Views on Northern Rail

[northerner]

I was wondering what your view on Northern Rail is? Personally, I feel they are a good company who have gone beyond what they are franchised to do and would be a shame to see them go.

[dougie]

Given the mess of routes/ trains/ liveries that they inherited, and the fact that they are having to tiptoe around other franchises (to get paths etc), I think they've done a very good simple job, nothing flash, just got on with it.

A lesson for other franchises, that sometimes it's not about spending millions, but concentrating on doing the basics well.

[olympian]

Yes i think that they are very good service's have improved and they do explore new and different routs like Dewsbury's Hebden bridge service is getting extended to Manchester Vic but there is on train less an hour along the Bradford run to compensate for this. Northern have tryed getting rid of some of the 142's for the better 158's but they came back for peak time runnings to provide extra seats. soon they to start another new service to Nottingham i think and now that they finally decided a colour scheme for the trains to be painted into it get rid of the old livery's looking abit tatty (about 15 different ones) some were obsolete 10 years ago.
Northern is a good operator but when arriva bought out northern spirit they were in for a bumpy ride with Leeds station getting a make over which had plenty of delays and cancellation's which isn't good for a operator.

[jackh]

I think the Northern Rail franchise has a proven to be a lesson to Arriva as I can't complain about the Wales franchise which I use fairly often.

As Olympian stated, it was just unfortunate for Arriva and the acquired Northern Spirit they had to deal with the Leeds station rebuild. As you may well all be aware, Leeds is probably the most busiest rail station in the UK with the volume of rail traffic coming in and out.

[westyorkshirebus]

Leeds is the 4th busiest station outside of London, behind Birmingham New Street, Glasgow Central and Manchester Piccadilly

[puggy]

I like the fact that there are less 142's replaced by more 158's however some are poorly refurbished (especially the ex Central Trains units)

[olympian]

I forgot to say about when Arriva ran the trains they did make up for all the delays by having 2 class 37s going up down the Settle and Carlisle line which was a brilliant ride when they were running up and down.