Northern Rail announce franchise extension

Northern Rail

Northern Rail have announced that they have secured a two-year extension to the franchise after beating performance targets for 2,500 daily train services across the north of England.

The Department for Transport has confirmed that Northern, owned by a joint venture of Serco and Abellio, will now run the franchise until 15 September 2013.

They have improved the punctuality of their train services from 83.7% in the 12 months to December 2004 to 91.6% in the last 12 months, meaning that on average 200 more trains arrive on time every single day now than in 2004.

Northern's Managing Director, Ian Bevan, said: “We are delighted that the improvements we have made to the punctuality and reliability of our services have been recognised.

“We’ve worked hard to turn this franchise from the ‘steady state’ it was predicted to be into the thriving railway that it is today.”

Northern, who began operating services in the north of England in December 2004, have also invested £100m to provide more and newer trains for the franchise and to improve stations.

On top of this, Northern have also implemented award-winning safety sustainability and community programmes in the franchise.