Where I live in the North of England some 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 ... Read review
NH Hotels, the hotel chain leader in Europe, with more than 300 hotels in 20 countries in Europe, Latin America and Africa. Enter into our web site and find the best available tariff at all times
Record Rent a Car is present in the main spanish airports and has a very wide fleet. We offer: exceptional discounts, free additional drivers,
unlimited mileage... subscribe to our Club Record and take advantage of special offers.
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 ... ...an Arriva Northern Train from Sheffield to Retford, a small town in North Nottinghamshire close to the Lincolnshire border, it is not a long journey only about 30 miles in distance and took around 30 minutes.
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 ... more
Where I live in the North of England some 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 of this review.
I travelled on an Arriva Northern Train from Sheffield to Retford, a small town in North Nottinghamshire close to the Lincolnshire border, it is not a long journey only about 30 miles in distance and took around 30 minutes.
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 in the North to Sheffield and the North Midlands in the South. The bulk of their services are in and around Yorkshire as they have the franchise for local services in this area and the Trans-Pennine services across the country.
Their staff don't just include train drivers and conductors, they also employ the station staff at 242 stations that they run across their network, and all-in-all employ over 3000 staff.
The Price
I purchase my ticket on the train but tickets can be bought at the station in advance. I travelled with one other adult and a child and the cost for an adult fare was £7.90, be warned however because a single adult fare was £6.90 so providing that you are returning the same day there is not much difference in price between single and return fares. The cost of a single child's ticket was £4, a return ticket was not necessary as he was staying a few days at his Grandparents and would be returning with them by car. For regular travellers on Arriva trains there are a whole host of different ticket options available including day saver tickets, weekly savers, and student discounts, but the problem with many of the day savers and weekly savers are that these are often valid within specific counties and since my journey crossed county borders they didn't offer me any savings.
The Journey
Arriva Northern Trains tend to take long routes calling at several small stations en route to maximise the number of passengers they carry. For passengers boarding and alighting at any of these small stations Arriva trains are the only option as the bigger, faster Inter-City trains just fly straight through such stations bound for the bigger Urban areas of Nottingham, Peterborough and London. The train I boarded began its journey in Sheffield with a final destination of Lincoln Central, although I could have taken a train bound for Cleethorpes as they do not fork until after Retford. My train stopped at Attercliffe, Darnall, Kiveton Main, Kiveton Park, Shireoaks, Worksop and Retford so you see that it was not the fastest of journeys but it was the only option and it was a pleasant, comfortable ride.
Condition Of The Trains
The train I travelled on for my outbound journey had three carriages with each carriage having eight table seats and half of the rest facing to the front of the train and the other half facing the back. The train was only about half full so there was no problem finding a table seat facing forwards as I do not enjoy travelling backwards given a choice. There were toilets at each end of both end carriages but none within the middle carriage. Luggage storage space was plentiful with large areas at the front of each carriage and also in overhead racks above the seats. The train was very clean ensuring a pleasant and enjoyable journey. The train on my return journey back from Retford to Sheffield was only a single carriage and visually much older than the one on my outward journey, but it was still clean and tidy, with toilets at the rear of the train. Both of the trains which I travelled on were equipped with fire extinguishers and those little hammers to break the glass in the windows if you needed to get out in an emergency, and there were emergency stop cords. Whilst waiting at the station I noticed that the Trans-Pennine trains did seem to be a lot more modern, which is understandable since these undertake the longer journeys.
Punctuality
The trains on my particular journey ran every half an hour and were bang on time on both the outward and return leg of the journey so no complaints there.
Other Information
Staff were minimal but the ones that I did see were very smart and pleasant and the ticket collector on the outward journey was a little old man with a good sense of humour.
Conclusion
Overall I found travelling on Arriva Northern trains quite an enjoyable experience but did feel that it was a little expensive for the length of the journey. I would certainly have no hesitation of travelling by this method again.
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 ...
m.lyon 28.05.2003
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Arriva Trains Northern
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 ...
ginger59 28.10.2003
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Arriva Trains Northern
...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 ...
andyev 30.07.2001 (03.08.2001)
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Arriva Trains Northern
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 ...
CyrixDes 25.07.2004
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Arriva Trains Northern
Advantages: errrr... Disadvantages: northern trains, everything about them really
...more. After this there was arriva buses, no trains, no, I was right the first time it was buses I think. As you have probably gathered they virtually always had problems resulting in buses. Northern Trains have made some improvements but really have not done all too much for it.
The route...
Name a staion in northern england and the chances are that northern trains will operate a train to it. The routes are extremely extensive, but in many cases ... ...routes where better routes could be used. Many services stop at stations that do dot require any trains at the time they stop whereas others do not stop at stations that require frequent services. My local station in Swinton Interchange in south Yorkshire.and despite its interchange status services are not frequent, all are local stopping, and many will not take you out of the county. They go as far north as Newcastle and Carslisle, and as far south ...
DC-DanielColeflax 16.05.2007 (04.06.2008)
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Arriva Trains Northern
Frequency of trains
Reliability of trains
Comfort of trains
On-board facilities
Similar reviews »
Reviews which might be of interest for "Arriva Trains Northern"
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 ArrivatrainsNorthern) 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 ...
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 ArrivaTrainsNorthern 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 ...
Advantages: frequent rail services Disadvantages: expensive fares and old trains
and regular train operator...
Perhaps one day they will upgrade the rolling stock on the line, with 21st Century rolling stock, and not stock that is but a year or two away from entering York Railway Museum...
Come on Northern Spirit get your act together !!....
Since February this year (2001) Northern Spirit or should I now call them Arriva have introduced these new train sets on the Wharfedale (Leeds - Ilkley) and the Airdale ( Leeds - Skipton) lines .... although new and they look great, the seats are uncomfortable and narrow ( ring a bell Virgin Atlantic???)...so I can report improvements of sorts.... ...
Dalesman 22.08.2000 (15.07.2001)
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Northern Spirit
![Can I Keep This Pen [Digipak] - Northern State](http://imagesa.ciao.com/iuk/images/products/small/712/Can_I_Keep_This_Pen_Digipak_Northern_State__6729712.jpg)
