Railway Division Chair's Address: Challenging Times

Andy Mellors: Managing Director, South Western Railway

Andy Mellors joined British Rail as an engineering management trainee in 1988, graduating in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College in 1992. After undertaking various roles in rolling stock maintenance in London and Merseyside he moved to FirstGroup in 2002. Andy was Engineering Director at First North Western and then First Scotrail prior to moving to First Great Western (now Great Western Railway) in 2007. Andy was also Deputy Managing Director at GWR and, during his time there, oversaw significant fleet transformation, culminating in the introduction of new electric multiple units in the Thames Valley as well as finalising preparations for the introduction of the new Hitachi Intercity Express Trains. He was appointed Managing Director for the new South Western Railway franchise, a FirstGroup and MTR joint venture, which commenced operations in August 2017. Andy was the Chair of the South Western Centre of the Railway Division from 2015 to 2018.