Profile - Vernon Barker: The man in the driver's seat looks for first-class service at first hand

How often do you bump into Sir Stuart Rose as you push your trolley around Marks & Spencer? And when have you chatted with Sir Richard Branson as you buy a lump of Genoa cake on a Virgin train?

It sounds unlikely despite their man-of-the people images, perhaps because too many people would complain about the price of the food or the latest delay on a long journey. Yet for Vernon Barker it's simply another part of the job.

The managing director of First Transpennine Express is known for his impromptu wanderings on his firm's trains around the North of England and Scotland and says customers are generally complimentary, despite common complaints about seating and capacity and what he calls the traveller's natural inclination to remember journeys where something

went wrong.

Maybe it's because of the ethos he has drummed into his staff, that people accept things can go wrong and will forgive you if the staff keep them informed.

One can't help but put this down to his unorthodox career path. Knowing "nothing at all" about trains when he joined First North Western as finance director on a three-month contract in 2003, he ended up staying and became MD of First Transpennine when it was launched later that year.

"It was a fascinating industry to get into because it was just after privatisation. The challenge was to get the business model right so it was a good time to come into the industry as a finance guy. I got heavily involved in understanding the operation of the railway.

"I think it helps if your first experience is delivered as a consumer of it. I have travelled in trains and sat in the vestibules.

"As an accountant, I like blinding attention to detail and like things to be right and that has helped drive performance."

He then proves his command of the facts by citing the previous day's figures, which show only two trains out of 300 ran late.

Such an approach was part of his learning curve but has also been part of the plan to expand First Transpennine since it took over the network – which goes from Tyneside to Merseyside, via Manchester and Yorkshire – from Arriva in 2004.

The number of passengers has increased from 13.5 million to 22 million in that time, as First Transpennine has grown organically, taken over new routes, such as the Blackpool to Manchester and Cumbria to Scotland lines and amended the timetables.

Mr Barker said their success has been down to "offering a slightly different proposition to what was previously there".

Travellers have opted for the train as the soaring price of petrol forced them off the road, Mr Barker admits, but he said there are many more things First Transpennine has done to get customers on board.

"If you go back to the early years of the franchise, we grew because of the attractiveness of rail versus the road alternative. Both road and rail were congested but (on] rail the performance levels were particularly poor so we concentrated on sorting out performance, running our trains on time. So rail became a far more reliable proposition and created a shorter journey in terms of time compared to the road alternative, certainly for commuters.

"I think in the early years of the franchise it grew because we got the product right. I wouldn't underestimate the growth of the business that has come out of doing what you say you are intending to do. Run your trains, ie, no cancellations, and run them to time. You need to concentrate on the core product. Petrol prices really helped but they only really came into play in the last two years."

With success, of course, comes a new set of problems. The sheer number of people travelling across northern England means there is a need for more carriages, services and staff.

Mr Barker said the levels of crowding "are starting to return to the same levels seen in 2004", despite the 250m First Transpennine has invested in new trains and services.

A case can be made for saying the Labour Government did not spend enough money on rail in the North, as this newspaper has consistently highlighted, but Mr Barker was speaking the day before the General Election and chose his words carefully.

"We are doing as much as we can with existing resources and we are at the point where we need further investment in extra carriages. We have previously made some proposals that we'd like extra carriages for the existing trains and that has not really gone anywhere with Government – on the basis that it is a franchise led by the Government and they take the key decisions over the longer term investment strategy. The franchise desperately needs extra vehicles."

Yorkshire and the North East could benefit from extra carriages once electrification has taken place in the North West, which Mr Barker said would allow diesel trains to be "cascaded" from there to here. Until that happens, or until the new Government puts its hand in its pocket, Yorkshire will have to fit in all its passengers with what it has got already.

"It is a problem. We have done close to as much as we can do in managing the loads on the trains, either through offering price discounts to move people to other services, increase the frequency or a real focus on performance and reliability.

"The crowding we are seeing now is probably due to the growth in the business so it really does demonstrate that people want to use rail if they are given a reliable service. So I think it is the right thing to do in investing in extra carriages. I think we could have had extra carriages before now and personally, yes, I do believe we should have had extra carriages because I think we would have then continued to grow rail usage across the North of England, and (grow] the strength of this business and we would be in a stronger position now than we are, with those carriages bedded in."

It is a persuasive case for sparing this region's rail infrastructure from the cuts that are inevitably coming, whoever is in Downing Street over the next decade. As Mr Barker points out, it is not just about creating a bit more space on carriages, but boosting the economy across the whole of Yorkshire.

No doubt the passengers on First Transpennine would agree – and that's what they'll tell him next time he sits down by them.

Vernon Barker – The CV

Title: Managing director, First TransPennine Express

Date-of-birth: November 4, 1959

Education: Moorhill Comprehensive School and Itchen College, Southampton; BSc Accountancy at University of Stirling

First job: Collecting pools tokens, paper round, grocery delivery boy on a bicycle, all as a teenager

Favourite film: French Kiss, directed by Lawrence Kasdan

Last book read: I Used to Know That: Stuff You Forgot from School by Caroline Taggart

Most proud of: My daughters, aged 19, 17, 14.