President & Director-General of Paris transport operator RATP Pierre Mongin has announced a restructuring of the senior management plus the creation of two new business units. Of the two Deputy Directors-General, Yves Ramette takes responsibility for maintenance and engineering, whilst Philippe Martin will handle operational and commercial activities, sharing responsibility across the metro and bus divisions. Jean-Marc Janaillac is named Development Director, and Finance Director Alain Le Duc takes charge of procurement and legal activities. Communications Director Gilles Alligner joins the RATP executive board, as does the Director of Mongin's office Emmanuel Pitron. Cyril Condé has joined RATP as Head of Research, Innovation, Quality & Sustainable Development.

New Chairman of the Indian Railway Board Kalyan Coomar Jena assumed the role of UIC Chairman on August 1, taking over the remainder of the term of office of former Railway Board Chairman Jai Prakash Batra which expires in December 2008.

Ofer Linchenvsky announced in August that he is to step down as General Manager of Israel Railways on October 1.

Ghias Uddin was appointed Chairman of Pakistan Railways on the retirement of Shakeel Durrani.

On September 19 FirstGroup announced that Managing Director of its First Great Western franchise Alison Forster had been appointed to the new role of Rail Safety & Performance Director, with UK Rail Division Managing Director Andrew Haines taking on responsibility for First Great Western as Chief Operating Officer.

Virgin CrossCountry Managing Director Chris Gibb moved to the same role at Virgin West Coast on August 31, succeeding Charles Belcher who has retired. Gibb retains responsibility for CrossCountry until Arriva takes over the franchise on November 11.

Botswana Railways has announced that Andrew Lunga is not seeking a new contract as Chief Executive Officer when his current term expires in April 2008.

General Manager & CEO of the Sacramento Regional Transit District Dr Beverly Scott was named as the sole candidate for the post of General Manager of the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, replacing Richard McCrillis.

Philippe Jaffré, Executive Vice-President of Alstom, died on September 5, aged 62.

Stagecoach Group has appointed Tim Shoveller as Managing Director of UK franchise East Midlands Trains, which takes over Midland Main Line and part of Central Trains on November 11. He was formerly Business Development Director at Virgin Trains.

Stephen Russell has been appointed a non-executive Director of UK infrastructure company Network Rail.

Josh Putterman has joined RailAmerica from CSX as Assistant Vice-President, and Darryl Gabriel has joined from Florida East Coast Railway as Regional Chief Engineer.

New Zealand infrastructure manager Ontrack has appointed Northern Regional Manager Phil McQueen as Project Director for electrification in Auckland (RG 7.07 p405).

Kees-Jan Dosker has been appointed ProRail director responsible for development, taking over from Pieter Kraaijenveld who is now in charge of capacity management. Patrick Buck is responsible for infrastructure projects.

International Railway Systems announced the appointment of Juergen von Schwerin as Chief Executive Officer on September 20.

Ian Macfarlane, an engineer of wide experience who authored a definitive analysis of both technical and operational aspects of railway safety in four volumes after working on the railways of Australia, Britain, India and Malaya, died on August 27.

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