Northern refurbishes two thirds of trains

Alongside the introduction of 101 brand-new trains, at a cost of £500m, Northern is investing a further £80m in refurbishing the remainder of its fleet.

A mixture of diesel and electric trains are operating across the Northern network and 243 trains are being refurbished to an ‘as new’ standard.

All trains will, when the full refurbishment programme is complete, be made comfier, cleaner and completely modernised with new on board facilities such as WiFi, USB charging at every pair of seats and real time customer information.

The refurbishment will include making trains fully accessible and installing universal toilets with baby changing facilities.

The 400 plus carriages will also have replacement seats and energy efficient LED lightning.

David Brown, Northern’s Managing Director, said: “A lot of our focus has been on the introduction of brand-new trains, but I am also delighted with the significant progress we are making in modernising the rest of our fleet.

“When we started our franchise in 2016 we made the commitment to totally transform customers’ travelling experience with us. We are making every train in our fleet modern and accessible for all and have completed two thirds of the initial stage of the fleet renewal. I am delighted that customers across the north of England are now starting to travel on much-improved trains with better on-board facilities.”

The refurbishment of Northern’s fleet is taking place at depots in Doncaster, Crewe, Wolverton, Loughborough and Kilmarnock in Scotland.

The current stage of refurbishment focuses on customer comfort and accessibility, whilst the next stage known as ‘Digital Trains’, will deliver free WiFi, CCTV, enhanced and real time customer information screens and a raft of on-board systems designed to improve train performance and maintenance, meaning more trains will be in operation more often.