JONATHAN Metcalfe, chief operating officer for York-based train operator GNER, has been promoted to chief executive starting today.

Mr Metcalfe, who has been with GNER since 1996, succeeds Christopher Garnett who announced he was leaving as ailing parent company Sea Containers of Bermuda demanded changes.

Mr Metcalfe's appointment was announced at the same time as details of a cull of three directors - Shaun Mills, Mike Gooddie and Clare Field.

A spokesman for GNER said the axed directors were part of "an ongoing restructuring of senior directorates".

The new chief executive will report directly to Bob MacKenzie, chief executive of Sea Containers, who now becomes executive chairman of GNER.

The appointment comes as a crucial time for GNER, which is generally regarded as one of the best train operators in Britain, but whose future has become uncertain as Bermuda-based Sea Containers battles to stay afloat with $394 million worth of debt.

The scale of Mr Metcalfe's new task became clear last month when Mr MacKenzie addressed shareholders in New York about the attempts being made to satisfy bondholders.

Mr Mackenzie told them that when it came to GNER "we can and will implement measures to improve costs".

This included looking at fares for unregulated tickets as well as "the whole cost and service base of the railway".

The new overall supremo of GNER also made it clear that he was determined to renegotiate with the Government the terms of the train operator's £1.3 billion franchise for the East Coast Mainline, which was £300 million higher than any rival bid.

Mr Metcalfe will have four people reporting directly to him about its operation of 123 weekday train services along the East Coast Main Line.

They are Richard McClean, operations director; Michelle Drage, commercial director; Tom Fielden, financial director; and Helen Thornton, acting human resources director.

Meanwhile, Bob Crow, general secretary of the RMT, the rail union, said: "It's all very well culling senior executives, but it is imperative that the slaughter is not extended to the hardworking frontline people who operate GNER's services."