Lime Street Railway station panorama, TPE train to the left, Northern Railway train to the right of the platform. Liverpool, England, L1 1JD

Northern (legal name Arriva Rail North Limited) is a train operating company in Northern England which began operating the Northern franchise on 1 April 2016 and inherited units from the previous operator Northern Rail. A subsidiary of Arriva UK Trains, Northern is the second-largest train franchise in the United Kingdom; its trains call at 528 stations – about a quarter of all stations in the country. Central to franchise commitments will be a £500 million investment in 101 new-built units – the diesel Class 195 and electric Class 331. Introduced into service in July 2019, these will be the first new-build trains for the Northern franchise since the introduction of the Class 333 in 2000 with further orders possible if the new units encourage passenger growth and improve passenger satisfaction. The new rolling stock will enable all Pacer trains to be retired by June 2020. Additional commitments include the introduction of Class 769 bi-mode trains in March 2020, retirement of the Class 319s which are to be replaced by upgraded Class 323s by 2021 and 22 additional diesel units by 2022. It is also planned that a franchise sub-brand, known as Northern Connect, will provide inter-urban services between major cities and towns in Northern England, as well as serving a number of major commuting stations. TransPennine Express (legally known as First Transpennine Express Ltd) , often abbreviated to TPE, is a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup operating the TransPennine Express franchise. It runs regional and intercity rail services between the major cities of Northern England and Scotland. The franchise operates all its services to and through Manchester covering three main routes. The service provides rail links for major towns and cities such as Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, Sheffield, Hull, Leeds, York, Scarborough, Middlesbrough and Newcastle. TransPennine Express runs trains 24 hours a day, including through New Year's Eve night.