Northern's new trains

Yes, this is subject to a successful business case involving the government and HM Treasury. There’s a long and complex process involved with procuring new trains which takes several years to complete – we have moved a step closer by receiving final tenders from major train manufacturers to supply new trains to operate across the North of England.

It's not a quick exercise. Subject to business case approval, we expect to be able to award contracts for new trains in 2027. The timescales for the introduction of the trains will be developed as part of the procurement process, however, Northern has set bidders challenging targets to deliver as soon as possible with an aim to have first trains delivered to Northern in 2030.

Approximately two-thirds of our existing fleet will reach the end of their economic life in the next 10 years and require replacement. We expect to see around 130 new units delivered as part of phase one of the programme, between 2030-2033.

In November 2025, following confirmation from the Department for Transport, we issued an Invitation to Submit a Final Tender (ISFT) to manufacturing candidates, marking a significant step forward in securing the next generation of trains for our network.

In March 2026, we received tender returns from manufacturing candidates, and we will now take time to evaluate the responses. This runs alongside a comprehensive piece of work to determine preferred financiers to fund the units. A final business case will then be submitted to the government for approval.

With ten types of trains in 14 different formations, it makes things more complicated for our operational and maintenance teams. Six of those ten types of train – 57 per cent of our fleet – are between 32 and 40 years old. They are at, or are reaching, the end of their life.

Reducing the number of different types of trains, will significantly simplify operations, help with staff training, and lower maintenance costs. As we look to the future, with modern signalling, remote monitoring, clean power and the ever-evolving needs of our customers, it’s clear we need new trains to meet those needs. The objectives of the project to buy new trains are to:

· Remove our oldest rolling stock

· Lower the costs of subsidy requirements

· Improve performance

· Reduce the number of train types we have, reducing complexity

· Improve maintenance efficiencies through reduced fleet variation

· Improve the experience for our customers and colleagues  

We’re looking to deliver our rolling stock replacement strategy over three phases with 'up to 450 multiple units'. The first phase will be around 130 units.

Our invitation to suppliers is for brand new trains. We want to replace our oldest trains with new ones that are built to meet the needs of our business and our network.

The first phase will replace our oldest trains - Class 150, 155 and 156 fleets – and will also support the early stages of the TransPennine Route Upgrade. Phase two will cover the next phase of older trains and diesel-powered trains in the fleet. 

Our programme has three lots for the manufacturers to consider - Electric Multiple Units (EMU), Battery-Electric Multiple Units (BEMU), and Multi-mode Multiple Units (MMU). MMUs will have a diesel tank, last mile battery and pantograph and will be capable of conversion to either a BEMU or EMU during their life.

Only 25% of Northern’s network is electrified, and the infrastructure needed to support a large fleet of battery trains also does not exist right now. Multi-mode units would allow us to be flexible and react to changes that happen to the infrastructure around us. Multi-modal units in the order will be capable of conversion to battery or electric-only operation during their lifetime.

The infrastructure to support hydrogen fuel, particularly across a network as large as ours, does not yet exist. To give ourselves confidence we can deliver new trains onto our network as well as meet environmental challenges we are choosing a mix of future-proofed diesel/electric, electric and battery-electric trains.

The cost of the new trains will depend on the manufacturer and final design. As Northern is a subsidiary of the Department for Transport’s public sector owning group DfT Operator (DfTO) we are funded by the government and ultimately the taxpayer - so our new trains will be too. The process to buy new trains involves a significant amount of governance with both the Department for Transport and HM Treasury to ensure taxpayer money is well-spent.

Following the initial shortlisting process in 2024, we invited five suppliers – Alstom, CAF, Hitachi, Siemens and Stadler – to enter into discussions for the detailed tender process. 

As well as close collaboration with other train operators and regulatory bodies, we have worked with Transport Focus, Northern’s Accessibility User Group (NAUG) and our panel of over 9,000 Northern customers, Northerneers, to shape the programme to date. As the process moves on, we’ll be sharing ideas on designs of the customer areas, here we'll ask for opinions on the interior fixtures, placement and usability.

Customers can experience challenges when boarding trains due to both the vertical and horizontal gap between the platform and the train floor. Many of our stations date back to the Victorian era and weren’t designed with today’s trains in mind, resulting in variations in platform heights and curvature across our network. This is further compounded by the fact that our current fleet is made up of ten different train types, each with a floor height that is higher than the current standard.

Our new fleet will significantly reduce these challenges. By simplifying to a smaller number of modern train types, we can ensure consistency and compliance with the latest accessibility standards. All new trains will support Level Access (as described within the Accessibility National Technical Specification Notice). This means the trains will be compatible with a standard platform height of 915mm above rail level, helping to minimise the vertical step between train and platform.

To further assist customers in their boarding experience, we have asked all participating train manufacturers to improve upon the platform–train interface, such as through the use of automatic gap fillers that help reduce the horizontal gap between the platform edge and the train. These innovations are designed to make boarding easier for everyone, especially customers with reduced mobility.

Looking further ahead, continued investment in stations will enhance accessibility even more. While this remains subject to future funding, work already underway in the industry - such as the TransPennine Route Upgrade - is delivering more consistent and Level Access.

Our customers will enjoy the same technology we offer on our current trains including USB charging, Wi-Fi, digital passenger information and CCTV. Automatic Selective Door Opening, Automatic Passenger Counting and Remote Condition Monitoring, plus engineering and maintenance systems, will support us with operational performance and maintenance of the new vehicles.

All units being procured through this programme will be three and four car units; no new two-car units are being built. The number of seats and tables will be known once a contract has been agreed with the manufacturer.

This will be determined later in the process when the details of the interior are fixed.  

Each three-car and four-car unit will have one standard toilet and one accessible toilet.  

Yes, these are specified, the locations and number of tables will be determined later in the process.

Yes, these are specified, the final positions will be determined later in the process.

No, at Northern we don’t offer a food service on any of our routes.

The following has been specified:

· All units will have a full-width cab without gangway front ends

· All units will have conductor panels at each door and in the cab

· All units will be three and four car units, no new two-car units are being built

· Three car units will be 69 metres long

· Four car units will be up to 92 metres long

The second phase of the programme will aim to replace the 158s, 323s and 333s with the final programme phase seeing replacement of the 170 fleet.

We have set the manufacturers challenging targets to deliver as soon as possible with an aim to have first trains delivered to us in 2030. The programme is phased, and depends on other factors, however it is anticipated that full replacement of our oldest trains would be complete by 2040.

In the short-term we will aim to keep colleagues updated with the process and invite them to give their views and input where appropriate. For most colleagues there will be no other short-term changes, whilst a small number of people in the New Trains team and in specialist roles around the business will be involved in the project. Longer-term, at a time closer to when our new trains arrive in the business, there will be training and other pieces of work to help us prepare for their arrival. This will all be made clear once we have a timeframe for when the new trains will arrive.

Yes, there will be some changes. These will include stabling, charging infrastructure and other changes associated with the new technology the trains bring. We will have more detail on these once the manufacturer(s) of the trains is agreed There is likely to be investment across our main Train Care Centres as well as at our servicing and stabling locations.

The TransPennine Route Upgrade is investing around £100million in a new rail depot in Shipley. Shipley depot will house our fleet of electric trains for the TransPennine Route upgrade.