York-based Northern Trains has appointed a new head of retail with the aim of making the ticket buying experience smoother.

Nick Clarke, from York, has previously worked at Arriva and Grand Central as head of commercial and revenue respectively. 

He will start his new role in April, heading-up the train operator’s revenue protection strategy and its drive to reduce ticketless travel on its services across the region.

Mark Powles, commercial and customer director at Northern, said: “We need to make buying a ticket as easy as it’s possible to be – and Nick has the experience and expertise to make that happen.”

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

In January, the company announced a 20 per cent drop in the number of penalty fares issued in the first year since the government increased the fine to £100.