Arriva Trains Northern

Arriva Trains Northern

Franchise(s):	Regional Railways North East 2001 – 12 December 2004
Main region(s):	North East, Yorkshire
Other region(s):	North West, North Midlands
Fleet size:	169 until Feb 2004. 141 after.
Parent company:	Arriva

Arriva Trains Northern was a train operating company that operated passenger trains in Yorkshire and the North East of England. The company had previously been known as Northern Spirit before being taken over Arriva.

The franchise was taken over by Northern Rail in December 2004.

Introduction

Arriva took over MTL Group which owned Northern Spirit in February 2000, and the RRNE franchise was renamed 'Arriva Trains Northern' in April 2001.

Arriva Trains Northern operated a mix of long distance regional services and local urban & rural passenger services in the North of England, Arriva also operated the Transpennine Express franchise but on 1 February 2004, the service became a separate franchise, also incorporating some former First North Western routes. However, the new franchise did not include the Bradford to Blackpool service which remained with Arriva Trains Northern and has since become a York to Blackpool route operated by Northern Rail.

Arriva claimed to operate around 1,400 services every day. They claimed to cover around 80,000 miles every day on a network which stretches from Hull and Scarborough on the East Coast across to Blackpool, Liverpool, and Manchester on the West Coast, and from Carlisle and Sunderland in the North to Sheffield and the North Midlands in the South. Most of their services are focused in and around Yorkshire.

During the first half of the franchise period, Arriva Trains Northern suffered many problems. First carried over from the Northern Spirit era, a shortage of drivers and rolling stock lead to many cancellations on a daily basis. An emergency timetable was later brought in which cancelled many services on a permanent basis rather than random as before. A long running dispute with the RMT union lead to strikes on over a dozen different days

Arriva Settle and Carlisle Service

During 2003 and 2004 Arriva Trains Northern hired EWS-owned Class 37 locomotives for services over the Settle-Carlisle line, Arriva also used the loco hauled service between Leeds and Knaresborough and on summer Saturdays between York and Carlisle.

The Leeds - Settle - Carlisle route was mostly operated by 156's.

Northern Spirit had initiated a daily Leeds — Glasgow Central service operated by a Class 158 DMU (calling at Shipley, Bingley, Keighley, Skipton Settle, Kirkby Stephen, Appleby, Carlisle and Motherwell), but this was withdrawn due to Virgin's wish to not have a Class 158 travelling up the West Coast Mainline in case it failed and caused delays to their own services. A proposal was made to divert the service over the Glasgow South Western Route via Kilmarnock however the proposal was never taken up and there remains no link from Yorkshire or the East Midlands to Glasgow over the line, and the link from Lancashire operates only on Sunday for the benefit of ramblers.

A proposal by Glasgow Trains would reverse this.

Fleet

The summer 2004 timetable for Arriva Trains Northern services on the Settle to Carlisle line.

Class	Image	Type	Top speed		Number	Built
			mph	km/h
Class 142 Pacer		Diesel multiple unit	75	120	6	1985 - 1987
Class 144 Pacer		Diesel multiple unit	75	120	23	1986 - 1987
Class 150 Sprinter		Diesel multiple unit	75	120	10	1985 - 1987
Class 153 Super Sprinter		Diesel multiple unit	75	120	20	1987 - 1988
Class 155 Super Sprinter		Diesel multiple unit	75	120	7	1987
Class 156 Super Sprinter		Diesel multiple unit	75	120	46	1987 - 1989
Class 158 Express Sprinter		Diesel multiple unit	90	145	38	1989 - 1992
Class 308		Electric multiple unit	75	120	33	1961
Class 321/9		Electric multiple unit	100	160	3	1988 - 1991
Class 333		Electric multiple unit	100	160	16	2000

Routes

See Northern Rail.

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