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View the Autumn / Winter 2011 issue of the Northern customer magazine

News

Northern welcomes additional carriages

13th December 2011


Northern welcomes additional carriages asset 1

From Monday 12 December, passengers through our five major urban centres will see more seats on peak time trains as we introduce 50 additional carriages across our network.

The carriages are the result of the Department for Transport’s rolling stock programme, which has secured a total of 60 additional carriages for Northern, meaning more seats on 20% of our major urban centre peak time trains - benefitting Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, Sheffield and Newcastle.

Ian Bevan, Managing Director of Northern, and Cllr Andrew Fender, Chair of the Transport for Greater Manchester Committee, welcomed the 07.13 Leeds to Manchester Victoria train, arriving in at 08.53 with 111 additional seats.

Ian comments: “Overcrowding has been one of the biggest challenges we have faced and one of the biggest causes of complaint for our passengers. Thanks to the additional carriages we will be providing 2.2million extra seats per year during the peak hours. We know that these extra carriages will not eradicate overcrowding, but will certainly provide significantly improved journeys for our customers from their introduction this morning.”

Rail Minister Theresa Villiers said: “These extra carriages are great news for passengers. The Government is determined to tackle overcrowding and provide better, more comfortable journeys, which is why we are funding this extra capacity.


“We are now embarked on one of the biggest programmes of rail capacity expansion since the Victorian era. In total we plan to introduce 2,700 new rail carriages on to the network by May 2019. These vital improvements will support economic growth and make life better for passengers.”

Councillor Andrew Fender, Chair of the Transport for Greater Manchester Committee, says: “This rolling stock will certainly help to ease overcrowding on some key services, which is good news for commuters. TfGM has worked closely with Government and Northern to secure this extra capacity, and our local MPs have also played an important role."

To manage the maintenance requirements of our enhanced fleet, we have worked with Network Rail to reopen Allerton depot in Merseyside.
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