Adrian Shooter, Chairman of Chiltern Railways receives his daily alert casually, as there are rarely any major problems to report, he says.

Since 1996, when Mr Shooter and five others made a management buyout for Chiltern Railways after it was set up as a support company to British Rail, the franchise has grown under his directorship to a £100 million profit-turning entity.

Forty years of rail travel experience has well-equipped Adrian to run enterprise that manages 338 trains a day and 750 members of staff, but its been the company's focus on customer satisfaction and own staff capability that has been the reason for success, he says.

"Market research has said that people find our staff very welcoming than the rest of the industry. What we try and do is look after our own staff, and they feel they have a good job and that they actually enjoy coming to work - they are then more likely to look after their passengers."

The company's mission statement - based on giving safe, reliable services is referred to in any key decision and duly read to every new employee, "railways have to be consistent, safety of the passengers come first," said Mr Shooter.

Commuting from Bicester, he arrives in the Aylesbury office at 7.30am on an average day. Frequent visits to the town's maintenance depot keep him up-to-date with technical changes, and Chiltern Railways have recently designed a new table specifically for London commuters.

Although a large chunk of rail passengers are business people commuting to and from the capital, Chiltern Railways as a whole is expanding, as Mr Shooter lists some of the new lines, one of which extends to Stratford-upon-Avon.

Chiltern Railways was also the first train operator to offer the service of buying tickets over their mobile phone: "It's been very popular because what we try and do is give people choices. Certain generations are not going to do it - some people like to talk to someone at a ticket booth," said Mr Shooter.

Trained as a mechanical engineer, Mr Shooter entered the business of rail travel in 1970, "I joined British Railways as a management trainee," after becoming engineering manager, it was Mr Shooter's job to maintain the trains on the Chiltern route.

"I ran Red Star Parcels in the 80s. When privatisation was going to happen in 1993, Sir Bobby Reid asked me if I wanted to set up Chiltern Railways as a support company.

"Since then it's a business that's grown faster than any other rail business and what we are really proud about is that we have benefited the local economy.

"We have more than twice the amount of trains running, than when we first started - no other company has increased to that sort of number. We are building a new station to the north of Aylesbury that will open in December this year," said Mr Shooter. He said that the company have invested £400 million into the railway since 1996. Chiltern Railways has grown so the opportunity has arisen for investments into other business ventures. The company owns half of London Overground and is involved with running the parent company, the Wrexham, Shropshire and Marylebone Railway.