North West welcomes Northern's first fully refurbished Class 150

The Class 150 train had already undergone a cosmetic refurbishment that included new livery, refreshed interiors including better seats and lighting, and work to make them fully accessible. It now offers features such as free wifi, power sockets and real-time passenger information systems for customers.

And, for its maiden voyage, it travelled between Rochdale and Blackburn, calling at Manchester Victoria and Bolton.

The launch of this train into service is another milestone in Northern’s refurbishment programme as the train operator continues to improve all 243 of its existing trains.

Ben Ackroyd, Engineering Director at Northern said: “The digital improvements to our trains represent an upgrade in the quality of train currently serving this area of Northern’s network. It provides a first look at some of the features we are installing on all our trains, providing a really high standard of on-board customer experience.”

The upgrades to Northern’s trains form part of a wider improvement programme, including the introduction of 101 new trains, the retirement of the Pacer trains, better stations and the introduction of more than 2,000 extra services a week.