Northern Rail
Northern Rail (often referred to simply as Northern) is a train operating company that has operated local passenger services in the north of England since 2004. Northern Rail's owner, Serco-NedRailways, is a consortium formed of Abellio (formerly NedRailways, the British unit of Nederlandse Spoorwegen) and Serco, an international operator of public transport systems. When it won the Northern England franchise, the consortium had already secured the contract to operate north-west England's Merseyrail network in 2003. The current managing Director of Northern Rail is Ian Bevan.
Introduction
Serco-NedRailways was announced as the 'preferred bidder' for the Northern franchise by the Strategic Rail Authority on 1 July 2004, and signed the agreement to operate the franchise on 19 October. However, the new operators did not actually take over from the previous operators (First North Western and Arriva Trains Northern) until 12 December 2004. The reason for the delay was that Serco NedRailways assumed that some Class 142 Pacer trains would be freed up in the near future when Manchester Metrolink services started between Manchester and Oldham. Due to a substantial delay in extending the Metrolink, it was clear that this was not going to be the case.
Northern run a mix of commuter routes, rural routes and some longer distance services around Cheshire, Co. Durham, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear and Yorkshire. Northern’s services also extend to the north Midland counties of Derbyshire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Staffordshire. Some services are supported by Passenger Transport Executives. In December 2008 the operator started an express service from Leeds to Nottingham calling at Wakefield Kirkgate, Barnsley, Sheffield, Dronfield, Chesterfield, Alfreton, Langley Mill and Nottingham.
The franchise is planned to run for a maximum of eight years and nine months, with the final two years subject to performance targets being achieved. It was announced in May 2010 that Northern had beaten these targets and the two year extension was granted - this means that the franchise will end on the 15th September 2013. The franchise does not require them to purchase or lease new trains.
Northern Rail won public transport operator of the year 2007 at the National Transport Awards and was praised by the judges for attracting 20% more passengers since 2004. When the extension of their franchise was announced, Northern stated that it had improved punctuality from 83.7% in the 12 months to December 2004 to 91.6% in the 12 months to May 2010 - this means that around 200 more trains per day were on time than in 2004.
Future Fleet
In January 2008, as part of the Government's rolling stock plan, the Department for Transport (DfT) announced that the fleet of Class 323 trains currently in operation on services in South and East Manchester would be transferred to London Midland where the rest of the Class 323 trains are based in order to form a uniform fleet. Northern were due to receive 24 new build or cascaded EMU vehicles to allow for this and provide additional capacity. The original plan also stated that further DMU stock is due to be transferred to Northern from London Midland and London Overground. A presentation by the DfT, also in January 2008, indicated that this could include Class 150 units from London Midland.
On December 22, 2008, the Department for Transport announced it had issued an invitation to tender for 200 new carriages to form diesel multiple units, some of which were intended for Northern Rail. The Contract Notice specifies that those parties expressing in an interest must have the ability to design and manufacture DMUs which are 23 metres in length, capable of a maximum speed of 100 miles per hour (160 km/h), formed of 2, 3, and/or 4 cars, capable of operation in multiple, and gangwayed throughout, both within units and units in multiple. The order was postponed in July 2009, following the announcement of the electrification of Liverpool to Manchester via Newton-le-Willows. Northern will now get ex-Thameslink EMUs (most likely British Rail Class 319s) to run Liverpool to Manchester services allowing the diesel units currently used on that service to be cascaded to other lines.
As part of a trial into the feasibility of the tram-train concept, Northern will operate newly built electric tram-train units between Rotherham and Sheffield after plans for a diesel tram-train trial between Huddersfield and Sheffield was deemed non-economically viable for a trial.