The railway has been a part of Lord Hendy’s life since he was a young lad lying in bed listening to the passing roars and whistles of the passing steam trains on the Great Western Line. But it was family holidays, travelling by train down to Cornwall that gave him a huge sense of adventure by rail.
His passion for heritage railways is deeply rooted in their individual uniqueness and how they draw communities together, but he stresses that we can still learn about the future of rail by understanding the past and how it has already shaped our world.
Although some people may think of Lord Hendy as a ‘bus man’ it was while he was the Chairman of Network Rail that he came up with the idea of celebrating the bicentenary of the first commercial railway, through Railway 200, celebrating the past, present and future of our railways.