By state political reporter Liz Foschia
Updated
London Mayor Boris Johnson calls him Howard the Tube Man, but from now on Howard Collins will need a new nickname.
Mr Collins, who was charged with restoring the London Underground in the wake of the 2005 bombings, will be the new chief executive of Sydney Trains.
From July, Railcorp will split into two entities to cover urban and regional networks.
And New South Wales Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian says it is a massive coup for the state that the former London Underground chief operating officer will run the Sydney network.
"Mr Collins has enormous expertise in running a major network; in fact, he's dealt with having to deal with up to 4 million passenger services a day or passenger movements a day," Ms Berejiklian said.
"He brings with him enormous customer service experience but also great experience in safety, and that's exactly what we need here in Sydney, in New South Wales."
Ms Berejiklian says Mr Collins has a proven record in managing a large and complex network, but he will still find Sydney a challenge.
"We have a huge challenge of taking our system out of the dark ages and making it a system that can be compared to any other system in the world," she said.
The ABC understands that Railcorp's current chief executive, Rod Mason, will be appointed head of New South Wales Trains.
Topics: states-and-territories, sydney-2000
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