A Great Western Railway Intercity Express has been named for Cyril Bleasdale. He was the first director of InterCity in the early 1980s and then moved on after his retirement from British Rail to help found the company which bought the BR staff newspaper Railnews.

Railnews continues today as the industry’s trade newspaper, with more than 100,000 readers.

Cyril, who lived on the GWR network in Cheltenham, served as managing director of Railnews until a year before his death in 2022 at the age of 87.

His name was unveiled on platform 8 at London Paddington by his wife Katy, before the newly-named train left Paddington at 12.35, bound for Exeter.

She said: ‘Cyril would have been so proud to have this train named in his honour and I would like to thank GWR managing director Mark Hopwood and all those who have helped to make it happen.’

Great Western Railway managing director, Mark Hopwood paid his own tribute: ’At Great Western Railway, we have a long history of naming trains after Great Westerners, the past and present heroes from across our network.

‘Cyril Bleasdale’s legacy continues to shape railways. Today’s naming recognises a lifetime of innovation, leadership, and unwavering commitment to the railway and what it delivers for the communities we serve.

‘Cyril was a true railway pioneer. His vision helped modernise rail travel for millions and we are proud to honour his extraordinary contribution with this train naming.’

Cyril Bleasdale’s innovations included changing the title of Second Class to Standard, as well as launching Executive Express services from Paddington to Bristol, pioneering on-board telephones and opening First Class lounges.

Readers’ comments

Shows the way for individual Sectors to succeed. With the commercial ones, more people like Cyril could make the decisions, with the state acting as supplier of incentivising structures, rather than ‘command and control’. Of course, such bodies could benefit from  the constraints and opportunities competition brings, whilst the natural monopoly operations would need their own democratically elected authority to give answerability. 

David C. Smith, Bletchley, Milton Keynes

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