Customer Promise

Welcome to Northern

At Northern we are passionate about making sure that your journey with us is a great experience. Our Customer Promise replaces what was previously known as the Passenger’s Charter. It sets out our promise of the service we will deliver for you.

We review our Customer Promise every year in consultation with Transport Focus, the independent transport watchdog. You can download a copy of our Passengers' Charter from our website or pick up a copy at staffed stations which are served by our trains. Or, contact our Customer Experience Centre and they will send you one.

You can contact us:

• through this website 
• by emailing [email protected]
• by phoning our Customer Experience Centre on 0800 200 6060
• on X (formally known as Twitter) or Facebook: @northernassist
• through any member of staff at our stations or on the train
• by writing to us at Freepost NORTHERN RAILWAY.

We will always record your comments and suggestions. Each month we will review them and report to our board on new trends and issues. We will also use your comments, issues and suggestions to improve our service.

Our Customer Experience Centre is staffed between 06:00 - 23:00 on days when trains are running and can help with complaints, assistance bookings (if you need help during your journey) and general enquiries: 0800 200 6060.

Join In

This is your Northern - we want your ideas and for you to get involved with what we do. There are a number of ways you can do this.

• speak to our staff - many of our stations are staffed throughout the day and our team would love to hear from you.
• meet the manager - We will have regular ‘meet the manager’ events, where you can meet the local management team. We will advertise events beforehand at stations and on our website.
• join our 2500 volunteers who help make Northern a better place.

View our Northern Passengers' Charter 2024

Performance - Passengers' Charter Commitment

To find out how the franchise has been performing, please visit our Performance page.

Service Quality - Our Commitment to Quality

To find out how we are doing in our service quality audits, please visit our Service Quality page.

View our Rail Passenger Rights and Obligations (PRO) Regulation reporting 23/24 document.

Customer information pledges

Whilst we always try our best to make your journey as simple as possible, we understand that, sometimes things don’t always go to plan when travelling by rail.

Customers across rail industry, tell us that this is an area, we need to improve, which is why Northern has been working closely with other train operators, Network Rail and the Rail Delivery group as part of the Smarter information programme.

The Smarter information programme

This programme aims to achieve a step change in customer experience through providing you with improved information, when and how you wish to receive it.

Across the rail industry, we have now agreed a set of pledges, which outline what you can expect, before, during and after your journey.

What do the Customer Information Pledges say?

The customer information pledges

• Show we care by listening to our customers and putting their needs first
• Commit to a set of guiding principles that will bring real consistency to customers who choose to travel by train
• Bring together best practice from across the rail industry and other industries, to support you during disruption, enabling you to get to your destination as quickly as possible

You can view the Rail Delivery Group customer information pledges here

What’s next?

Over the next 6 months, we will be sharing with you what our plans are to improve further, working across the industry to deliver a great experience for all of our customers