First ScotRail director makes tracks - to Arriva

Published on Sunday 5 March 2006 00:32

FIRST ScotRail has suffered a setback after Gordon Dewar, commercial director, and key lieutenant to managing director Mary Dickson, quit to join a rival transport group.

Dewar will leave for a senior job at Arriva this spring. He was instrumental in parent company FirstGroup winning the Scottish railway franchise in 2004, one of the sweetest victories of chief executive Moir Lockhead's career.

Dewar was previously commercial director of FirstGroup's Scottish operations and since securing the rail franchise has often served as First ScotRail's public face. He is credited with installing ticket barriers at the big stations, a move that enabled the railway business to increase revenues last year.

His departure leaves a gap in First ScotRail's management team as Dickson faces pressure to extend ScotRail services on some routes and build on recent improvements on punctuality, cleanliness and passenger information. The other key board members are Kenny McPhail, finance director; Steve Montgomery, operations director, and Andy Mellors, engineering director.

Industry insiders have suggested that Dewar was keen to get out of the railway business and back to buses. Such a move should have been possible within FirstGroup, but the Aberdeen-based operator is increasingly focused on its rail operations as it gears up to become the UK's biggest train operator.

Before moving to First's railway operation, Dewar was a key player in the bus war fought on Edinburgh's roads between First and Lothian Regional Transport, the council-owned operator.