Northern Rail, England > Reviews (7)

I have been living in Yorkshire all my life, thus whenever i have to go somewhere local, even if my eventual journey takes me farther afield, i must always start with a Northern Rail train.
I consider myself a fairly well travelled person (in England), ive been to London, Manchester, Birmingham, Devon,York and many more. Yet from my point of view i have yet to find a train company as incompetent as Northern Rail.
I believe the realiabilty is dreadful. I have to commute a very short distance to work, the train journey is exactly 8 mins. The train i have to catch is the 7.29 am. Yet (and this is no exaggeration) in my 3 years of catching this train it has been on time, wait for it, twice.
Now this isnt just confined to this one journey, i also have to commute to Sheffield and Leeds a lot, all of which are just as unrealiable.
I wouldn't mind being late every time if i could just get a seat, but no. Despite it being common knowledge that 7-9am is peak time for workers, as is 5-7pm, a maxium of two carriages are put on. This is so bad that several times i have literally not been able to fit on the train, and im a very skinny young man!.
My bile would be reduced if the train was a gilded carriage of luxury, but, you guessed it, it aint. The way i see it is the trains are old, grotty and ugly.
O and dont even think of using the toilet! If you can squeeze past the overcrowded carriage of people you will find eiither that the toilet is no bigger than a matchbox, or in most cases isnt even there!.
The only postive i have found is the staff, who have always been polite and helpful. Which is surprising considering the drole trains they have to go on every day.