23.01.17
Alex Hynes appointed managing director of ScotRail Alliance
Alex Hynes, the current managing director of Arriva Rail North, is set to be appointed as managing director for ScotRail Alliance and will join the operator later this year.
Hynes will be replacing Phil Verster, who last week announced he would be leaving ScotRail to become managing director of the new East West Rail project, the new fully privatised line between Oxford and Cambridge.
The appointment will have a knock-on effect on the UK rail network as Arriva Rail North, responsible for the Northern rail franchise, will now be looking for its own replacement MD.
“I am delighted to have been appointed to lead the ScotRail Alliance, this cutting-edge arrangement, which brings together the management of ScotRail and Network Rail to deliver the very best for customers,” Hynes said.
“The ScotRail Alliance is delivering one of the largest programmes of investment, change and modernisation since the railway was built. To be part of that, and the plans to vastly improve services and capacity for customers, is hugely exciting for me.”
Hynes will enter ScotRail with a wealth of rail experience, having been Northern’s managing director since August 2013 where he successfully delivered the franchise’s best-ever customer satisfaction scores.
He will hope to maintain his positive record at ScotRail, which has been the centre of much criticism under Verster’s tenure as it looks to handle Network Rail’s large infrastructure upgrade to the Scottish network.
ScotRail’s dip in punctuality due to improvement work led Transport Scotland to demand the introduction a performance improvement plan last autumn. However, the franchise looks to have improved since, noting a third consecutive increase in its PPM earlier this month.
Dominic Booth, managing director at Abellio UK, said: “Alex has a proven track record delivering rail improvement and investment programmes, and is the ideal replacement.
“We are currently investing in a fleet of 70 new faster, longer and greener trains, which will transform the rail travel experience of our customers and we are delighted to have Alex in place to lead this work.”
The chief executive of Network Rail, Mark Carne, also expressed his pleasure at Hynes leading the ScotRail Alliance.
“This is one of the most pressurised, high-profile roles in the whole railway industry and we look forward to helping him succeed,” Carne said.
A spokesman for Northern said that the operator will make an announcement on Hynes' successor "in due course".
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