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Adrian Shooter

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Adrian decided at school that he wanted to run a railway company and thought that a good first step would be to join British Railways, which he did in 1970 as a mechanical engineering graduate trainee. This despite the fact that he passionately believed that the railways should not have been nationalised in 1948.

Everything he saw in his 26, very enjoyable years with British Railways reinforced his views on the subject.

It was, therefore, with great pleasure that he heard the news that the Major government intended to privatise BR.

He has, however, been a consistent and public critic of the way in which the then ministers and civil servants allowed the legal profession to hijack the process and saddle the industry and taxpayer with a much more expensive and inefficient system than they could have had.

In recent years he has been pleased to note that some changes are afoot which he has been lobbying for both publicly and privately.

Despite the unsatisfactory industry framework, he is very proud to be numbered among the many thousands of railway men and women who have delivered the best railway system in Europe over the past 15 years. For a wide-ranging and very candid assessment of Adrian's career see this video.

Adrian was created a C.B.E. in the 2010 New Year's Honours List. His citation read "Adrian Shooter, Chairman Chiltern Railway Company Ltd. For services to the Rail Industry".

He was elected a Vice-President at the Annual General Meeting held in Worcester on 12th May 2012.

Adrian was honoured with a statue at London Marylebone station, unveiled on 30 August 2022.

Very sad that Adrian, one of the rail industry's stalwarts, passed away on 13th December 2022. Adrian became a Vice-President in coincidentally the inaugural year of our annual Awards for Rail User Groups, and he was one of the judging panel from its inception. His steadfast loyalty to that particular cause was exemplified a decade later when, despite ailing health and not content with only assessing nominations for the best website remotely, he came to London to be present in the meeting of his fellow Vice-Presidents and our Honorary President for the full panel's judging session. Nothing was ever too much trouble for Adrian.

Perhaps the best tribute was paid by Thomas Ableman, previously Commercial Director of Chiltern Railways. A livestream of Adrian's memorial service can be found at http://adrianshooter.muchloved.com/

The Times obituary mentioned Adrian's role as a Railfuture Vice-President.