Northern Trains
Northern Trains, trading as Northern, is a publicly owned train operating company in England. It is owned by DfT OLR Holdings for the Department for Transport (DfT), after the previous operator Arriva Rail North had its franchise terminated at the end of February 2020.
Class 331 in November 2023 in Northern livery at Stoke-on-Trent | |
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Franchise(s) | Northern |
| Main region(s) | |
| Other region(s) | |
| Fleet size | 368 |
| Stations called at | 474 |
| Parent company | DfT OLR Holdings |
| Headquarters | York |
| Reporting mark | NT |
| Dates of operation | 1 March 2020 – 1 March 2025 |
| Predecessor | Arriva Rail North |
| Other | |
| Website | www |
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 is also being impacted by the 2022–2024 United Kingdom railway strikes, the largest national rail strikes in the UK in three decades.