Trainline chief executive Clare Gilmartin steps down
Rail ticketing firm Trainline (TRN) has today announced its chief executive Clare Gilmartin will stand down at the end of February.
She will be replaced by current chief operating officer Jody Ford, who was previously chief executive of Photobox.
“The decision to step down next year is a personal one; after seven years at the helm the time has come for me to spend more time with my family”, Gilmartin said.
“I am immensely proud of our progress over the last several years – including driving the advancement of digital ticketing and the customer shift online, our international expansion and our track record for meeting and exceeding expectations, particularly in our first year as a public company.”
Gilmartin has had to navigate what has been a difficult year for Trainline, whose sales plunged to less than a fifth of last year’s take in last month’s result.
While sales have begun to recover as lockdown restrictions eased over the summer, business ticket sales remain at just four per cent of last year’s levels.
The decline in ticket sales meant the firm recorded just £31m turnover overall, a quarter of what it managed in 2019.
However it has benefited from the “accelerated shift” to online ticketing due to health concerns and saw consumer sales grow 45 per cent year-on-year in August.
Ford said: “I am very much looking forward to bringing my digital experience to bear as CEO and continuing Trainline’s focus on working with the rail and coach industry to make travel as easy and friction-free as possible for millions of customers in Europe and beyond.”