{"id":409453,"date":"2026-04-20T18:59:31","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T08:59:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/railuk.com\/?p=192211"},"modified":"2026-04-20T18:59:31","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T08:59:31","slug":"northern-appoints-dfto-executive-as-new-coo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=409453","title":{"rendered":"Northern appoints DFTO executive as new COO"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Northern has appointed Warrick Dent as its new chief operating officer (COO).<\/p>\n

Warrick is currently group operations and performance director at Department for Transport Operator (DFTO), and is set to join the train operator in May.<\/p>\n

He will succeed Matt Rice, the current COO, who is set to move on to a new challenge outside of the rail sector.<\/p>\n

Prior to his role at DFTO, Warrick was Safety & Operations Director at London North Eastern Railway (LNER), where he led the delivery of services from 2018. During his time at LNER, he oversaw the operational introduction of the 65-train Azuma fleet, played a key role in the East Coast Upgrade, and most recently led the successful rollout of the December 2025 East Coast Main Line timetable.<\/p>\n

Earlier in his career, he held a number of senior roles at Network Rail, including area director for the North East, based in York, alongside positions in London and Swindon. He joined Virgin Trains East Coast in 2015 before moving into LNER in 2018.<\/p>\n

Tricia Williams, managing director for Northern, said: \u201cWarrick brings an exceptional track record of delivering improved operational performance and leading complex change across the rail industry. His experience at both operator and system level will be invaluable as we continue to improve reliability, strengthen our day-to-day delivery and build a railway that works better for our customers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m delighted to welcome him to Northern and look forward to working closely with him as we continue our journey of improvement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alex Hynes, chief executive at DFTO added: \u201cI am delighted for Warrick and wish him every success in his new role as Northern\u2019s COOr.<\/p>\n

“Warrick has provided excellent leadership and made a fantastic contribution during his time at DFTO, and I\u2019m confident that he will make a real positive impact at Northern at what is a critical time for the business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Image credit: Northern<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Northern has appointed Warrick Dent as its new chief operating officer (COO). Warrick is currently group operations and performance director at Department for Transport Operator (DFTO), and is set to join the train operator in May. He will succeed Matt Rice, the current COO, who is set to move on to a new challenge outside [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16017,16014,47,16016,85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-409453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-industry-news","category-people-moves","category-rail-news","category-train-operating-companies","category-uk"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=409453"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":409455,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409453\/revisions\/409455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=409453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=409453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=409453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}