George Thomas

George Thomas

George Thomas

Strategic Development & Stakeholder Director - TransPennine Express

I joined TransPennine Express as part of FirstGroup’s graduate scheme in 2005 and caught the railway bug. I spend the early part of my career in a number of commercial and strategic planning roles within TransPennine Express, going on to lead commercial relationships with Network Rail, ORR and DfT as we worked together more than double our customer base. Since then I’ve spent time at consultants PwC, delivering transformational programmes across the Transport Sector with clients including Transport for the North, Highways England and ORR amongst others. I re-joined the railway with FirstGroup’s Rail Division playing a key role in concluding the previous Franchise Agreement for TransPennine Express and putting in place the National Rail Contract with Transpennine Route Upgrade delivery as its key objective.  This led to my appointment as Business Development Director at TransPennine Express in 2021, with an expanded role as Strategic Development and Stakeholder Director since early 2024 looking after Business Strategy, Corporate Governance, Train Planning, Business Change, Client Management and Stakeholder Engagement. Over this time, I’ve played a key roll in:

  • supporting delivery of Transport Scotland policy objectives for cross border routes and the new stations at Reston and East Linton
  • developing recovery and stabilisation plans that have seen TransPennine Express cancellations reduced by 70% and customer sentiment at the highest record levels – consistently – at +11 NPS, underpinning c20% year on year growth, an industry leading result;
  • restoring our relationships with stakeholders, improving engagement from 47% in 2022/23 to 74% in 2023/24 (current year survey underway at present); and,
  • maturing TransPennine Express strategy to secure the benefits of the Transpennine Route Upgrade, a major, multi-billion-pound programme of railway improvements which will bring better journeys to passengers travelling across the Pennines between Manchester, Huddersfield, Leeds and York.
  • Aligning TransPennine Express to respond to and enable the evolving policy and devolution agendas of the Scottish Government and the UK Government