Cram everyone into 2 carriages
Sigh... Another day, another attempt at cramming 4 carriages worth of peak time commuters onto 2 carriages.
Phi
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Customer Reviews
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60 reviews
Airport Passenger Left to Fix Northern’s Mistake
I was travelling on the 08:07 service from Ulverston to Manchester Airport when my suitcase was removed from the luggage rack while I was seated four rows away. No clear announcement was heard by either me or the passenger seated next to me. I only discovered the removal at Bolton.What followed was more concerning than the initial mistake.Despite explaining that I was travelling to the airport for a long-haul international flight, I was offered no meaningful assistance in resolving the situation. I was directed to contact another operator regarding lost property and left to disembark, travel back to Lancaster, retrieve the bag myself, and then return to Manchester Airport — ultimately arriving 79 minutes later than planned and narrowly making my flight.A passenger heading to the airport was left to absorb the consequences of an error without any apparent attempt at coordinated recovery.Ironically, staff from other operators (TransPennine Express and Avanti), who bore no responsibility for the original issue, were proactive and solution-focused when I later engaged with them. That demonstrated that a better response was entirely possible.Northern’s formal responses have relied heavily on process and protocol. While procedures may have been technically followed, the overall handling fell short of what any reasonable passenger would expect — particularly on an airport-bound service where luggage is commonplace.Mistakes happen. What defines a company is how it recovers from them. In this case, recovery was left to the customer.I hope Northern reflects on whether this is truly the level of service it wishes to stand behind.
Matt
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DAY TWO of after the millions of pounds…
DAY TWO of after the millions of pounds spent on the huge rail upgrade and the trail is cancelled. Lol
Dan Papadopoulos
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Don't expect the train to ever be on time
Unfortunately for me, I have no other choice to get into Manchester than with the Northern train, so I have years of experience dealing with Northern and the ONLY upside to their monopoly here is that you will always travel for very very cheap or free since EVERY train is late and cancellations 'due to fault with the signalling system' happen ALL THE TIME. It genuinely seems like the government should step in here, public transport affects all industries and it can't be good for the public nor the economy for people to constantly be late or no-shows because Northern either refuses to or are incapable of running a single train on time.On the flip side, if you ever want a job where you can sit around and do nothing and still get paid, I guess Northern is a good place for it.
Alex Mackenzie
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Great Conductor
Was travelling to Scarborough from Hunmanby today. I got on the train and I accidently brought the wrong ticket but conductor Dean didn't kick me off the train. Really good service Northern will use again wonderful staff!
Joseph Smyth
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Great service from Northern
Got train from Harrogate to York, train was on time, very clean, staff were lovely, great experience with Northern, cant praise them enough, 10/10
Dear Mrs Pullan
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I mean do you think people have no…
I mean do you think people have time to just wait around all day or something? Delay after delay after delay, get a grip of your service and do better, ridiculous.
fred naimski
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Took mum to Sunderland yesterday 11…
Took mum to Sunderland yesterday 11 o'clock train from Hartlepool I just want to say a big thank you to all staff who give my mum that bit of happiness they looked after her 100 per cent being in a wheel chair is hard sometimes but the staff made it a pleasure to travel and on the return journey thank you again Mr shears from Hartlepool
Michael Shears
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I paid £11.40 from Northampton to…
I paid £11.40 from Northampton to Liverpool return and £12.45 Manchester to Liverpool single with Northan line with no USB I will never call midland rail again
WILLIAM
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Abysmal ticket procedure
Abysmal ticket procedure
Faisal
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Mugged By Northern Rail Mobsters
This is what it feels like when a Penalty Fare Notice is forced upon you in error - you appeal the PFN and are apparently 'successful' and yet they still rob you of the price of a single fare, even though you showed them proof of a full return ticket. No way to appeal this final decision - no refund after complaining to Northern Railways (in fact no response to the points made in complaint) and pushed into taking it to the Rail Ombudsman. This company seems to operate like something akin to a Manchester mafia and I think some of the other reviews are probably right that they should be investigated and shut down. They seem to have a system set up to grab customers money at any opportunity whilst giving the poorest excuse of a service in return - they use the oldest, least reliable rolling stock you are likely to see outside a so-called 'third world' country, charge customers for tickets for services that constantly fail to function (cancellations and delays an everyday occurence) - putting customers in the position of having to try to find the time and will to attempt to get refunds - services which rarely have enough carriages and are regularly (dangerously) overcrowded - they make absolutely zero attempt at maintaining any 'customer relations', give insulting robotic responses to all complaints and rely on most customers not having the stamina to take things as far as the Rail Ombudsman in order to get away with it most of the time. Unfortunately, in my case, taking it to the Rail Ombudsman is seeming like another exercise in futility - with contradictory information received on the same day leaving me unsure whether they had actually taken my case on or not and an email the following day telling me that the case was now closed (so even if it had been accepted it looks like it didn't get anywhere) and no response to my queries since then - they did pass me on to something called Transport Focus but they say straight up that they don't have any real powers to do anything, so it looks like - after all this - a situation where Northern Rail can just get away with robbing and abusing someone and nobody can do anything about it.
Mr V
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They murder pigeons
They murder pigeons. Boycott
Amber-louise Brooks
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they are horrible nothing more to be…
they are horrible nothing more to be said
amy jarvis
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Shooting pigeons and leaving them to…
Shooting pigeons and leaving them to slowly suffer and die what the hell is wrong with you? Sickening company with no morals. Pigeons don’t do anything wrong how dare you hurt them.
Bee
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Not only do they run shoddy services… MURDERERS
Not only do they run shoddy services for inflated prices, they still in 2026 are murdering innocent wildlife. Disgusting and avoid at all costs.
Matt
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Animal abuse!!!
I’m horrified to find out that this company has hired a company to shoot pigeons in their stations leaving harmless birds injured and suffering. Not only is this inhumane it’s unnecessary and disgusting!!
Annie
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KILLING PIGEONS AT VICTORIA STATION
They’re continuously shooting and killing and badly injuring pigeons at Victoria station. Leaving the to hang by one leg off the roof. It is SICKENING. And they won’t respond correspondence to them about it. Pigeons were domesticated by humans, what gives them the right or murder them? Horrible company can see why they have 1 star not just for the dogshit services but they’re murders too.
Keira Frosdick
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ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING COMPANY
ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING COMPANY! if you’re against animal abuse, do NOT use northern rail. they leave birds to suffer and die, and you will often find half dead pigeons around manchester victoria because they are shot with rubber pellets then left to slowly die a painful death. this company should be ashamed of themselves. 🤬
saff watts
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I’m absolutely heart broken and…
I’m absolutely heart broken and sickened to know that Northern Rail have been having ‘Pigeon shooting sessions’ in the Manchester train station. More people need to know and we need to make sure Northern knows we do not condone their behaviour.
Jessica Harriet
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Pigeon killers
Lots of information has been going around showing footage of pigeons left injured and fighting for their lives after 'culls' where they're shooting the birds with rubber bullets.This is appalling, these pigeons do more good for this station that the people managing it !
Burner Account
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