Sero and Netherlands Railways takes over from Arriva Trains Northern

From Sunday, Serco and Netherlands Railways are taking over services previously run by First North Western and Arriva Trains Northern.

On the same day, First Keolis introduce new timetables on routes between the North East, North West, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and Manchester Airport.

Serco and Netherlands Railways will operate 5,000 trains carrying more than 1m passengers a day.

Delayed takeover

The joint venture between the two firms should have started running the new franchise two months ago, but the contract for the deal with the Strategic Rail Authority, now lasting slightly less than nine years, was not signed until the day after the scheduled takeover.

Sero and Netherlands Railways have published a map of their Northern routes

Northern managing director Heidi Mottram said the firm's priorities were safety and providing better trains and services.

Serco and Netherlands Railways took over the unique 25-year Merseyrail franchise in 2003. Serco also runs Manchester's trams and the London Docklands Railway.

Sunday also sees the introduction of more regular and frequent Transpennine services.

First Keolis, which took over that franchise earlier this year, said the journeys between Leeds and Manchester would also be faster, affecting passengers travelling between Sunderland, Newcastle, County Durham, Yorkshire, North Lincolnshire and Manchester and Liverpool.

Transpennine Express managing director Vernon Barker said: "The new timetable represents our first opportunity to make improvements to the speed, frequency and capacity of our services since we started the franchise in February.

"It represents a major step forward in revitalising the Transpennine service for our customers."

Railway commuters

More than 50,000 commuters a day use the company's trains.

But not everyone is sure the weekend changeover will go smoothly.

The Yorkshire Coast Community Rail Partnership has warned passengers that some making longer journeys will have to change trains at Hull.

"With the massive investment in new tracks in our area and the orders for new rolling stock, we are looking forward to an improved service," said development officer David Walford.