Northern Rail

[CX54 DKD (Moderator)]

RE: Northern Rail
No worries, I'll try and explain a little more...

The DfT (Department for Transport) want to try and reduce confusion for passengers who may not be clued up on the fact that the railway is a franchised operation by creating consistent brands for each franchise (i.e. Northern, Transpennine, Southern etc.). The idea is that, regardless of who actually runs the franchise (so that's Serco-Abellio for the current Northern Rail and Arriva for the new Northern), the names on the trains etc. stay the same. They're also aiming for a consistent livery for each franchise which changes less frequently too. It's all about making the change of franchise as seamless as possible. This is something which already happens in Scotland with ScotRail.

Despite this, the option they did give in the ITT (Invitation to Tender) for the Northern franchise was just that the name of the franchise should contain the word Northern or North so a little flexibility still in some cases. I'm not sure what the stipulation was in the ITT for Transpennine but that will just be known as Transpennine Express.