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

Northern Spirit

This article is about the railway company Northern Spirit. For the Australian football club of the same name, see Northern Spirit FC.Northern Spirit was a UK train operating company which ran local and regional train services in the north east of England during the late 1990s.-Operations:Created...

 before being taken over by Arriva.

The franchise was taken over by Northern Rail

Northern Rail

Northern Rail is a British train operating company that has operated local passenger services in Northern England since 2004. Northern Rail's owner, Serco-Abellio, is a consortium formed of Abellio and Serco, an international operator of public transport systems...

 in December 2004.

Introduction

Arriva took over MTL Group which owned Northern Spirit

Northern Spirit

This article is about the railway company Northern Spirit. For the Australian football club of the same name, see Northern Spirit FC.Northern Spirit was a UK train operating company which ran local and regional train services in the north east of England during the late 1990s.-Operations:Created...

 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

First North Western

First North Western was a train operating company in the United Kingdom serving North West England. It operated from 1997 to 2004.The company when first privatised was known as North Western Trains and was owned by Great Western Holdings, a partnership between Great Western's management, First...

 routes. However, the new franchise did not include the Bradford

Bradford

Bradford lies at the heart of the City of Bradford, a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, in Northern England. It is situated in the foothills of the Pennines, west of Leeds, and northwest of Wakefield. Bradford became a municipal borough in 1847, and received its charter as a city in 1897...

 to Blackpool

Blackpool

Blackpool is a borough, seaside town, and unitary authority area of Lancashire, in North West England. It is situated along England's west coast by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre estuaries, northwest of Preston, north of Liverpool, and northwest of Manchester...

 service which remained with Arriva Trains Northern and has since become a York

York

York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...

 to Blackpool

Blackpool

Blackpool is a borough, seaside town, and unitary authority area of Lancashire, in North West England. It is situated along England's west coast by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre estuaries, northwest of Preston, north of Liverpool, and northwest of Manchester...

 route operated by Northern Rail

Northern Rail

Northern Rail is a British train operating company that has operated local passenger services in Northern England since 2004. Northern Rail's owner, Serco-Abellio, is a consortium formed of Abellio and Serco, an international operator of public transport systems...

.

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

British Rail Class 37

The British Rail Class 37 is a diesel-electric locomotive. Also known as the English Electric Type 3, the Class was ordered as part of the British Rail modernisation plan....

 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

Glasgow Trains

Glasgow Trains is a proposed open access rail operator in Great Britain from Renaissance Trains. They would offer a twice daily direct service between Liverpool and Glasgow with intermediate stops at Preston and Carlisle...

 would reverse this.

Fleet

Class	Image	Type	Top speed		Number	Built
			mph	km/h
Class 142 Pacer British Rail Class 142 The British Rail Class 142 is a class of Pacer diesel multiple units used in the United Kingdom. 96 units were built by BREL in Derby between 1985 and 1987. They were a development of the earlier Class 141 which were introduced in 1984....		Diesel multiple unit Diesel multiple unit A diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple unit train consisting of multiple carriages powered by one or more on-board diesel engines. They may also be referred to as a railcar or railmotor, depending on country.-Design:...	75	120	6	1985-1987
Class 144 Pacer British Rail Class 144 The British Rail Class 144 "Pacer" diesel multiple units were built by BREL Derby from 1986-1987. A total of 23 units were built, replacing many of the earlier first-generation "Heritage" DMUs....		Diesel multiple unit Diesel multiple unit A diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple unit train consisting of multiple carriages powered by one or more on-board diesel engines. They may also be referred to as a railcar or railmotor, depending on country.-Design:...	75	120	23	1986-1987
Class 150 Sprinter British Rail Class 150 The British Rail Class 150 "Sprinter" diesel multiple units were built by BREL from 1984-87. A total of 137 units were built in three main subclasses, replacing many of the earlier first-generation "Heritage" DMUs.- Background :...		Diesel multiple unit Diesel multiple unit A diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple unit train consisting of multiple carriages powered by one or more on-board diesel engines. They may also be referred to as a railcar or railmotor, depending on country.-Design:...	75	120	10	1985-1987
Class 153 Super Sprinter British Rail Class 153 The British Rail Class 153 Super Sprinter is a single car diesel multiple unit converted from British Rail Class 155s.-Description:These units were originally built as two-car Class 155 units by British Leyland from 1987–88, but were converted by Hunslet-Barclay at Kilmarnock from 1991-92...		Diesel multiple unit Diesel multiple unit A diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple unit train consisting of multiple carriages powered by one or more on-board diesel engines. They may also be referred to as a railcar or railmotor, depending on country.-Design:...	75	120	20	1987-1988
Class 155 Super Sprinter British Rail Class 155 The British Rail Class 155 Super Sprinter is a diesel multiple unit. These DMUs were built by British Leyland at Workington between 1987 and 1988 as part of British Rail's replacement of its ageing diesel fleet which were First-Generation.- History and description :The Class 155 train is made up...		Diesel multiple unit Diesel multiple unit A diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple unit train consisting of multiple carriages powered by one or more on-board diesel engines. They may also be referred to as a railcar or railmotor, depending on country.-Design:...	75	120	7	1987-1988
Class 156 Super Sprinter British Rail Class 156 The British Rail Class 156 Super Sprinter is a diesel multiple-unit train . 114 of these units were built from 1987 to 1989 by Metro-Cammell at its Washwood Heath Works in Birmingham...		Diesel multiple unit Diesel multiple unit A diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple unit train consisting of multiple carriages powered by one or more on-board diesel engines. They may also be referred to as a railcar or railmotor, depending on country.-Design:...	75	120	46	1987-1989
Class 158 Express Sprinter British Rail Class 158 British Rail Class 158 Express Sprinter is a diesel multiple-unit train, built for British Rail between 1989 and 1992 by BREL at its Derby Works. They were built to replace many locomotive-hauled passenger trains, and allowed cascading of existing Sprinter units to replace elderly 'heritage' DMUs...		Diesel multiple unit Diesel multiple unit A diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple unit train consisting of multiple carriages powered by one or more on-board diesel engines. They may also be referred to as a railcar or railmotor, depending on country.-Design:...	90	145	38	1989-1992
Class 308 British Rail Class 308 The British Rail Class 308 alternating current electric multiple units were built by BR at York, in three batches, from 1959–61. They were initially classified as AM8 units before the introduction of TOPS.-Class 308/1:...		Electric multiple unit Electric multiple unit An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages, using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as electric traction motors are incorporated within one or a number of the carriages...	75	120	33	1961
Class 321/9 British Rail Class 321 The British Rail Class 321 alternating current electric multiple units were built by BREL York in three batches from 1988-91. The design was successful and led to the development of the similar Class 320 and Class 322 units for use by Strathclyde PTE and Stansted Express respectively...		Electric multiple unit Electric multiple unit An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages, using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as electric traction motors are incorporated within one or a number of the carriages...	100	160	3	1991
Class 333 British Rail Class 333 The British Rail Class 333 electric multiple units were built by Siemens and CAF are based on the Class 332 trains operated by Heathrow Express.-Description:...		Electric multiple unit Electric multiple unit An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages, using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as electric traction motors are incorporated within one or a number of the carriages...	100	160	16	2000

Routes

See Northern Rail

Northern Rail

Northern Rail is a British train operating company that has operated local passenger services in Northern England since 2004. Northern Rail's owner, Serco-Abellio, is a consortium formed of Abellio and Serco, an international operator of public transport systems...

.

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