Northern Trains Limited Tracking Order Status

Love Northern rail. Their bike support is outstanding. Considering the gov wants everybody to be net zero no other rail company offers better support for bikes. Please keep up the good. The staff have very rarely questioned me about having my bike on board even if there are 2 or 3 more bikes already on.

A quick 'shout out' to James working as ground staff supervisor at Manchester Piccadilly.....I had missed a connection at Newport due to signalling issues,so consequently I missed the final train home to Carlisle (from Manchester). James REALLY went the extra mile trying to get me home,making phonecall after phone call to find the easiest & quickest way home for me, eventually a taxi was sorted to take me all the way to Carlisle,James was naturally reassuring, friendly & customer focussed.....I really can't thank him enough for resolving a difficult & stressful situation when I was utterly exhausted,he even escorted me to the taxi rank! A little bit of kindness goes a long way.....thankyou again James,it was SO much appreciated 👍🤗

Some unmanned rural stations run by Northern Railway have big touchscreen ticket machines on the platform. However, because of the way they are sited the screens are often unreadable (or at least very difficult to read) when the sun shines directly on them, and the touchscreen feature can at the very least be temperamental. With the complex choices of ticket types and validities and railcard options offered by the machine, I finished up purchasing a single ticket instead of a cheap day return (they are almost the same price). There is an enquiry phone (on the other platform) but the person who responded to me was less than helpful or sympathetic with the problem. However the train conductor, when I boarded, told me that they get a lot of similar complaints about the machines and sorted the matter out easily, issuing me with the appropriate supplementary ticket on payment of the fare difference of 5p. Top marks for him, but the phone operator perhaps needs some additional training, and the company needs to do something about these machines. Turning or repositioning them to take account of the sun, or erecting canopies over them to keep the sun off the screen would solve the problem, but they have been like this for several years. My trains (Bamford-Manchester return) were on time too, though that should be expected, not a reason for special compliments.

Better this time, newer train arrived and left for return journey on time as normally a train gets cancelled with late notice. Hope the improvement continues.

On Friday 28 April 2023 my sister and I took the 17.01 train from Manchester Airport to Crewe. During this journey there was a slight delay. The guard (Haj?[don't know how to spell her name]) explained the reason for the delay and a rough estimation of the time of arrival in Crewe. As we were leaving the train before Crewe and had no other connections to make I didn't really take much notice of what was said although this information may well have been very useful to others on the journey. When she came to check our tickets she asked if we heard her announcement and asked if the delay would impair our journey in any way. When we explained that we would leave the train before Crewe she said that we must let her know if we needed help with our suitcases and that she would be happy to help. When we reached our station she immediately stopped her ticket inspecting and took our suitcases and backpacks from us and placed them on the platform. All this was done with good grace. This level of service is not unusual on Northern Rail. Before Covid 19 struck I travelled more frequently and I would say that, on eight out of ten journeys, the guard has had to impart information, deal with confused/difficult passengers or help in a physical way. It's all too easy to complain about cancellations and delays but this is not the fault of the staff. KEEP THE GUARD ON THE TRAIN!