The managing director of beleaguered West Midlands Trains is stepping down from the rail operator just weeks after the company came under fire from the region's mayor over its "woeful" performance.
Julian Edwards has taken over from Jan Chaudhry-van der Velde as managing director of the company which runs the 'West Midlands' franchise, it was announced today.
Its services include the key Cross City commuter route between Redditch and Lichfield via Birmingham New Street.
West Midlands Trains (WMT) was formed in 2017 as a joint venture between Dutch firm Abellio as majority shareholder with minority partners East Japan Railway Company and Japanese conglomerate Mitsui.
It won the bid to take over the franchise previously held by London Midland and commenced operations in late 2017.
Just days before Christmas, West Midlands Mayor Andy Street launched a furious broadside against the company's track record and said he would ask the Government to strip it of its franchise if it did not rapidly improve.
He also said he wanted responsibility for the West Midlands franchise to come under the control of the mayor's office.
Mr Edwards has been a director of WMT since 2017 but has spent the past six months as interim managing director of Abellio's East Midlands Railway during the launch of the new franchise there.
He also worked for WMT's predecessors Central Trains and London Midland.
He said: "This is an exciting time to be joining WMT as passengers will start to see the benefits of our £1 billion investment programme. The last six months has been very difficult.
"I would like to thank Jan for addressing many of the issues, including settling the dispute with the RMT, delivering a three per cent discount for season ticket holders, introducing more rolling stock in December and the recent timetable changes that are already making a positive impact on train performance.
"There is still much to do. Work is well advanced on further performance improvements, the May 2020 timetable, additional compensation for non-season ticket holders and the roll out of two brand new train fleets starting in the second half of this year.
"The introduction of our new trains, combined with the investment programme in stations and customer services and the much-needed changes to timetables in 2020, gives us the opportunity to have a railway the people of WMT and our customers can be proud of."
Mr Chaudhry-van der Velde will work with Mr Edwards until Easter to ensure a smooth transition.
According to a statement from WMT, he decided last year that he wanted to take a career break after 30 years in the rail industry before moving on to new ventures.
A series of other changes at senior level have been made at the rail operator.
Customer experience director Richard Brooks will be retiring in February, to be replaced by Jonny Wiseman, currently customer experience director of WMT-owned London Northwestern Railway.
Lawrence Bowman, currently commercial director of East Midlands Railway, has been appointed to the new role of deputy managing director for WMT.
Mark Steward previously announced that he was stepping down as operations director and has been succeeded by Darren Ward, previously operations director of East Midlands Railway.
Mr Steward will be moving to Abellio Group until he retires in September.
Human resources director Adrian Thompson will leave WMT this week and be replaced by Jo MacPhail.
