Arriva Rail London, which operates the London Overground on behalf of Transport for London, is pleased to announce the appointment of Charlotte Whitfield as the company’s new customer experience director.

Charlotte joined Arriva Rail London in 2017 as a general manager and took on the customer experience director role on an interim basis last month. Her permanent appointment is effective immediately. Charlotte brings a wealth of leadership experience to the role, having held management positions at FirstGroup, G4S Global and Arriva Bus before joining Arriva Rail London.

During her tenure as general manager, Charlotte led the delivery of a number of successful customer experience initiatives. This included launching Night Overground services, tackling homelessness through customer-focused campaigns with the Whitechapel Mission, improving customer satisfaction survey results and supporting the re-introduction of full services on the London Overground as lockdown restrictions eased.

Arriva Rail London’s managing director, Paul Hutchings, said: “Charlotte has consistently demonstrated her ability and strength as a leader and is already playing an integral role in ensuring we deliver world class services for our customers. I am delighted to have her join Arriva Rail London’s executive team permanently.”

Charlotte Whitfield said: “I am so pleased to be stepping into the customer experience director role and look forward to using my existing knowledge of the London Overground operation to deliver the very best for our customers. My immediate priorities are to focus on our people and ensure that we are delivering the basics brilliantly to provide the highest levels of service to our customers. Getting this right is so important as we emerge from the pandemic to secure confidence in customers travelling on our network, and we will achieve this through our great team of frontline employees.”