Northern has announced the introduction of more new trains for Liverpool City Region.
All weekday services between Liverpool and Manchester Airport via Warrington Central are, as of Monday 12 August, now operated by brand new diesel trains.
Five state of the art trains now run from Liverpool throughout the day at 16 minutes past the hour.
Each of the new trains features free Wi-Fi, air-conditioning, at-seat power and customer information/media screens with real-time information.
Northern has ordered 101 new trains, a £500m investment, and, following the introduction of the first nine new trains across the network on 1 July, the rest will be introduced at monthly intervals through 2019 and into 2020, with more routes benefiting from the new trains over time.
From Monday 12 August, 15 new Northern trains will be in operation – with 20 in service across the north by early September.
What did the officials say?
Richard Allan, Northern's Deputy Managing Director, said:
“The Northern network is busier than it has been for a generation – more than 100 million customer journeys will be made on Northern services in 2019 – and the introduction of new trains is at the heart of our transformation for customers.
“We are delighted therefore that customers travelling between Liverpool and Manchester Airport will now be served by brand new trains every hour.
“These fantastic new trains are a true step-change in travelling experience and we are extremely proud to be delivering a £500m investment.
“We now have 15 brand new trains carrying customers, with 86 more to come throughout 2019 and into 2020.”
Cllr Liam Robinson, Chair of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority Transport Committee and Portfolio Holder for Transport, said:
“It's great to see the introduction of these brand new trains which will improve the travelling experience for rail users travelling to and from the Liverpool city region.
”This is just the start of the improvements that we want to see for our rail networks and demonstrates that by working together with our partners we can deliver a world class rail network for the north that improves passenger's journeys with better times, frequency and capacity.”
Where Next?
News Homepage
For the Latest Railway News
RailAdvent Online Shop
Framed Prints, DVD's / Blu-Ray's and more
LocoStop Community
Come and share your railway pictures
So why is Northern keeping the Class 142 Pacers until 2020. And to operate them in South Yorkshire. Why not use the Class 170 that Northern have inherited from ScotRail and basically operate the Class 170s in Sheffield & South Yorkshire (including Rotherham and Doncaster).
No new in Darlington same old trains what is the problem with the north east
* that should of course read ‘investing’.
It will be interesting to see what the Southport – Manchester line ends up with. I somehow can’t see Northern inveasting in brand new trains for that route.