Arriva Trains Northern

Advantages: Good Coverage of Smaller Stations and Rural Areas.
Disadvantages: Some Trains Are Old, Quite Expensive

...people jump on and off Arriva trains almost like buses, they cover many routes and tend to be small, ranging from a single carriage to three or four carriages in length. I use public transport quite a lot but only rarely stray onto the rail network mainly because I don't generally have a need to and can get more or less everywhere that I need to go on a bus. Yesterday, however I did have a need to travel by train and this experience is the subject ...
...The Company Background Arriva Trains Northern (ATN) secured their franchise from Northern Spirit in 1997 and operate both local and Trans-Pennine services across Yorkshire and the North of England. Arriva operate around 1,400 services every day covering 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 ... Read review

Advantages: Improving steadily
Disadvantages: Prone to employee problems, poor standard regional trains

...That's when my experiences with Arriva Trains Northern started - all of 6 years ago this summer. Here is my competition entry opinion, starting with a bit of company background ---Background--- Arriva Trains Northern (ATN) secured their franchise from Northern Spirit in 1997 and run local and transpennine services across Yorkshire and the North of England. They claim to operate around 1,400 services every day, 1,000 of which pass through Leeds ...
...a lot of experience of Arriva and the wide range of places it serves. So here goes, my view on Arriva Trains Northern: - ---Train Stock & Condition--- It mostly depends on which journey you take as to the condition of the train. Transpennine services tend to have the better trains, which are faster and more comfortable. There are usually 2 or 3 carriages to a train, with each carriage having 8 table seats and half of the rest facing to the front ... Read review

Advantages: they exist-mostly you can get a train when you want one to where you want one
Disadvantages: absolutely disgusting condition of carriages

...a train is. Arriva trains Northern operate on the transpennine Caldervale line between Manchester and Leeds/York/Scarborough. I get on these trains at Sowerby Bridge...an unmanned station where I catch my train to the big station at Leeds so that I can make my journey to London or elsewhere in the country on the main lines. I don't catch these trains very often, and today it was a reminder as to WHY I tend to drive to Leeds rather than catch the ...
...trucks? I don't! Arriva is not alone in having dirty trains..the GNER one coming back from London was not very clean- the toilet was a midden! The arriva northern website is useful becasue you can see timetables, destinations, special offers and changes to services easily. www.arrivatrainsnorthern.co.uk is the website. Give it a try- you may learn something that might be useful. Overall the company is getting better, but they need to think about ... Read review

Advantages: none
Disadvantages: appalling service

...about complaining. That said, Arriva Trains Northern are particularly worthy of my scathing; in fact, you might even say that they are asking for it. Fact: Arriva Trains Northern are wholly unable to run a decent rail service. We're not talking Connex here with filthy trains and broken toilets - it's worse. The trains are filthy and the toilets (which should only be risked in times of extreme need anyway) are pretty hopeless - but that's if the ...
...Arriva Trains operate their disturbing services around West Yorkshire and across the Pennines to Lancashire - routes including York to Scarborough and Manchester Victoria. The services are more often that not late - and this is at a time when "all the train companies" are "pulling together" to get services together again. What a load of twaddle. I see no evidence of this whatsoever. Maybe if the companies were not so concerned about expensive PR ... Read review

Advantages: Reliable and punctual service, good value fares, refurbished trains
Disadvantages: Some services in the peak can get busy

Arriva Trains Northern is the train company that took over the old Northern Spirit franchise in the north east of england. MTL (Mersyside Travel Limited) were the previous incumbents of the old regional railways north east franchise but 3 or 4 years ago they ran into serious financial difficulty. To counter this they made heavy cutbacks in their train operations which saw a cutback in drivers leading to severe shortages and a cutback in rolling stock ...
...financial problems MTL were facing, Arriva saw their chance to get into the rail market and bought MTL out. Unfortunately for Arriva and the rail customers of the area the damage was already done. Due to the massive cutbacks of staff, Arriva were cancelling a large number of services everyday simply due to the fact that they were left with not enough drivers to run the trains that they were contracted to. In the end Arriva decided with the support ... Read review

Advantages: The new trains are a lot better than the old "slam door" type trains they had.
Disadvantages: The trains hardly ever run on time

...Northern Spirit? More like Northern Ghost! I had the unfortunate pleasure of this company (now renamed Arriva trains Northern) since they started to run trains. If you need to catch one of these I would start walking because the chances are you will get there before the train does. They are hardly on time, no announcements on why they are late no nothing. The spent millions of pounds on some trains to run on the Airedale and Wharfdale lines (class 336 trains I think). Well these trains are really fun. Dispite the air conditioning and other extra features which, if the government want people to use public transport, train companies need to think about. However when they got these trains instead of sorting out problems before allowing them to come into service they decided to wait. The first time I went on one of these new trains... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: can't think of any
Disadvantages: stupid ideas

...This comapny took over from Railtrack at the begining of the year (might be wrong on that), but so far nothing has really changed. Recently in my area Network Rail replaced some track and wiring. On a couple of occasions they didn't tell the 2 train companies that run services in this area (Arriva Trains Northern & First Transpennine) that work was been carried out. The first Arriva knew anything about the work taking place was when I phoned them asking what time the coaches were leaving! Now Network rail have decided in there bright wisdom, to do more work between Leeds and Wakefield Westgate. I travel by train to watch Bradford City. This weekend (28/8/04) we are playing Chesterfield, which is a bit of a derby. Bradford are expecting a large number of Chesterfield fans, who will be travelling by train. Now they have to stop... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: New trains, regular services, First Class
Disadvantages: Class 175's suffer from over crowding,

...Original title (but too long for Ciao) - How many people can you fit in the cab vestibule of a class 175? *A BRIEF NOTE ABOUT THE COMPANY, AND THE ROUTES RUN BY IT.* First Transpennine express was formed when the long-distance routes run by First North Western, and Arriva Trains Northern were removed, and merged into a single franchise/company in February 2004. This quite new franchise, has been granted for 8 years, and is jointly operated by First Group, and Keolis. This new franchise is split into three routes: North Trans Pennine- These trains run from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne , Middlesbrough, Scarborough, and Hull via Leeds and Huddersfield, to Manchester Piccadilly, Manchester Airport, and Liverpool Lime Street. South Trans Pennine- Trains from Cleethorpes and Grimsby, via Scunthorpe, Doncaster, and Sheffield, to Manchester... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful