Northern’s new leadership team take up roles

Northern’s new managing director and chief operating officer have officially started their new roles this week.

Northern appointed Tricia Williams in August 2023 as its new managing director when it was announced that Nick Donovan would be leaving the operator after four years at the helm.

Williams has been with Northern since 2020, when she joined as its chief operating officer.

Williams commented: “After three great years as chief operating officer, it’s an absolute honour to be taking on the managing director role from this week.

“I know we have big challenges ahead of us but Northern is in a strong position and Matt and the rest of the director leadership team are committed to creating an inclusive culture, improving performance and our customer experience.”

Replacing Williams as chief operating officer will be Matt Rice. Rice was a route director at Network Rail, overseeing the north and east route. He will lead all Northern service and engineering functions across the North of England.

Rice commented: “I am looking forward to working with Tricia and my colleagues across the region to deliver for our customers.

“I have spent my career focused on making things better and I am committed to fostering a positive workplace culture for all and delivering great rail services for people across the North of England.”

Northern began its procurement process for up to 450 new trains last summer which it hopes will be multi-mode and replace some of its older fleet.

As well as introducing a potential new fleet, Williams will be tasked with improving Northern’s performance. Passenger numbers for the operator which is the second largest in the UK were close to pre-pandemic levels, however cancellations across its network had risen to 7.5% in 2023, considerably higher than the national average of 4.9%.

@rwilcockrail