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Northern Trains Limited, Trade name Northern, is a British train operating company that operates Commuter rail and Inter-city rail in the North of England. It is owned by DfT Operator for the Department for Transport (DfT), after the previous operator Arriva Rail North had its franchise terminated at the end of February 2020.
The company commenced operating the Northern franchise on 1 March 2020, taking over from Arriva Rail North. The prior operator had its franchise terminated early by the DfT in January 2020 amid widespread dissatisfaction over its performance, particularly in respect of poorly implemented timetable changes. The DfT had opted to hand the operation of the franchise over to the operator of last resort. At the commencement of operations, Northern publicly stated that its immediate aims were to improve service reliability and to proceed with the introduction of new rolling stock. For the latter, both the Class 195 diesel multiple units and Class 331 electric multiple units were brought into service fully during December 2020.
Services have been disrupted by wider events, particularly the COVID-19 pandemic. Northern was also affected by the 2022–2024 United Kingdom railway strikes, the largest national rail strikes in the UK in three decades. Although strikes stopped in 2024, the franchise has been affected by rest day working restrictions that have continued to regularly affect Sunday services into 2025.
Following the successful introduction of the new-build Class 195 and 331 fleets in 2020 totalling 290 new carriages, the franchise stated an intent to train manufacturers to replace the ageing Sprinter class trains in 2023. The tender process was formalised in January 2025, with an award due in 2026 and first trains expected into service in 2030. Entailing up to 450 carriages, the programme would involve full fleet modernisation, streamlined fleets to reduce both training and maintenance requirements and reduced carbon emissions.
In June 2019, the DfT's operator of last resort, DfT OLR Holdings (later renamed DfT Operator), conducted due diligence into the franchise believing both the operational and financial performance to be "unsustainable". In October 2019, the Secretary of State for Transport, Grant Shapps, issued a request for proposals to incumbent operator Arriva and the operator of last resort, which would result in termination of the franchise with either Arriva to be awarded a short-term management contract or the operator of last resort to take over. In January 2020, Shapps publicly criticised Arriva's operation of the Northern franchise and suggested that the Government may step in to revoke its franchise agreement, bluntly referring to the service as "completely unacceptable".
On 29 January 2020, the DfT announced its decision to terminate Arriva Rail North as operator of the franchise, to be taken over by the DfT's operator of last resort. This was the first time that a franchise has been removed from a train operating company due to poor performance since Connex South Eastern in 2003. On 1 March 2020, the franchise became directly operated by DfT OLR Holdings with the stated objective to "stabilise performance and restore reliability for passengers".
In 2021 Northern was given a contract by the Department for Transport to run services for three years, with an optional extension of a further two years. The contract was updated in 2022, to run until 1 March 2025.
Northern is one of several train operators affected by the 2022–2024 United Kingdom railway strikes, which are the first national rail strikes in the UK for three decades. Its workers are amongst those who voted to take industrial action due to a dispute over pay and working conditions. Northern urged the travelling public to avoid travelling on its services on any of the planned dates for the strikes, being only capable of operating a minimal timetable due to the number of staff involved.
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| . See #Parliamentary services below for more. |
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Multiple campaigns were conducted to request increase in services to the line, but in 2022, Transport for Greater Manchester published two surveys in relation to the line.
As of May 2023, there is one train per day between and , via and . This service runs on weekdays only. The service was suspended between January and October 2022 due to concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Between October 1993 and May 2023, this service ran on Saturdays only, but had three trains each way and on weekdays, a few peak services terminated at .
Between October 2023 and July 2024, 17 Class 323 units were transferred from West Midlands Trains to Northern Trains.
| Sprinter | 150 | DMU | 75 | 121 | 8 | 3 | Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Liverpool, West Yorkshire, North Lincolnshire, South Yorkshire and Derbyshire | 19841987 | |
| 66 | 2 | 19851987 | |||||||
| 155 Super Sprinter | 7 | 2 | York, Leeds, Hull Paragon and Scarborough | 19871988 | |||||
| 156 Super Sprinter | 67 | 2 | North East, Cumbrian Coast, Lancashire and Cumbria, Merseyside and Cheshire | 19871989 | |||||
| 158 Express Sprinter | 90 | 145 | 45 | 2 | South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, Lancashire, Fylde Coast, North Yorkshire and the North East | 19901992 | |||
| 8 | 3 | ||||||||
| Bombardier Turbostar | 170 | 100 | 161 | 16 | 3 | Scarborough - Sheffield, Leeds - York via Harrogate | 20032005 | ||
| CAF Civity | 195 | 25 | 2 | Manchester - Derbyshire, Sheffield, Liverpool, Leeds and Barrow in Furness, York - Blackpool, Windermere and Chester - Leeds | 20172022 | ||||
| 33 | 3 | ||||||||
| Hunslet Transportation Projects/Holec | 323 | EMU | 90 | 145 | 34 | 3 | Manchester-Hadfield, Manchester-Stoke-on-Trent, Manchester-Crewe, Blackpool North - Manchester Airport, and Liverpool-Manchester Airport | 19921995 | |
| CAF Civity | 331 | 100 | 161 | 31 | 3 | Blackpool North - Manchester Airport, Liverpool, Leeds - Skipton, Bradford Forster Square, Doncaster, Ilkley, Bradford Forster Square - Skipton, Ilkley | 20172020 | ||
| 12 | 4 | Electric services in the North West. | |||||||
| CAF/Siemens Transportation Systems | 333 | 16 | 4 | Leeds - Bradford Forster Square, Skipton, Ilkley, Bradford Forster Square - Skipton, Ilkley | 20002003 | ||||
| BR Second Generation (Mark 3) | 769 Flex | BMU | 100 | 161 | 8 | 4 | - , - | 20172020 (19871988 as Class 319) | |
In 2024, Northern issued a tender for up to 329 new trains. The 329 trains are made up of 45 three coach electric multiple units, 16 four coach electric multiple units, 108 three coach multiple mode units, 128 four coach multiple mode units and 32 four coach battery electric multiple units.
In January 2025 Northern revealed that they had shortlisted five companies for the replacement of the classes 150, 155 and 156 as well as a fleet of 12 extra EMUs for Transpennine electrification. The five companies are Alstom, CAF, Hitachi Rail, Siemens and Stadler Rail. The remaining units will be bi-mode with a pantograph and diesel/battery power, and Northern aim to start introducing the new fleet in 2030.
According to an interview with Northern's Strategic Development Director Rob Warnes the fleet options are as follows:
| + Northern new fleet plans |
| 2030 |
| 2031 |
| 2032 |
| ? |
| ? |
| ? |
| ? |
Northern's fleet is maintained at depots listed in the table below:
| Allerton TMD | 08, 323, 331, 769 | 150, 156, 195 | |
| Blackburn King Street TMD | None | 150, 156, 195 | |
| Botanic Gardens TMD | 155, 170 | 158 | |
| Heaton TMD | 156, 158 | ||
| Holbeck TMD | None | 150, 158, 195 | |
| Newton Heath TMD | 150, 156, 195 | 158, 769 | |
| Neville Hill TMD | 08, 150, 158, 331, 333 | 155, 170, 195 | |
| Wigan Springs Branch TMD | None | 158, 195, 331, 769 |
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