Arundel man receives MBE for services to the rail industry

Nigel Searle, of Station Road, has received an MBE, for services to the rail industy, in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.

The train service development manager at Southern said: “Receiving an MBE is very humbling.

“This honour is to be shared with everyone at Southern past and present who has contributed to train service development,”

Nigel, who currently has his hands full with two-month-old son Isaac, joined Connex in 1997, and he moved to Southern when the company won the franchise, in 2004.

His biggest achievement, he said, was redesigning services in 2007, when Southwest Trains withdrew services from West Sussex and Brighton, cutting the off-peak Chichester-Brighton route in half, and leading to serious overcrowding on Southern trains.

“Working with the user groups a train service was developed so much better than before that it stimulated increase of rail passenger journeys 10 per cent,” he said.

All that was in a day’s work, though, said Nigel, who married Cissy last year. “I only ever considered that I was just doing my job, but the honours website states that awards are not given for just doing the job,” he said.

“I wonder whether there was also consideration of other things I have done, for example I was chairman of the Phoenix Big Band for 10 years, from 2000-2010, and I founded the Arundel Proms in 2009.”