Northern secures two year franchise extension

Date published: 17 May 2010

We are pleased to announce that we have secured a two-year extension to our franchise after beating performance targets for our 2,500 daily train services across the north of England.

The Department for Transport has confirmed that Northern, which is owned by a joint venture of Serco and Abellio, will now run the franchise until 15 September 2013.

We have improved the punctuality of our train services from 83.7% in the 12 months to December 2004 to 91.6% in the last 12 months, meaning that on average 200 more trains arrive on time every single day now than in 2004.

Ian Bevan, Managing Director, Northern said: “We are delighted that the improvements we have made to the punctuality and reliability of our services have been recognised.

“We’ve worked hard to turn this franchise from the ‘steady state’ it was predicted to be into the thriving railway that it is today. As well as improving performance we’ve invested over £100million with our partners to provide more and newer trains and improve facilities at stations. We look forward to delivering even more for our passengers over the next three years.”

Northern began operating services in the north of England in December 2004. The franchise was let by the Strategic Rail Authority (since disbanded and powers passed to the Department for Transport) as ‘steady-state’; this meant it was forecast to carry the same number of passengers, with the same trains, over the lifetime of the contract. There was no provision for investment in trains or stations, but Serco and Abellio set out to deliver more for passengers and since the start of its franchise Northern has:

• attracted 34% more passengers, increasing passenger journeys from 60million per annum to 85million per annum
• invested more than £25million to improve trains, stations and employee accommodation
• attracted over £80million of external investment to improve stations and help lease more trains
• refurbished over half of its fleet of 290 trains and introduced 61 additional carriages to provide much needed additional capacity
• implemented award-winning safety, sustainability and community programmes