The National Transport Research Organisation (NTRO) has appointed an experienced rail and transport executive, Natalie Loughborough, as its new Executive Director, Rail.
Ms Loughborough has high level experience within the transport sector, both overseas and in Australia. She has worked for operators in the UK such as First Group, Serco and Abellio, in addition to local government bodies such as Transport for Greater Manchester. Natalie also brings experience working on rail and metro projects in the Middle East.
Ms Loughborough was Managing Director with Transdev in Queensland, responsible for its bus and ferries businesses, and most recently has been General Manager at Metro Trains Melbourne. She held this role from 2019 before coming to NTRO.
She brings more than 15 years of board director level experience to the role, working across heavy rail, light rail, ferries and buses, with a commitment in all roles to designing an exceptional customer experience for end users within the transport space.
Ms Loughborough comes to NTRO with a wealth of experience across all areas of organisational development, production of standards and operations across transport, criminal justice and the education sector.
NTRO chief executive officer Michael Caltabiano said Ms Loughborough’s appointment heralds an important step-change in the organisation bringing rail into the overarching transport portfolio.
“I am very pleased to be able to welcome someone of the calibre of Natalie to the NTRO team serving the transport innovation space across Australia and New Zealand,” Mr Caltabiano said.
“As Executive Director, Rail, Natalie will be focused on delivering an innovation pathway for the rail sector using the deep skills in NTRO across areas like Asset Performance, Sustainability and Materials Performance and Infrastructure Measurement.
“She will be able to deliver the collaboration that the rail sector has been asking for, linking great suppliers of services through the NTRO team and delivering an offering that focuses on outcomes that are implementable in the field.”
Ms Loughborough said: “I am delighted to be joining NTRO at a time when rail has become part of the overall transport portfolio.
“The opportunity to be part of the future of a multi-modal approach to the strategic direction for transport is truly exciting, alongside the opportunity to take forward rail with the breadth already applied in the road, ports and airports space.
Ms Loughborough, who started with NTRO on August 14, is looking forward to connecting with key stakeholders to identify priorities for individual States and organisations.
Find out more about NTRO's rail offering here