Aylesbury commuters will now be greeted by new 9ft statue at London Marylebone station

Aylesbury commuters who frequent the busy London post will see a bronze model of Adrian Shooter CBE.

He started his career with British Rail in 1970, industry insiders consider him to be one of the leading architects of the modern railway.

Chiltern Railways authorised the construction of the statue in recognition of his huge contributions and accomplishments to passenger and freight services.

Adrian is a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and of the Chartered Institute of Transport.

He has led maintenance depots throughout the country, and managed London St. Pancras station and held various senior positions within the industry.

He founded Chiltern Railways and became chairman of DB Regio UK, which later became known as Arriva Rail.

More recently he has been chairman of Vivarail, a company which specialises in producing diesel/battery hybrids transport.

He is working on several battery train projects including, with Great Western Railway, introducing a regular timetabled battery train service in West London later this year.

Adrian is also chairman of SLC Rail.

The statue, which was crowdfunded by current industry leaders and close associates of Adrian was unveiled in front of 100 guests with a keynote speech by ex-transport secretary Lord McLoughlin.

Adrian said: “I feel very honoured to be recognised by the industry in this way. However, I accept this honour only on the condition that it recognises the amazing efforts of the hundreds of railway men and women who I have worked with.

“All I ever did was create the vision, hire the very best people and then help them to do their best. They, not me, were the people who delighted our passengers. They had to work in all weathers and run a safe railway wherever the problems. Some of them relieved me of the tedium of negotiating and implementing the many over complicated legal agreements we have been saddled with.

"It has been a very real pleasure to see so many people grow in confidence and help create a bigger and much better railway supported by private sector investment.”