Serco says farewell to Northern Rail after 11 years

Serco waved goodbye to Northern Rail, our joint venture with Abellio, on 31 March after 11 very successful years that have seen the service go from strength to strength.

During the contract, Northern Rail has run 850,000 services every year, increased the percentage of trains on time from 83 per cent to 91 per cent, refurbished every single train unit, and achieved a contract record customer satisfaction score of 84 per cent.

David Stretch, Serco’s Managing Director, Transport, said: “We have come to the end of a very special era as we say goodbye to such a great business and a truly dedicated team of people. I would like to thank Northern Rail Managing Director Alex Hynes and everyone in the team for having made such a massive contribution in making the current Northern Rail service such a huge success which has benefited thousands of people across the North of England. Their achievements have been tremendous and they have created a fantastic legacy for the new franchise and the next chapter in Northern Rail's fabulous history.  Everyone on the team, past and present, should be extremely proud of what they have achieved.”

Serco took over the Northern Rail Franchise with partner Abellio on 12 December 2004. Northern Rail is the largest train operator in Britain, providing 2,500 local and regional train services every day across the North of England, serving a population of nearly 15 million people. There are now 96 million passenger journeys made on the network each year, 47 per cent more than when the franchise started in December 2004.