THE head of the north of England's biggest trains operator is to be appointed the new chief of Scotrail, The Herald understands.
Alex Hynes, managing director of Northern, will succeed Phil Verster who quit on Friday.
Mr Hynes had been linked with the post within hours of the announcement of Mr Verster's exit.
The Northern Rail boss began his career as a senior consultant for Halcrow Fox, which involved providing policy, financial and economic advice to transport operators in UK rail franchise bidding.
He also worked for bus and rail operator the Go-Ahead Group in 2005, performing a number of roles including commercial director for London Midland.
Mr Verster announced on Friday he would leave his post as managing director of ScotRail after just 18 months. He will head up the construction of a new line between Oxford and Cambridge with operator East West Rail.
Alex Hynes said: “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. 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.”
Dominic Booth, Managing Director, 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.”
Mark Carne, Chief Executive of Network Rail said: "We are very pleased that Alex is joining Network Rail to lead 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.”
Scottish Labour transport spokesman Neil Bibby said the relationship between ScotRail and the SNP "appears to be at breaking point" and that Mr Hynes' priority had to be "repairing that in the interests of Scotland's passengers!.
He added: "Last week it was revealed that ScotRail don't even know how to pay for the SNP's fare plan, which looks like it was drawn up on the back of a fag packet. Labour's fare freeze policy would benefit every ScotRail passenger - the SNP's policy won't.
"ScotRail has a new managing director, but ultimately it is down to Humza Yousaf to fix the mess the SNP has made of Scotland's rail network. The clock is ticking."
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