Class 195 in May 2021 in Northern Trains livery at Liverpool Lime Street | |
Overview | |
---|---|
Franchise(s) | Northern 1 March 2020– |
Main region(s) | |
Other region(s) | |
Parent company | DfT OLR Holdings |
Headquarters | York[2] |
Reporting mark | NT[1] |
Predecessor | Arriva Rail North |
Other | |
Website | www |
Northern Trains, branded as Northern, (legally Northern Trains Limited[3]) is a publicly-owned train operating company in England which commenced operating the Northern franchise on 1 March 2020. It is owned by DfT OLR Holdings for the Department for Transport, after the previous operator Arriva Rail North had its franchise terminated at the end of February 2020.
The franchise was established in March 2020 with the immediate aims to improve service reliability and the introduction of new rolling stock in the Class 195 and 331, which was successfully completed in December 2020.
In December 2015, the Department for Transport (DfT) awarded Arriva a contract to operate the Northern franchise. It commenced in April 2016 and was scheduled to run until March 2025.[4][5]
The franchise encountered a number of problems. In May 2018, a new timetable was introduced, however rolling stock and crew shortages resulted in widespread delays and cancellations from which the operator never recovered.[6][7][8]
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.[8] The DfT decided to terminate the franchise with the operator of last resort to take over.[9][10][11]
Northern took over all the services operated by Arriva Rail North on 1 March 2020.
Below is a list of off-peak services, per December 2021 timetables.[12] It has been slightly simplified due to some routes' irregular service pattern. Due to the extensive nature of the network, it has been split by geographic area. Some services are listed in more than one place.
Manchester to Cumbria | |||
---|---|---|---|
Route | tph | Calling at | Stock |
Manchester Airport to Cumbria | 1 |
|
195 |
Lancaster to Barrow-in-Furness | 1 |
|
|
Oxenholme Lake District to Windermere | 1 |
| |
Barrow-in-Furness to Carlisle | 1 |
|
156 |
Settle and Carlisle Line and Bentham Line | |||
Route | tph | Calling at | Stock |
Leeds to Carlisle | 1⁄2 |
|
158 |
Leeds to Morecambe | 1⁄2 | 158 | |
Lancaster to Morecambe | 1 | Bare Lane
|
156 |
Leeds to Heysham Port | – |
|
Manchester to Preston | |||
---|---|---|---|
Route | tph | Calling at | Stock |
Manchester Airport to Cumbria | 1 |
|
195 |
Manchester Airport to Blackpool North | 1 |
|
331 |
Hazel Grove to Blackpool North | 1 |
| |
East Lancashire line | |||
Route | tph | Calling at | Stock |
Blackpool North to York | 1 |
|
|
Preston to Colne | 1 | ||
Liverpool and Ormskirk to Blackpool | |||
Route | tph | Calling at | Stock |
Liverpool Lime Street to Blackpool North | 2⁄3 |
|
|
Ormskirk to Preston | 1 | ||
Preston to Blackpool South | 1 |
Many of the additional services promised at the December 2017 and December 2019 recasts never materialised following the problems which arose at the May 2018 timetable recast (the delayed December 2017 recast.) In January 2021, the government initiated a consultation proposing three options for the May 2022 recast.[13]
Option A involves few changes but does involve reducing the frequency of Buxton services, diverting all Southport services into Manchester Victoria and re-routing Cumbria to Manchester Airport services via Bolton. Option C involves a significant recast to standardise services, which would see at least half-hourly services on most commuter lines in the Manchester area and more evenly spaced services e.g. services every 15 minutes at Heaton Chapel and Levenshulme. However, option C does include some non-standard services operating at peak time e.g. Southport to Manchester Oxford Road and Wigan to Hazel Grove. Option B involves making more changes than option A but involves less significant changes than option C would see. Option A would see the fewest services overall, whereas option C would see the most. [14]
Northern Trains took over all of the rolling stock operated by its predecessor, namely Class 142, 144, 150, 153, 155, 156, 158, 170 and 195 diesel multiple units and Class 319, 321, 322, 323, 331 and 333 electric multiple units. All Class 321 and 322s were withdrawn in mid-2020 and moved to Greater Anglia.[15] All Class 153s were sent to storage by December 2021.[16]
Family | Class | Image | Type | Top speed | Number | Carriages | Routes | Built | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
mph | km/h | ||||||||
Diesel multiple units | |||||||||
Sprinter | 150/0 | DMU | 75 | 121 | 6 | 3 |
Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Liverpool, West Yorkshire, North Lincolnshire, South Yorkshire and Derbyshire[17] |
1984–1987 | |
150/1 | 46 | 2 | 1985–1986 | ||||||
150/2 | 26 | 1986–1987 | |||||||
155 Super Sprinter | 7 | 2 |
York, Leeds, Hull and Scarborough[17] |
1987–1988 | |||||
156 Super Sprinter | 51 | 2 | North East, Cumbrian Coast, Lancashire and Cumbria, Merseyside and Cheshire[17] | 1987–1989 | |||||
158/0 & 158/9 Express Sprinter | 90 | 145 | 45 | 2 | South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, Lancashire, Fylde Coast, North Yorkshire and the North East[17] | 1990–1992 | |||
8 | 3 | ||||||||
Bombardier Turbostar | 170/4 | 100 | 161 | 16 | 3 | Scarborough - Sheffield, Leeds - Knaresborough and York and Harrogate[17] | 2003–2005 | ||
CAF Civity | 195/0 | 25 | 2 |
Manchester - Derbyshire, Sheffield, Liverpool, Leeds and Barrow in Furness, York - Blackpool, Windermere and Chester - Leeds[17] |
2017–2020 | ||||
195/1 | 33 | 3 | |||||||
Electric multiple units | |||||||||
BR Second Generation (Mark 3) | 319/3 | EMU | 100 | 161 | 12[18] | 4 | Manchester - Crewe, Liverpool, Blackpool and Liverpool - Wigan.[17] | 1990 | |
Hunslet Transportation Projects | 323 | 90 | 145 | 17 | 3 | Manchester-Hadfield, Manchester-Stoke on Trent, Manchester-Crewe, and Liverpool-Crewe[17] | 1992–1995 | ||
CAF Civity | 331/0 | 100 | 161 | 31 | 3 |
Blackpool North - Hazel Grove, Liverpool, Leeds - Skipton, Bradford Forster Square, Doncaster, Ilkley, Bradford Forster Square - Skipton[17] |
2017–2020 | ||
331/1 | 12 | 4 | |||||||
CAF/Siemens Transportation Systems | 333 | 16 | 4 | Skipton - Bradford Forster Square, Leeds - Ilkley[17] | 2000–2003 | ||||
Bi-Mode Multiple Units | |||||||||
BR Second Generation (Mark 3) | 769/4 | BMU | 100 | 161 | 8 | 4 | Southport - Alderley Edge | 2017–-2020 (1987–1988 as Class 319) | |
17 Class 323s are to be transferred from West Midlands Trains.[19][20] This will result in the withdrawal of all Class 319 units.[21] 15 Class 156s are to transfer from East Midlands Railway, which includes the 9 Class 156/9s formerly used by Greater Anglia,[22] although they will be renumbered back to 156/4s before they are transferred.[23] The transferral of these units is already underway, with more to follow.[23]
Class | Image | Type | Top speed | Number | Carriages | Routes | Built | In service | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
mph | km/h | ||||||||
Diesel multiple units | |||||||||
150/2 Sprinter | DMU | 75 | 121 | 3 | 2 | Local services across the North | 1986–1987 | TBA | |
156/4, /9 Sprinter | 75 | 121 | 11 | 2 | Local, commuter and regional services across the North | 1987–1989 | TBA | ||
Electric multiple units | |||||||||
323[24] | EMU | 90 | 145 | 17 | 3 |
|
1992–1995 | 2023[25] | |
Former train types operated by Northern Trains include:
Class | Image | Type | Top speed | Number | Carriages | Routes | Notes | Built | Left fleet | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
mph | km/h | |||||||||
142 Pacer | DMU | 75 | 121 | 79 | 2 | Local and commuter services across the North |
Replaced by Class 150, Class 156, Class 158, Class 170, and Class 195 units. |
1985–1987 | 2020 | |
144 Pacer | 23 | 1986–1987 | ||||||||
153 Super Sprinter | 17 | 1 | Replaced by Class 150 units, later sent to storage[16] | 1987–1988 | 2020–2021 | |||||
321/9 | EMU | 100 | 161 | 3 | 4 | Electrified commuter services in West Yorkshire | Replaced by Class 331 units | 1991 | 2020 | |
322 | 5 | 1990 |
Northern Trains currently has depots for its train crew at Barrow-in-Furness, Blackburn, Blackpool North, Buxton, Carlisle, Darlington (drivers), Doncaster, Harrogate, Huddersfield, Hull, Liverpool Lime Street, Leeds, Manchester Piccadilly, Manchester Victoria, Middlesbrough (conductors), Newcastle, Sheffield, Skipton, Wigan Wallgate, Workington and York.
Northern Trains' fleet is maintained at depots listed in the table below:
Depot | Picture | Allocation | Nearest station |
---|---|---|---|
Allerton TMD | 150, 156, 195, 319, 323,[26] 331, 769 | Liverpool South Parkway | |
Blackburn King Street TMD | 150, 156, 195 | Blackburn | |
Botanic Gardens TMD | 08, 155, 158, 170 | Hull Paragon | |
Heaton TMD | 156, 158 | Manors | |
Newton Heath TMD | 150, 156, 195 | Moston | |
Neville Hill TMD | 155, 158, 170, 331, 333 | Leeds | |
Wigan Springs Branch TMD | 158, 195, 319, 331, 769 | Wigan North Western |