THE new boss of Go-Ahead, the quoted transport group that runs most of southeast England’s commuter trains, comes with a Brut-like whiff of machismo. Bone-crunching handshake, heavy physical presence, bullet-headed on top, compensatory goatee, Porsche Turbo in the garage and a holiday flat in Cannes.

And Keith Ludeman, with all of the above, doesn’t mince his words either. Last year, Go-Ahead won the integrated Kent rail franchise, replacing the public-sector team at Southeastern, which had run the region very competently since Connex, the previous franchise holder, was sacked. Would any of the old team stay on? “I got rid of all their senior management bar one,” says Ludeman brusquely. “I took time getting to know them, but I concluded that we had far better people.”

He gives me an appraising look, and then chuckles: “Not wishing to be unkind, of course.”

Ludeman, 56, is not so much brutish as blunt, a legacy of decades battling with the transport unions, bullying them towards privatisation with a passion that brooks little argument. “Keith is intensely loyal,” says one friend, “to people who work well with him, but he cuts fools off at the legs.”

That aggression is rooted in wide experience. Ludeman has run bus companies in London and Burnley, transport systems in the Far East, and key commuter rail services across Surrey, Sussex and Kent. And last week, three months in at the top, he saw Go Ahead’s shares hit an all-time high of £20.44, closing on Friday at £20.25, pushing his company’s market value to a fraction above £1billion.

So somebody must love him. Ludeman just smiles. Go-Ahead has been buying back its own shares and the sector is notoriously volatile, he says, with takeover rumours fuelling the fire.

“We’re the smallest of the big five transport groups [behind Arriva, First, National Express and Stagecoach], and the City likes to talk consolidation. As we would give the least problem to competition auth- orities, that gives us a high share price, which defends us, so I don’t mind the talk.”

In fact, it hasn’t been the easiest of starts for Ludeman, one of the few senior bus bosses to move over successfully to rail.

He got the top slot at Go-Ahead only after his predecessor, Chris Moyes, one of the group’s original founders, was taken ill and died of a brain tumour this summer. Moyes had been in the job less than two years. Ludeman, head of Go-Ahead’s rail division, was just getting to grips with the new Kent franchise.

And prowling round his large, fifth-floor office at Go-Ahead’s rail base in East Croydon, you can see that beneath the tough-guy veneer, he is still affected by the loss of a friend.

“It’s the last position you want to be in,” says Ludeman, “taking over in such a way. I had known Chris 10 years. He was such a lovely guy, very understated, very patient and quiet, I feel so sorry for his family...” He furrows his bald brow.

London-born Ludeman pledges to preserve Go-Ahead’s idiosyncratic style — devolving power to regional managers, rarely using the Go-Ahead brand, maintaining a tiny head office in Newcastle (where the company started), yet emphasising local services in the south, and avoiding foreign adventures.

That has put it behind its rivals in growth, but with a fan base among investors and local councils who like its decentralised ethos. The Go-Ahead empire embraces buses in London, Oxford, Brighton, the northeast, Midlands and southwest, and rail in the southern counties as well as interests in aviation services (at 17 airports) and car parks (through Meteor).