c2c Appoints Ben Ackroyd as Engineering Director

National Express train operator c2c is delighted to announce the appointment of Ben Ackroyd as Engineering Director.

Ben will join c2c in May 2011 from Angel Trains where he has been responsible for leasing and maintenance contracts and overseen the delivery of rolling stock to rail franchise groups, including managing a portfolio of over 2,000 vehicles. Ben is a Chartered Mechanical Engineer, with a Masters degree in Railway Systems Engineering and Integration.

Ben takes up his role at the award winning train operator from Steve Rees, who is retiring as Engineering Director after a career in the industry of 34 years. In his time at c2c the Class 357 fleet became Britain’s most reliable fleet with 74,000 miles between failures, a record not equalled by any other fleet of trains. This record-breaking reliability was instrumental in helping c2c to set new UK records with industry leading standards of punctuality, and yet to be bettered by any other franchised train operator in Britain.

Julian Drury Managing Director of c2c said:  

“We’re delighted to welcome Ben to the c2c team and we look forward to the skills and qualities he will bring to the business to enable us to continue and improve still further our industry leading performance.

“I’d also like to say a very personal thank you to Steve Rees. Steve is a highly-experienced professional, and is well-known and popular throughout the industry. His experience has been crucial to the success of c2c and his leadership has produced one of the most reliable train fleets on the UK rail network. This is a fitting culmination to a long and highly respected career. We really do wish him well in the future.”