Improved connections pulling in to Darlington and Bishop Auckland from this weekend

From 10 December timetable changes will see services increase from every two hours to every hour on weekdays and on Saturdays.

Mike Paterson, Regional Director at Northern, said: “We are just a couple of days away from timetable changes that will offer new commuting possibilities and boost leisure travel options for customers in the region.

The changes are part of a wide-ranging modernisation programme that will also see us add more than 2,000 extra services each week by 2020.

The service enhancements will go hand-in-hand with further modernisation across the Northern network, including new and fully refurbished trains, better stations and more ways to buy tickets. Northern’s oldest trains (Pacers) will also be removed from the network – with the entire programme delivered by 2020.

Mike added: “Over the next two years, our customers will see further improvements as we work to modernise our stations and facilities. We will also continue to improve our current fleet of trains to include more space, better seats (with USB sockets) and wifi, and we will seek to reduce journey times across the North East.

“This is just the beginning of modernisation for our customers and there are many more exciting improvements to come on our journey to 2020.”