Northern Train Customer Performance

We strive to provide rail services which are accessible to everyone, so that customers can travel with confidence, safe in the knowledge that extra support is available at each stage of their journey, when needed. From 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026, we supported 207,753 pre-booked assisted travel requests.

Note, we currently do not measure the volume of unbooked assistance we support.

Our making rail accessible leaflet provides a practical guide to travelling with Northern, explaining what we do to assist disabled and older customers and the standards of service you can expect from us.

Our Passenger Assistance team are on hand to discuss and plan your journey 24 hours a day, seven days a week (excluding Christmas Day). Where possible, we recommend booking assistance two hours in advance or by 2300 on the day before travel, by calling us on 0800 138 5560 (text relay 18001 0800 138 5560), or using an online form on our website.

Mobility Scooters

Full details of our mobility scooter policy are available from our website, or by contacting our Customer Assistance team, using the details above.

Complaints and Compensation

Customers are at the heart of all that we do. However, sometimes things go wrong, and we may not be able to provide the level of service that we promised. We value any feedback that our customers provide and use this in a positive way to improve the level of service we offer. For more information on our complaints performance in 2025/ 2026, please click here.

All of our staff are here to help. In addition, you can register a complaint via our website or contact our customer experience centre on 0800 200 6060.

Customer Satisfaction

We continuously monitor customer satisfaction through our post-journey online survey, to ask customers what they think about the key aspects of their experience, their satisfaction with each stage of the customer journey and their experience of interacting with Northern staff.

From April 2025 to March 2026, our overall Customer Experience satisfaction improved from 60.2% in the previous rail year to 67.1%. 

Below is a summary of our customer satisfaction results:

*Service Quality

**Assessment of the accessibility of our stations

***Combines - Service Quality, Mystery shopping, Post Travel survey, Post contact Customer Experience Centre survey

We continue to review customer feedback across the business to direct long-term strategy, and tactically by customer-facing teams to help improve customer service.

Train cleaning

Our trains are cleaned daily to ensure they are maintained to a high standard. We also undertake deep cleaning operations across our fleet, carried out from five Train Care Centres. This has traditionally taken place every 62 days. However, we are now transferring to a new model to align with our maintenance requirements instead – meaning our deep cleaning will be derived from a mileage-based tolerance. 

On some busier services, we have mobile cleaners that focus on maintaining the overall level of cleanliness en route, as well as a large community of location-based cleaning staff at stations, ensuring coverage across the network. To ensure we are maintaining our quality standards, we conduct train quality audits across our fleet each month.

Stations

Our stations are also deep-cleaned regularly to keep the station environment as clean, safe and clear of litter as possible. We conduct quality audits of our stations to ensure we are maintaining our quality standards.

Toilet facilities

Toilet facilities are available on our trains and at some of our stations. To find out more, please visit the station pages on our website.

Air conditioning

Some of our trains are equipped with air conditioning. Should this fail, our train conductors will do everything to move customers to an alternative coach.

Punctuality and cancellations

We set ourselves high standards of train punctuality and make every effort to get customers to their destination on time. In 2025/26, our target was to ensure 80.3% of trains arrived within 3 minutes of their scheduled arrival time at each station – we achieved 78.6%, which is a 0.1% improvement on the previous year.

97.8% of our services arrived within 15 minutes of their scheduled calling time at each station.  

Of trains which were delayed on arrival*:

There are occasions, usually outside of our control, where trains may be delayed or disrupted. In 2025, 3.5%** of our train services were cancelled, which is an improvement of 2.3% year on year.

*This is arrival at destination as industry  measures group them together at 30+ 

** Calculation using DfT NRC definition of full and part cancellations** CP6 calculation using DfT NRC definition of full and part cancellations

Unplanned disruption

We try to do everything we can to avoid them, but sometimes delays or cancellations will happen. We promise that if you are delayed, we will give you as much information as we can about what is happening.

We’ll get you there

If you have a valid ticket and you are delayed, we will get you to the destination on your ticket (or a reasonable alternative station). We might not be able to do this by train, which is why we have contracts with bus companies and taxi firms. In the unlikely event that we cannot get you to your destination, we will provide overnight accommodation.

We’ll compensate you fairly

You can claim Delay Repay if delays or cancellations result in you getting to your destination 15 or more minutes later than scheduled. For more information, please see further details in our customer promise. To claim delay repay compensation, please go to our Delay Repay website or contact our customer experience centre on 0800 200 6060.

Cancellation of trains

When trains are cancelled, we provide the same information and help we give to customers affected by delays, and the same compensation policy applies. If a train is cancelled and as a result there will be a delay in arrival at the destination station of more than 60 minutes, customers will be entitled to either a full refund of their ticket or can postpone their journey to a later date.
 

Purchasing tickets

We make it easy for you to buy the right ticket for your journey through:

• Station staff
• Providing a website and app that are easy to use
• Installing ticket machines at nearly every station

If you think you have got the wrong ticket, please ask any of our members of staff, who will be happy to check your ticket, or call our customer experience centre on 0800 200 6060.

Getting help

Staff will be available at many stations, particularly busy ones. Where there are no staff, there may be a help point, or you can contact us by:

•    Calling our customer experience centre on 0800 2006060.
•    Through WhatsApp on 07870 606060.
•    Through web chat on our website.

There are also staff on trains who are there to help you.

Ticket refunds

If you decide not to use a ticket you have bought, you can apply for a refund up to 2359 on the day before travel. We usually charge a £5 administration fee, unless it was our fault that you decided not to travel. 

If you chose not to travel because the train you intended to use was delayed or cancelled, or there was no room for your bicycle, you can return the ticket to us for a full refund (you will not have to pay an administration fee). This also applies to tickets where you abandon your journey due to disruption, and return to your starting point. This applies to all ticket types, including Advance, which are otherwise not refundable.

You must apply for a refund through the provider you purchased your ticket through. If you’ve purchased directly with Northern, you can request a refund through our website or by contacting our customer experience centre on 0800 200 6060.
 

Before travel

National Rail Conditions of Travel sets out the legal agreement that you enter into with us when you buy a rail ticket. Where there are facilities available to buy a ticket, you must have a ticket, or other authority to travel, which is valid for the train (or trains) you use.

If you would like to see the National Rail Conditions of Travel, you can download the details from the National Rail Enquiries website.

Our website and mobile app will help you find journey information and buy tickets online. You can find details on train services, station facilities and ticket office opening times. As well as being able to download timetables, route maps, check train times and buy tickets.

Customers requiring extra help

We are making travel as easy as we can for everyone. Our Accessible Travel Policy (ATP) is available on our website or by calling the dedicated 24-hour Customer Assist line on 0800 138 5560. This sets out the arrangements for customers requiring assistance. 

If you have particular needs, we’ll do what we can to meet them. We provide a Customer Assist service, and we recommend you give 24 hours' notice for us to arrange the assistance you need. However, we understand that this is not always possible, and we promise that we will do all we can to help you travel.

Should you need help and support whilst travelling, Northern has an Assistance Travel Support Team, who are there to help and can be contacted via WhatsApp on 07779 914800 or by phone on 0800 1385560.

You can book Customer Assist through our website, the passenger assist app, by filling in a form at stations or by calling the Customer Assist team on 0800 138 5560.

All of our trains carry wheelchair ramps, and our staff are trained to use them.

Taking your bicycle

We welcome you and your bicycle to our services. You can take your bicycle free of charge on any of our services, but space is limited. Most trains have enough room for a maximum of two bicycles.

Bicycle spaces cannot be reserved, and space is allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. We only allow one bicycle per person. Trains cannot carry motorised cycles, motorised scooters, tandems, tricycles or trailers. Cycle racks are available at many of our stations. For more information, please see our ‘Cycle Promise’.

Provision of information during your journey

We have several ways you can keep up to date with travel information during your journey, including:

1. Northern App – provides real-time train information, including live arrival and departure times.
2. Northern website - providing up-to-date timetables.
3. Northern WhatsApp – a live chat function on WhatsApp, where customers can get real-time train information and onward connections, like local taxis. The Northern WhatsApp number is 07870 606060
4. Information about incidents which cause significant disruption (i.e. delays of more than 60 minutes to more than one service) is available from our contact centres and our website.
5. Our Service Updates webpage provides:

• Live travel information.
• A summary of any train service problems and issues at stations.
• Detailed messages about any planned service disruption, such as engineering.
• Information regarding how events across the network may impact travel.
• Information is also personalised via saved ‘recent searches’.

6. Our staff on board our trains or at our stations are there to help with travel information to support your journey.
7. At our stations, in addition to our staff, at some locations we provide customer information screens, displaying the latest travel information, including arrivals and departures.
8. On our trains, we provide passenger information screens, which include route information and arrival/ departure times.
9. If you have booked passenger assistance and are experiencing issues whilst travelling, we have a dedicated Assistance Travel Support Team who can be contacted via WhatsApp on 07779 914800.
10. We have an online chatbot available to support customers, which can be accessed from our self-service help centre.

During the journey

All our trains have clear signage above the internal doors at the end of each coach, giving information about the location and availability of onboard facilities. You can also ask any member of our staff for this information.

Information regarding the next station will be announced on board by our train conductor or our automated announcements.

In the case of delays, the conductor will announce information at appropriate intervals. The train conductor and automated system will also make announcements about the main connecting services.

Safety guidelines can be found onboard, and the train conductor will also make announcements shortly before departure. Further announcements are made after departure.

Lost property

If you lose something on board or at one of our stations, we will do our best to return it to you. Please let a member of staff or our customer experience centre know as soon as possible.

We will:

• Try to contact the owner if they can be identified.
• Give a receipt to the person who handed the item in, if they ask for it, or
• Keep the item for three months, unless it is perishable (for example, food).

To find out more about reclaiming lost property, please click here or contact our customer experience centre on 0800 200 6060.

You can download this report as a Word document by clicking here.