Northern Trains

Northern Trains (legal name Northern Rail Limited) is a publicly owned train operating company in England which commenced operating the Northern franchise on 1 March 2020. It is operated by DfT OLR Holdings Limited, after the previous operator Arriva Rail North had its franchise terminated at the end of February 2020.

History
In December 2015, the Department for Transport (DfT) awarded Arriva a contract to operate the Northern franchise. It commenced on April 25th, 2016.

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.

In October 2019, 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. The DfT decided to terminate the franchise with the operator of last resort to take over.

Services
Main article: List of Northern Trains routes

Northern Trains took over all the services operated by Northern by Arriva on 1 March 2020.

Table of off-peak services
Below is a list of off-peak services, per December 2019 timetables. 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.

Rolling stock
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.

More fleet
In April 2020, three Class 150 trains with two carriages were to have been transferred from Great Western Railway, however this has not yet happened and 17 Class 323 trains are to be transferred from West Midlands Trains and be converted to four carriages, eight Class 319s delivered and Class 465s and 466s from Southeastern. This will result in the withdrawal of all Class 153, 319 and 321 units.

Depots
Northern Trains' fleet is maintained at Allerton, Blackburn King Street, Botanic Gardens, Heaton, Newton Heath, Neville Hill and Wigan Springs Branch depots.

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.