page_title: Arriva Trains Northern
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Arriva Trains Northern / History
caption_attribution_description: English: BR Class 156, no. 156443, at Carlisle, on 27th August 2004. Deutsch: British Rail Dieseltriebwagen Baureihe 156 Nr. 156443 in Carlisle am 27. August 2004.
context_page_description: Arriva Trains Northern was a train operating company in England owned by Arriva that operated the Regional Railways North East franchise from March 1997 until December 2004. Arriva resumed operating Northern train services again on 1 April 2016 under the Northern brand but ceased again on 29 February 2020.
context_section_description: As part of the privatisation of British Rail, the Regional Railways North East franchise was awarded by the Director of Passenger Rail Franchising to MTL after it won the contest from a field of Connex, FirstBus, Grand Central, a management/Via-GTI consortium, National Express, Prism Rail and Stagecoach. The franchise commenced on 2 March 1997.
  In May 1998, the franchise was rebranded as Northern Spirit with a livery of turquoise with a lime green stylised italic N across the midsection introduced.
  At the same time, the long distance regional services connecting Sunderland, Newcastle, Scarborough and Hull with Manchester, Liverpool and Blackpool were sub-branded under the TransPennine Express banner with rolling stock painted in a base colour of maroon with a gold stylised italic N across the midsection. These services would later become a franchise in their own right from 2004, namely the Transpennine franchise, which is currently operated by TransPennine Express.
  On 18 February 2000, MTL was purchased by Arriva, and on 27 April 2001 the franchise was rebranded as Arriva Trains Northern. The Arriva corporate turquoise and stone livery was introduced on refurbished 153352 in July 2001.
caption: Northern Spirit liveried 156443 at Carlisle station in August 2004
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