A FORMER Royal Navy captain is to become the regional director in the North-East of the Northern rail franchise.

Mike Paterson spent 26 years in the Royal Navy, including being Captain of HMS Gloucester and carrying out operational deployments to the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan, Congo, Lebanon and the Falklands.

He joined Northern, which is now operated by Arriva, from PA Consulting where he was principal consultant.

Alex Hynes, Northern’s managing director, said: “Regions are at the heart of our new franchise.

“They will enable the transformation of Northern, bringing our people and service delivery closer to the communities and customers we serve.”

Mr Paterson said: “The scale of investment and the quality of our people makes Northern a fantastic and exciting place to be.

“From my new base in Newcastle, I want to work with our customers and stakeholders to ensure we deliver improvements to rail services across the North-East.”