Meet the Railtrail Team

 

 

Office Team

We are proud of our independent status, and it is perhaps opportune to open our office doors a little wider than usual to give you reassurance that ‘Big is not always Best’ and that here at Railtrail we put ‘Quality over Quantity’ when creating tours which ensures we do not overstretch our resources.

 

Our Founder & Managing Director, Dave Felstead, still heads the company, and as Vice-Chairman of the Association of European Rail Agents (AERA) is also at the forefront of what’s happening on today’s European railways. The family connection also includes Julie Ratcliffe (nee Felstead) who supervises our Customer Care team who are normally the first voices you hear when telephoning Railtrail. Dave’s son, Paul Felstead, has joined the company in a senior Operations role after a long career in the RAF and is waiting in the wings to fly the company flag. Paul’s daughter, and Dave’s granddaughter, Megan, is the most recent family member to join our Customer Care team after leaving University.

 

Our Fab ‘Design to Delivery’ Team – Carla, Ellie, Gail and Esther - have many years’ experiences in the Tours & Travel industry. Our resident ‘rail enthusiast’ is Henry who in addition to creating our specialist tours, also acts as Tour Manager on some of our heritage and steam tours where his passion, particularly in the steam domain, is a font of all knowledge to the benefit of clients. Our husband and wife team, Mark and Rachel Dickin, have for some years been an essential backbone of the company with Mark keeping our website and analytics up to date and his wife Rachel is possibly the most popular member of the team as she is in charge of finance, and pays the salaries! This excellent team also features Summer who enhances our social media and Marie who supports our Customer Care section, along with our newest team member - Phil.

 

Also in our team is Ulrich, former UK Sales Manager, Deutsche Bahn (DB). Ulrich brings expert knowledge of the German rail system, and European rail companies in general. This will further enhance the quality, enthusiasm, knowledge and experience of UK and European railways within Railtrail Tours.

 

 

However, we would be nothing without our actual public face – our brilliant Tour Managers...

 

Tour Managers

Every Railtrail tour is escorted by one of our team of caring and experienced Tour Managers. We are a family business and so we have hand-picked people to look after our customers who share our values. They are a very well-travelled bunch of people, with the most experienced having over 200 tours under their belt!

 

Your Railtrail Tour Manager is there to make sure things run like clockwork. They have the experience and knowledge to make your travel arrangements straightforward and your holiday as relaxing and enjoyable as possible. Plus, they are great company too!