Northern celebrates one million journeys with new trains for Manchester

The landmark has been reached in just three months and comes as the operator welcomed more new trains for Greater Manchester.

From Monday 21 October Northern’s new trains will serve customers travelling between Chester and Leeds, calling at Manchester Victoria and Rochdale – among many other stations.

The trains, which launched on 1 July and already operate on several routes across the north, provide a step-change for customers giving them more space, better accessibility, free Wi-Fi, air conditioning, at-seat power and live on-board information screens.

Chris Jackson, Regional Director at Northern, said: “It’s fantastic to have reached one million journeys on our new trains in such a short amount of time – and even better to be able to celebrate the achievement with the launch of more trains in Manchester.

“Our network is busier than it has been for a generation and we are transforming that network to meet the needs of our customers. The introduction of brand-new trains is at the heart of that transformation and, in a few short weeks, we will have 29 new trains carrying customers – with more to come throughout 2019 and into 2020.”

Towards the end of the year Northern are expected to introduce more new trains which will serve Bolton, Stockport and Hazel Grove. New trains are already operating through Wigan and to and from Manchester Airport providing connections to Lancashire, Cumbria and Liverpool.

The new trains are part of the largest modernisation programme in a generation that is transforming travel in the north of England. Northern is currently fully refurbishing its existing fleet of 243 trains, improving its stations and has introduced more than 2,000 extra services per week since 2016.