Northern appoints former London Underground planner to key operational role

Rail operator, Northern, has appointed a former Transport for London (TfL) resource planner as its new head of operational delivery in the North West.

Chris Clarke, originally from Stockport, has previously spent 13 years working at TfL where he was responsible for resource planning of the 6,000-station staff on the London Underground as well as leading on major IT projects for the operations team, and previously as operations manager for the Victoria line.

Clarke made the move from London to join Northern in January 2022, joining the train operator as a disruption controller before becoming regional improvement manager in August 2022.

Craig Harrop, regional director for Northern, said:

“Chris’ appointment as head of operational delivery for the North West is a testament to his operational knowledge, hard work and commitment to keeping Northern moving.

“In this role, Chris will play a pivotal part in ensuring our services across the region are resilient to the challenges they face.”

Commenting on his appointment, Chris Clarke, said:

“I’m really enjoying my time at Northern.

“The North West represents a huge part of the Northern network and I’m looking forward to getting stuck in and helping to improve service reliability for customers.”

Northern is the second largest train operator in the UK, with nearly 2,500 services a day to more than 500 stations across the North of England.