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Interview


business and focusing on the long-term improvement for the customer.’


Snowed under Sometimes the problems faced are posed by the elements. Despite what much of the UK media seems to think, this country is not the only one whose rail systems struggle with snow.


On MTR’s Stockholm Metro system,


which is overseen by Long, similar challenges have been faced. Long says: ‘We have traded through two very difficult winters with exceptional levels of snow in the city and succeeded in sustaining the service during times when, previously, the network would have been seriously disrupted.’ Again, Long puts this success down


to working closely with Stockholm’s equivalent of Network Rail. ‘We put a lot of effort into working


with the infrastructure maintenance contractor over the last two years to improve the level of preparedness,’ says Long. ‘That has led to us being able to operate through periods when previously the system would have seen quite serious disruption.’


Lessons for London Like much of the Thameslink, Southern,


Southeastern and South West networks in the UK, Stockholm Metro operates a third rail system that makes it vulnerable to snow which Long says can be ‘quite abrupt – as much as a metre can fall in quite a short period of time’. Parts of the London Overground


network are also third rail systems, which makes it vulnerable ‘both in relation to ice, which is more prevalent, but also for some of the snow that even London has faced in the last two or three years’, says Long. ‘We have planned – with London


Overground, Network Rail and its contractors – a high level of overnight preparation of the railhead, both in winter and in autumn, to ensure that the deterioration in our performance that we see is absolutely minimised. Again, LOROL’s overall performance at times of serious weather disruption has been less seriously affected than some other routes.’


Working with the wider business Long says that none of the success that MTR has achieved in the UK and Europe would have been possible without the strong backing of MTR’s group board in Hong Kong. And Long now has a global CEO who knows the UK market very well. New Yorker Jay Walder, who joined MTR just over a year ago, had been


TfL’s managing director for finance and planning for over six years during Ken Livingstone’s London Mayoralty. Long says ‘It has been great working


with Jay. It is good to have a CEO in Hong Kong who obviously has a real familiarity not only with the UK market but with the wider European market.’ With this strong backing from the


board, Long is well set to lead MTR’s bids for the raft of franchises, concessions and other opportunities coming up in the UK and European rail markets in the next few years.


He’s certainly not going to get any less


busy – but you suspect Long wouldn’t have it any other way.


Jeremy Long


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FEBRUARY 2013 PAGE 45


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