Northern Rail, England

Northern are a train operating company (TOC) who cover a large area of the north of England. The services provided by Northern are extensive and I personally use Northern trains to travel near the Manchester area. As Northern offer 'local' trains you can often connect one Northern service to another if you are travelling over a longer distance.

Train frequency is good in most places as Northern tend to operate stopper services which mean that they call at most local stations. This also means that you can use Northern to connect with 'express' services at more mainstream stations if you do happen to live miles away from a main station.
The vast majority of services run to time, although it can be said that Northern trains are slow as a result of their stopping nature. Although this is useful for some, it does increase the journey time. For longer journeys, stopping at each station may be unnecessary meaning that you have a longer journey time than with other train operating companies.
Northern operate a wide number of diesel multiple units and the comfort levels vary dependent on the unit type in use. In my opinion, most of the units that operate have a satisfactory comfort level. However, in comparison to other train operating companies, the furnishings inside the trains are not as extensive. From my point of view, the seats are hard and have less cushioning than on trains operated by other train operating companies.
Although not 'unsafe' some of the trains do have a rather jerky feel to them, this can unease those who are not used to train travel. Apart from that the trains are great in terms of safety.
Northern offer tickets at very reasonable rates, with several options available for if you own a railcard, want a return journey on the same day or a different day or just want a single fare. On occasion, Northern operate special services to connect with different events across the north.
Staff are friendly and often talk to the customers when passing through the train to check tickets, I have often found that Northern staff are on hand to deal with customer queries about which train would be the best to catch to a particular destination.
On board the trains there is often no buffet trolley as Northern services are often operated by two-vehicle units with no room for extras such as a buffet/retail trolley. This means that you have to buy food at the station before you get on the train but is not a major inconvenience.

Overall I would say that Northern operate a good standard service in the north of England and are useful for short journeys between local stations although you may like to consider a different train operating company for significantly longer journeys. I have found prices to be very reasonable and cheap in comparison to most other companies.