Northern Rail

The only time that I have ever got on a train without paying (cause I was running late and there was a huge huge queue in the ticket office) and this was the only time that a conductor did not come round to ask us if we needed tickets. It was too busy apparently. I was given a £4 fine at Leeds station. I couldn’t get on the website to pay it, I tried customer service and they kept putting me through to someone else or ignoring my emails. A few weeks later, I received a threat that if I don’t pay more than £80 then they would take me to court. Yes, that’s right, over a £4 ticket. You sad deluded Twat waffles. Instead you spend money on those idiots in yellow jackets at Ilkley station (who by the way — I absolutely love waving at them inside the nice cosy train as they shiver to death).
Now, bare in mind, the day I was given a fine was my first day at a new job. I now pay £380 a month to get from Ilkley to Manchester. And they’re hassling me for £4. Also bare in mind, I have been late for work several times and once I couldn’t get to work at all whilst traveling on your trains, trains have been cancelled or delayed. Now, due to these cancellations, I have calculated that at £4 each time (your set price not mine) that you actually owe me £56. I let you off the £4 from when you ran that bloke over in Guiseley. I accept cash, most major credit cards and Costa coffee vouchers.
I am so glad that you lot have lost the contract to run the trains here. Good riddance.
Also your wifi is shit.

In my opinion not the best of train companies.
They operate in northern england.
The trains arrive with only 2 carriages during busy times so not much of a chance of getting a seat, if you do manage to get a seat they cram as many seats as they can in to a carriage 3 seats on 1 side & 2 on the other so the aisle is very narrow & the leg room is bad, I need to sit on outer seats with my legs blocking the narrow aisle I can’t get my legs between seats meaning my knees stick up over the seat in front lmao!
Trains are mostly dirty although the staff & guard’s are mostly friendly & helpful.

Northern Rail is one of the main railway companies in Northern towns like Manchester and I rather wish it wasn’t.
I have been on 4 trains now, on the Rochdale-​Leeds route and the Manchester Piccadily– Newton for Hyde route. On all 4 journeys I didn’t find their to be sufficent leg room and comfortable times, and at busy times, I found myself to be rather squashed.
One big killer for me with Northern is they always appear to be late, when I wait in a train station I always here announcements they are running late, and they always are for me. 4 times out of 4 they have been late at 4 very different times and that is with other services I didn’t board as well.
Northern don’t even do online booking right because when I book train tickets I wan’t nectar points and they give me Waiting points, which are only redeemable for longer delays for Northern services.
Northern is one of the worst train companies I have ever travelled with and hopefully if I ever get a train again, another company would cover that northern route. 1 star is a fair rating for this company as the staff appear to be quite nice who I spoke to but honestly it really isn’t worth upgrading any more because of the consistent delays, even at off-​peak times and the very poor seating for numerous areas, I have stated in my review, most of the smaller stations they manage like Newton for Hyde and Rochdale all seem like a dump, so they could also do more to bring them into the 21^st century but I suppose they would rather have you wait 21 centuries.

Only took a trip with Northern Rail once… I needed some retail therapy and wanted a change of scenery from London, Nottingham, and Peterborough… so I decided on Meadowhall. The Northern Rail part of the journey was from Doncaster to Meadowhall, about a 30 minute trip. The connection time at Doncaster wasn’t too bad… about 15 minutes, a definite plus in my book because nothing is worse than having to wait at a train station for longer than your train journeys.
The train itself, again not a huge train, two cars and strangely it seemed like there were not as many seats in the car as other services. The cars looked quite rundown. The service to Meadowhall is a busy one, particularly on weekends and this train was stuffed to the gills by the time we arrived at Meadowhall. It doesn’t bother me that I didn’t get a seat because it is only about 30 minutes, if there are no delays, but I noticed that the majority of the people that were on the train were elderly and it was a case of elderly people giving up their seats to elderly people. I don’t know if that is the usual demographic for that service, but if so, it might be nice to have more seating for them.

With city centre parking pretty costly to say the least, I’m always more than tempted to leave the good old Mel mobile in the West Wing quarters and get a train into the centre. It also means good old Mel can be tempted to a cheeky glass of fizz or two after a tiring day shopping and getting my hair done. Perfect.
Northern rail provide some of the trains into the station and have done since taking over from Arriva Trains Northern in 2004. Lots has been said of failing targets and decline in service standard across the rail network and you only have to listen to regular users to hear plenty of moans and groans. However, I must admit I’ve not actually found too many problems with my local service. Granted, weekend engineering work and too many leafs on the track make me want to pull my hair out, but in terms of general day to day running you’ll find a more than reasonable standard.
We’ve not got the most modern fleet in the country. In fact I’d say we look positively second rate in comparison to other parts of the country, but they are relatively clean, comfy and more importantly do the job you want. Get you from a to b.
Do check if the artic weather comes in and as I said earlier, you’ll get some disruption at times on Bank Holidays and weekends but if you check you should be well away. It also won’t cost you an arm and a leg and is pretty reasonable on your pocket.