News

On Friday 1 April, two new franchisees take over local train services in West Yorkshire and across the north of England.

Arriva Rail North will run services formerly run by Northern Rail, while First will take full ownership of the former First TransPennine Express franchise it ran with Keolis.

 

Both franchisees will introduce new and refurbished trains over the next few years, including the withdrawal of all the class 142 and 144 ‘Pacer’ units by 2019.

Arriva will introduce additional Sunday services by December 2017, while new routes, including faster ‘Northern Connect’ services between major towns and cities, will be introduced by December 2019.

 

First aims to run six services an hour on the core section between Leeds, Huddersfield and Manchester by 2019.