Northern: Rolling Stock
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 4 June 2026 to Question 3326 on Northern Trains: Rolling Stock, how many and what proportion of short-formed services there were for each of those routes in the 18 months prior to 4 June 2026.
Answered by Keir Mather
DFT Operator expects operators to provide appropriate capacity in response to expected demand and holds operators to account for short -formed services. While DFT Operator generally monitors levels of short formation at an operator level every four weeks, more detailed route information is available for Northern services due to specific challenges concerning the age of its fleet. These are set out below:
|
|
|
|
Route | number of trains with fewer carriages |
|
|
Southport - Stalybridge | 4709 |
| 23.5% |
Skipton - Leeds | 4588 |
| 13.1% |
Leeds - Harrogate - York | 4311 |
| 11.7% |
Leeds - Manchester Victoria | 4271 |
| 21.4% |
Manchester Piccadilly - New Mills Central | 4262 |
| 24.4% |
Blackpool North - Manchester Airport (express) via Bolton | 4121 |
| 12.5% |
Blackburn - Wigan/Headbolt Lane | 4087 |
| 22.2% |
Liverpool - Oxford Rd via Warrington (stoppers) | 3504 |
| 13.4% |
Manchester Victoria - Clitheroe via Bolton | 3494 |
| 21.7% |
Leeds - Chester | 3202 |
| 20.7% |
Southport - Oxford Rd via Bolton | 3046 |
| 22.3% |
Leeds - Ilkley | 2983 |
| 8.3% |
Leeds - Sheffield via Moorthorpe | 2872 |
| 13.0% |
Sheffield - Huddersfield | 2829 |
| 17.8% |
Liverpool - Warrington Central | 2095 |
| 18.6% |
Wigan - Leeds | 1962 |
| 12.4% |
Manchester Piccadilly - Buxton | 1939 |
| 5.9% |
Halifax - Hull | 1842 |
| 9.6% |
Leeds/Castleford - Huddersfield via Dewsbury | 1783 |
| 16.3% |
Liverpool - Manchester Airport via Huyton (stoppers) | 1760 |
| 9.7% |
Leeds - Knottingley via Wakefield | 1570 |
| 10.2% |
Manchester Piccadilly - Sheffield | 1488 |
| 8.8% |
Bradford Forster Square - Ilkley | 1359 |
| 5.3% |
Goole - Castleford - Leeds | 1233 |
| 7.1% |
Liverpool - Blackpool North (express) | 1159 |
| 7.5% |
Sheffield - Hull/Scarborough via Doncaster | 1005 |
| 2.8% |
Leeds - Bradford Forster Square | 972 |
| 3.4% |
Blackpool North - York | 924 |
| 5.3% |
Manchester Piccadilly - Crewe via Stockport | 918 |
| 3.2% |
Liverpool - Wigan/Blackpool North (stoppers) | 865 |
| 2.8% |
Bradford Forster Square - Skipton | 821 |
| 3.1% |
Leeds - Barnsley - Sheffield (stoppers) | 809 |
| 3.9% |
Leeds - Garforth - York | 757 |
| 4.8% |
Rochdale - Blackburn | 704 |
| 4.9% |
Doncaster - Leeds | 661 |
| 3.5% |
Manchester Airport - Windermere/Barrow (express) | 643 |
| 4.8% |
Leeds - Lincoln via Sheffield | 592 |
| 3.0% |
Whitby - Middlesbrough | 509 |
| 9.2% |
Leeds - Settle - Carlisle | 471 |
| 5.2% |
Manchester Piccadilly - Chester | 453 |
| 2.6% |
Blackpool South - Preston | 379 |
| 2.4% |
Durham Coast | 372 |
| 1.5% |
Leeds - Nottingham | 368 |
| 2.0% |
York - Hull/Bridlington | 364 |
| 1.8% |
Leeds - Knaresborough | 346 |
| 15.3% |
Newcastle - Carlisle | 285 |
| 0.8% |
Windermere - Oxenholme | 283 |
| 2.5% |
Manchester Piccadilly - Crewe via Manchester Airport | 276 |
| 1.7% |
Wigan - Manchester Victoria via Eccles | 242 |
| 5.7% |
Newcastle - Ashington | 223 |
| 0.8% |
Hull - Scarborough (local Services Beverley Hull) | 216 |
| 2.7% |
Cumbria Coast | 182 |
| 0.7% |
Manchester Piccadilly - Stoke on Trent | 91 |
| 0.6% |
Barrow/Windermere - Preston | 87 |
| 1.4% |
Bradford Interchange - Huddersfield | 84 |
| 0.9% |
Sheffield - Adwick | 64 |
| 0.3% |
Bishop Auckland - Saltburn | 59 |
| 0.2% |
Preston - Colne | 52 |
| 0.3% |
Manchester Piccadilly - Rose Hill Marple | 37 |
| 0.2% |
Lancaster - Morecambe | 17 |
| 0.1% |
Manchester Piccadilly - Hadfield/Glossop | 10 |
| 0.0% |
Sheffield - York | 6 |
| 0.2% |
Saltburn - Chester le Street - Carlisle | 5 |
| 0.3% |
Preston - Ormskirk | 5 |
| 0.0% |
Leeds - Lancaster | 4 |
| 0.1% |
Sheffield - Gainsborough Central | 3 |
| 2.9% |
Rochdale - Ribblehead | 3 |
| 1.1% |
Ellesmere Port - Helsby/Liverpool | 2 |
| 0.1% |
Chathill - Newcastle | 1 |
| 0.1% |
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