve driver training
  6. ^ MBO preferred for Chiltern Rail Privatisation News issue 32 13 June 1996 page 1
  7. ^ a b c d Longhorn, Danny (14 December 2022). "Tributes to railway pioneer Adrian Shooter CBE". RailBusinessDaily. Retrieved 14 December 2022.
  8. ^ "Press statement from Adrian Shooter" (Press release). 19 June 2010. Archived from the original on 28 January 2015. Retrieved 25 February 2014.
  9. ^ Brown, Graeme (1 July 2011). "Adrian Shooter to retire as Chiltern Railways chairman". Birmingham Post. Retrieved 25 February 2014.
  10. ^ a b Hall, Brian (12 June 2019). "Congratulations Adrian Shooter". Retrieved 16 December 2022 – via Linkedin. 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!"
  11. ^ Kessell, Clive (6 January 2017). Callaghan, Lynsay (ed.). "Innovation and Realism". EngX. Institution of Engineering & Technology. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
  12. ^ Shirres, David (20 May 2021). "Selling electrification". Modern Railways. Retrieved 16 December 2022. in 2007 Iain Coucher, Network Rail's Chief Executive, and Adrian Shooter, Chairman of the Association of Train Operating Companies, sent a three-page letter to the Department of Transport which strongly argued the case for electrification.
  13. ^ "ATOC Limited". Companies House. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
  14. ^ Plisner, Peter (February 2012). "Rail Professional interview: Adrian Shooter". Rail Professional. Archived from the original on 23 January 2012.
  15. ^ "Shooter fired up for CBI role". Business. Business Insider. Newsco Insider. 9 December 2010. 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 of DB Regio UK which owned Chiltern Railways, DB Tyne & Wear Metro, 50 per cent of London Overground Rail Operations and Wrexham & Shropshire. He is also a non-executive director of the Rail Safety & Standards Board.
  16. ^ a b "Adrian Shooter CBE – Chairman". www.oxfordshirelep.com. Archived from the original on 1 March 2014.
  17. ^ Archer, Megan (2 November 2015). "Driver of economic development hands wheel over after successful three years". The Oxford Times. Retrieved 13 January 2016. chairman of Oxfordshire's Local Enterprise Partnership has stepped down after a "successful" three-and-a-half years.
  18. ^ 6.1.6 Membership of advisory boards, Trustee subcommittees and subsidiary company boards (PDF). Science Museum Group Annual Report and Accounts 2011−12 (Report). London: Science Museum Group. The Stationery Office. 11 July 2012. ISBN 9780102975772. Retrieved 28 December 2022. National Railway Museum Advisory Board … Mr Adrian Shooter CBE – from 23.08.11
  19. ^ McCaffrey, Sam (23 January 2015). "'Why not do some re-engineering?' Adrian Shooter on the Vivarail D-Train". railtechnologymagazine.com. Retrieved 24 January 2015.
  20. ^ "About Vivarail". Vivarail. Retrieved 12 January 2019.
  21. ^ Shirres, David (23 December 2021). "Trains on show at COP26". Rail Engineer. Rail Staff. Retrieved 23 July 2022. 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 was Henry Posner whose Railroad Development Corporation (RDC) ordered a two-car, class 230 unit which is now running trips to demonstrate RDC's pop-up metro concept.
  22. ^ Alderson, Jerry (March 2013). "Railfuture West Midlands Newsletter 126". Railfuture West Midlands. No. 126. Railfuture West Midlands. pp. 2, 8. Retrieved 14 January 2016. 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) became MCR chairman.
  23. ^ Vintage Trains outlines its future as a Train Operator Railways Illustrated issue 189 November 2018 page 13
  24. ^ Changes at Vintage Trains Rail issue 897 29 January 2020 page 23
  25. ^ "Pre-2007 Honorary Graduate List". Staffordshire University. 2007. Retrieved 16 December 2022. 2002; Honorary Degrees were bestowed on: … Adrian Shooter; DUniv
  26. ^ Honorary Graduates of the University of Birmingham since 2000 (PDF) (Report). University of Birmingham. December 2021. p. 8. Retrieved 16 December 2022. Adrian Shooter; DUniv; 2013
  27. ^ Archives of the Fellowship (unpublished"), Royal Academy of Engineering
  28. ^ "Adrian Shooter". The London Gazette (1st supplement). No. 59282. 31 December 2009. p. 8. Chairman, Chiltern Railway Company Ltd. For services to the Rail Industry.
  29. ^ "Order of the British Empire: Commanders of the Order of the British Empire" (PDF). Queen's List. BBC News. 29 December 2009. p. 15. Retrieved 13 January 2015. Adrian Shooter. Chairman Chiltern Railway Company Ltd. For services to the Rail Industry. (Steeple Aston, Oxfordshire)
  30. ^ "Banburyshire residents given New Year's Honours". Banbury Guardian. 31 December 2009. Archived from the original on 11 December 2015. Retrieved 10 December 2015. Chiltern Railway chairman Adrian Shooter, who lives in Steeple Aston, was made a CBE.
  31. ^ Foster, Stefanie (29 September 2021). "Award winners demonstrate excellence in adversity". Network. Rail. No. 941. presentation of a very rare Lifetime Achievement Award (only the second to be presented in 22 years of the NRA) to Adrian Shooter, chairman of Vivarail and career railwayman of more than 50 years.
  32. ^ Mansfield, Ian (5 September 2022). "Chiltern Railways founder gets a bronze statue at Marylebone station". Retrieved 17 December 2022.
  33. ^ Lowson, James (7 September 2022). "Aylesbury commuters will now be greeted by new 9ft statue at London Marylebone station". Bucks Herald. Retrieved 14 December 2022.
  34. ^ "Foreign Minister's Commendation – Mr Adrian Shooter" (Press release). London: Embassy of Japan. On 23 November 2022, Ambassador HAYASHI 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
  35. ^ "Shooter, Adrian". Who's Who. 1 December 2020. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U251441. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
  36. ^ "One of the original 'B Class' Sharp Stewart Steam Locomotive Comes Home". Darjeeling Himalayan Railway Society. Retrieved 25 February 2014.
  37. ^ Yang, Alice (11 November 2011). "Interview: Adrian Shooter". Felix Online. Retrieved 25 February 2014.
  38. ^ Hearn, Dan (28 May 2010). "Rail boss with a special train set". Oxford Mail. Retrieved 10 December 2015. three-acre estate at Steeple Aston, near Bicester.
  39. ^ Debroy, Bibek (1 January 2016). "Locomotive number 778". Business Standard. India. owns Beeches Light Railway. Indeed, it operates out of his residence in Steeple Aston, Oxfordshire.
  40. ^ Sharma, Anuradha (14 August 2014). "An Indian Relic in Oxfordshire". Forbes India. Retrieved 13 January 2015. 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.
  41. ^ a b Sinha, Kounteya (18 September 2014). "Love for Darjeeling toy train makes Briton buys off world's oldest surviving locomotive". Times of India. Retrieved 13 January 2016. 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
  42. ^ Aklekar, Rajendra B (16 March 2016). "Steam railways, heritage lines remain neglected in India". Forbes India. Retrieved 6 April 2016. 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.
  43. ^ Dimmick, R (4 May 2012). New Build – Darjeeling Himalaya Railway Carriages (PDF). Ffestiniog Railway. pp. 9, 11. Archived from the original (brochure) on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 10 December 2015. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  44. ^ a b Sinha, Kounteya (19 September 2014). "Oldest toy train chugs through British garden". The Times of India. Retrieved 13 January 2016. 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.
  45. ^ a b Sinha, Kounteya (20 September 2014). "A Darjeeling joyride in a British garden". The Times of India. Retrieved 13 January 2016.
  46. ^ "July fun for all the family on the rails!". rail.co.uk. 27 May 2015. Retrieved 13 January 2016. Model T railcar … based on a Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railway (Maine, USA) Superintendent's Inspection Car. … built for Adrian Shooter at the Statfold Barn Railway in 2008 and resides at Adrian's private Beeches Light Railway
  47. ^ "Contact us". Model 'A' Ford Club of Great Britain. Retrieved 25 February 2014.
  48. ^ Hall, Peter (3 February 2014). "Classic cars in the Road to Mandalay rally: week 2". The Daily Telegraph. Adrian and Barbara Shooter's 1930 Ford Model A was temporarily sidelined by a seized wheel bearing
  49. ^ Layton, Josh (12 April 2022). "British rally driver makes 2,000-mile trip to pick up Ukrainian family as she waits for visas". Metro (British newspaper). Retrieved 15 December 2022.
  50. ^ Clifton, Paul (8 April 2022). "Motor neuron disease will not stop steam train driver". BBC News. Retrieved 20 June 2022.
  51. ^ a b Shooter, Adrian (14 December 2022). "Adrian Shooter CBE 1948‒2022". Darjeeling Himalayan Railway Society (final words). By the time you read this…
  52. ^ a b Sinha, Avijit (15 December 2022). "Darjeeling Himalayan Railway enthusiast Adrian passes away". The Telegraph (India).
  53. ^ "Tributes paid to former Chiltern Railways CEO Adrian Shooter". Railway Gazette International. 14 December 2022. Retrieved 14 December 2022.
  54. ^ "Industry mourns death of Adrian Shooter". Railnews. 15 December 2022.
  55. ^ O'Sullivan, Sadhbh (22 December 2023). "The day my husband was helped to die". i. Retrieved 22 January 2024. contacted a Swiss voluntary-assisted dying organisation called Pegasos.
  56. ^ "Adrian Shooter obituary". the Guardian. 22 December 2022. Retrieved 26 December 2022.
  57. ^ Shooter, Barbara. "Memorial service for Adrian". Retrieved 27 December 2022. 7 January 2023 at Fawley Hill Railway, Henley-on-Thames … by kind permission of Lady Judy McAlpine.

Further reading[edit]

Obituaries[edit]

Memorials[edit]

External links[edit]

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