Northern introduces new Yorkshire services as part of May timetable switch

From 20 May Northern will begin operating additional services to and from Lancaster and Carlisle on weekdays and Sundays, significantly increasing the capacity between the city and popular routes into Lancashire and Cumbria.

Customers travelling between Leeds and Knottingley/Pontefract will benefit from two trains each hour, whilst there will also be a new half hourly service calling at Kirkstall Forge.

Northern is also planning hourly extensions to Southport from Leeds via Dewsbury and Brighouse, opening up further commuting and leisure possibilities for customers on extremely popular routes.

The enhanced services form part of Northern’s May timetable change, which is paving the way for future improvements and getting the network ready for the arrival of Northern’s brand new and fully refurbished trains.

Paul Barnfield, Northern’s Regional Director, said: “The May 2018 timetable change is the next step for us in providing more and better services for our customers and we are looking forward to delivering these enhancements.”

Unfortunately, due to the knock on effects of delays in the delivery of the Manchester to Preston electrification, it has been necessary to postpone some of the improvements Northern had hoped to deliver.

Paul added: “Our proposed timetable for May 18 was dependent on the successful delivery by Network Rail of the Manchester to Preston electrification project, which has been significantly delayed. This means that some of the extra services we had originally planned for May, will now be arriving later than we had hoped.

“The delay to some of our service improvements will not, however, delay our overall modernisation plans. By 2020 we will provide 2,000 extra services each week across the Northern network, will have introduced 98 brand new trains, have refurbished the rest of the fleet and removed all Pacers from the line. We are absolutely committed to transforming the journey experience for our customers.”

Northern’s May 2018 service improvements are on the following routes:

• Leeds – Settle/Carlisle
• Leeds – Morecambe
• York – Selby
• Leeds – Wakefield - Knottingley
• Hull – York
• Kirkstall Forge
• Some Calder Valley services speeded up through Rochdale