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MEET THE TEAM

Katie Silvester: Editor

Katie Silvester has edited Rail Professional for four years and is often asked to represent the viewpoint of the rail industry on national news and current affairs programmes, both on radio and television. Named Seahorse Feature Journalist of the Year 2009, Katie covers all aspects of the railway for the magazine, particularly freight and east of England passenger services.

She has a background in trade magazines, with a track record including the printing and education sectors. Before joining Rail Professional, she was the editor of SecEd, the leading weekly newspaper for the secondary education sector, which she helped to launch in 2003.

An advocate of public transport, Katie has travelled all over the world by rail. Outside of work she plays bass guitar in rock and jazz bands. She has a degree in history.

Paul Clifton: Contributor and transport correspondent for BBC South
In October 2005, Paul was named CILT Transport Journalist of the Year for the second year running, making him the only person to have won the prestigious award in successive years.

As BBC transport correspondent for southern England since the early 1990s he has appeared on a wide range of BBC television and radio programmes, including the Today programme, Six and Ten O’clock News, Newsnight and most frequently on South Today and other regional programmes. His credits include 16 BBC2 documentaries on transport.

Paul is a regular columnist for Rail Professional and is a judge of the annual HSBC Rail Business Awards. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, a Fellow of the Institution of Highways and Transportation and a Chartered Geographer.

Peter Plisner: Contributor and transport correspondent for BBC Midlands
Peter has been in journalism for the last 20 years and has specialised in transport for over half of that time. His broadcasting career started in local radio in Cambridgeshire. Later, he worked for Independent Radio News and several other major London-based broadcasters. In his current role he works across all BBC outlets, including radio, TV and the corporation’s rapidly growing online service, BBCi.

Over the past five years, Peter has reported on major rail news stories including the troubled project to modernise the west coast main line; the construction and introduction of Virgin’s Pendolino tilting trains; and the problems of increasing congestion at Birmingham’s New Street station.

Away from work Peter enjoys photography and walking.

Robert Wright: Columnist and transport correspondent for the Financial Times

Robert Wright has been transport correspondent of the Financial Times since July 2003 and was named Transport Journalist of the Year at the National Transport Awards in both 2006 and 2008.

As transport correspondent, he has followed developments in the UK and international rail sectors especially closely, writing about the development of the UK system’s infrastructure, train makers, deregulation in Europe and the US rail system.

He comes from a railway family – his father was an engineer on the London Underground and then the Glasgow Subway. For four-and-a-half years before becoming transport correspondent, Robert was Budapest correspondent of the Financial Times and the Economist, writing mainly about Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Robert, who was educated at St Andrews and Strathclyde Universities, joined the Financial Times in 1997 from The Scotsman.

Alan Salter: Contributor

Alan Salter is the managing director and editor of TransportMatters, the public relations agency, website, and magazine he set up in 2007 when he left the Manchester Evening News, after more than 20 years as transport correspondent. He has twice been named Transport Journalist of the Year by the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport and is writing a book, Mission Impossible, the history of Virgin Trains, which will be published next year.

His particular area of interest is the railways in the north of England.

Peter Brown: Contributor

Peter smiles when blaming his grandmother for introducing him to railways at the age of five, an interest which was quickly to become a passion. As his career in journalism has developed over the years he has specialised in transport, particularly the railway and bus industries.

He has broadcast on transport, has written major articles on railways in national newspapers. He also contributes to leading specialist transport publications and supplies news to national and regional newspapers and broadcasting organisations.

He began writing for Rail Professional in 2008 covering, among other things, London-based stories.

Arthur Allan: Contributor

Arthur Allan has spent 20 years writing for newspapers and magazines, focusing largely on public services. After a spell covering London’s transport network, he is now based in Edinburgh, where he reports for us on Scottish rail issues.

As a passionate cyclist he also keeps a watchful eye on the city’s developing tram system, which threatens to squeeze cycle lanes off some of the capital’s major routes.

Paul Coleman: Contributor
Paul began writing for Rail Professional in 2004. During a 20-year career in journalism, he has produced features on UK manufacturing, the rail industry, local government and crime and policing that have appeared in a range of newspapers, magazines and specialist media. He has also worked for BBC Television and with independent TV production companies on current affairs documentaries shown on the BBC and Channel 4.

A Manchester University graduate, Paul is now based in London, his birthplace, where he struggles with learning to play classical guitar. His interest in transport and maritime stems from his father who was in the RAF, his grandfather who was in the merchant navy and his great-grandfather, who was one of the first drivers of a motorised taxi-cab in London.