First Great Western is making changes to its management team to bring renewed focus to the performance of its services by creating three new, Route Director roles. A new Customer Service Director has also been named.

These roles bring together an array of talent and experience from diverse areas of the railway industry. They will provide regionalised customer service focus and leadership.

"We have persuaded some of the best and most experienced railway people in the industry to come and join us and to help move First Great Western on. Rebuilding consistency of service delivery and customer confidence are the key tasks and I'm confident that this new team will offer fresh thinking and new focus. " Says First Great Western's new Chief Operating Officer Andrew Haines.

They are: Mark Hopwood, Route Director, High Speed Services; John Curley, Route Director West, and Mike Carroll, Route Director East (already in post).

A new Customer Services Director, James Burt, has been appointed with the similar remit to focus and lead First Great Western's customer service.

Andrew Haines adds: "I am confident that Mark, John, Mike and James will make a real impact on the quality of service and reliability we provide to
our customers throughout the network we serve."

John Curley, Route Director West - Rail industry stalwart John Curley brings 30 years rail experience to services throughout the West Country and South Wales. A former
Southampton Area Manager for British Rail and Retail Director for the South West Division of Network South East, in the run up to Rail privatisation, he was also Retail Director for Network Rail South East.

He then joined Railtrack as Commercial Director for the South West Zone before becoming National Performance Director and Regional Director for the Great Western. He joined FirstGroup in October 2004 as Group Infrastructure Director for the Rail Division.

Mark Hopwood, Route Director, High Speed Services Mark will join First Great Western from London Lines (Silverlink, C2C and Gatwick Express), where he was Managing Director. Aged 36, Mark is an experienced Director and a career railwayman who joined the industry from school in 1989 working initially in customer service roles. Mark worked in the Operations Control in Reading and after holding various posts within operations and station management, moved on to Railtrack Headquarters as Passenger Negotiations Manager. In March 2001 he joined the Board of First North Western where as Operations Director, with responsibility for 2,500 staff, 307 stations and 1,500 trains per day, he played a key role in a substantial business recovery, focusing on customer service and service performance. Mark was appointed as the Operations director of the Londonlines TOCs (c2c, Silverlink and WAGN) in February 2004 and under his tenure those TOCs delivered significant improvement in train service performance.

Promoted to Managing Director of Londonlines (c2c, Gatwick Express and Silverlink) in May 2006, Mark's continued personal ethos of improved customer satisfaction, service performance and business improvement drives his management vision.

Mike Carroll, Route Director, East Mike is now responsible for the London and Thames Valley area. Mike is a former First Great Western Managing Director. He is another career railwayman with over two decades of operational and customer and business related experience. Mike Carroll joined the British Railways Board's Graduate Training Scheme on leaving university. His early career in the industry includes managerial positions in operations, marketing, product development and quality. He was Retail and Customer Service Manager for InterCity Great Western before becoming the Director of Retail and Distribution for Great Western Trains.

First Great Western's Customer Services Director, Glenda Lamont has been appointed to the new role of Customer Services Director for FirstGroup America in the United States and Canada, following the recent acquisition of Laidlaw International, Inc.

James Burt, Customer Service Director As a result of this change, James has been appointed Customer Service Director for First Great Western. James is currently Operations Director at South West Trains, having previously been Customer Service Director. Under James' leadership the customer service team at South West Trains won many awards for excellent service. He will bring wide experience to his new role at First Great Western.