owned by Great Western Holdings Ltd/FirstGroup plc
legal title North Western Trains Ltd
description Indicative bids were invited by OPRAF on 13 September 1996 for this first-generation franchise, with many services specified and supported by Passenger Transport Executives in Merseyside, Manchester and West Yorkshire.
Commitments included new services from North Wales, in the Liverpool and Manchester areas and between Blackpool/Rochdale and London (authorised by the Rail Regulator 5 March 1998), the replacement of Mk1 rolling stock and £5m invested in station improvements. (The Rochdale to London services ceased in May 2000.)
The first two brands of North Western Trains were replaced by First North Western in November 1998, after FirstGroup had bought the holdings of the other shareholders in parent company Great Western Holdings.
This franchise was replaced in three stages as replacement contracts were progressively introduced.
The first was the acquisition of the Holyhead line by Wales & Borders on 28 September 2003. The second was the transfer of some of the remaining FNW services to First TransPennine Express on 1 February 2004. The FNW franchise ended on 12 December 2004 when the last routes were taken over by Northern.
service area Manchester–Birmingham, Holyhead, Chester, Liverpool, Southport, Blackpool, Morecambe, Carlisle via Barrow (Cumbrian Coast Line), Clitheroe, Wakefield, Windermere, Colne, Manchester–Hadfield/Glossop/Buxton/Sheffield/Manchester Airport
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