Mark Barker is a career railwayman who has worked around the country in operations, customer service, marketing, compliance and was latterly Client & Stakeholder Manager for Northern Rail based in Manchester. This brought him into contact with Community Rail Partnerships and Station Adoption Groups over a number of years, helping some to get started.
He retired in 2013 and since 2015 has been Chair of Cheshire Best Kept Stations, a group of experienced volunteers with a railway background and community rail professionals. They work to encourage, publicise and honour the work of station adoption and other community voluntary groups in making their local stations inviting gateways for the communities that they serve. This is primarily achieved by holding an Annual Awards Evening, the 19th of which took place in April 2022. Mark is also onthe judging panel for the CRN Community Rail Awards.
Mark lives in Sandbach, where he is an active member of his local church and volunteers in a debt advice centre and food bank.