{"id":353625,"date":"2026-01-22T19:55:25","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T09:55:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/railuk.com\/?p=188160"},"modified":"2026-01-22T19:55:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T09:55:25","slug":"northern-appoints-james-howard-to-lead-its-largest-ever-train-procurement-programme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=353625","title":{"rendered":"Northern appoints James Howard to lead it\u2019s largest ever train procurement programme"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

James Howard, who was recently appointed as Northern’s director of New Rolling Stock Programmes, has taken charge of the operator’s plan to buy hundreds of new trains.<\/p>\n

Northern is planning to make the largest ever investment in its fleet, by purchasing up to 450 trains in three phases. That will include around 130 trains in the first phase.<\/p>\n

The publicly-owned operator invited manufacturers to submit a final tender in November and those submissions are due next month.<\/p>\n

Northern is aiming to award the contracts by early 2027 and have the first trains delivered in 2030.<\/p>\n

Over the last few years James has played a key role in developing the ambitious plan for new trains and the business case, which must be approved by the government.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will be a step change for the North,\u201d he said. \u201cIt will be the largest ever investment in our fleet, providing our customers with modern, reliable trains, and we are working to deliver them as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cGetting to this point hasn\u2019t been easy but that only fuels our desire to see it through. I fundamentally believe Northern needs these new trains and our customers deserve them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere has been significant investment in the infrastructure, with projects like the Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU), and we need modern trains to realise the benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n

Northern is looking to introduce the trains on a phased basis, replacing the oldest units in its fleet. Most of them have been in service since the 1980s and 90s.<\/p>\n

Under the current plan, around two thirds of the existing fleet will be replaced over the next 10 years.<\/p>\n

James said his team will be rigorous and selective, as they do not want to add a wide range of different trains to Northern’s fleet.<\/p>\n

The operator currently has 11 different types of trains and this can create issues as traincrew and engineers need extensive training and experience to work on each model.<\/p>\n

James said his team is focused on improving level boarding, by ensuring carriages can meet requirements at current platforms that conform to the network standard, and any subsequent platforms that are upgraded or modified in the future.<\/p>\n

The new trains will either be fully electric, battery powered or multi-modal. This provides Northern with the flexibility to maximise the environmental benefits.<\/p>\n

Around 25% of the operator’s network is currently electrified but there are plans to electrify more lines in the coming years. The multi-modal and battery powered trains can be converted to run on these lines.<\/p>\n

The rollout will begin with the introduction of electric trains on key routes, including between York and Leeds and Huddersfield.<\/p>\n

New trains will then replace the oldest trains in Northern’s fleet during the early 2030s.<\/p>\n

James first joined Northern in 2011, as a business analyst and auditor. He moved to Stagecoach in 2016 and spent two years with the company\u2019s rail franchise bid team.<\/p>\n

He returned to Northern in 2018, shortly after the operator purchased 101 trains as part of a \u00a3500 million government-backed investment.<\/p>\n

Since 2020, when Northern was brought back under public control, he has been involved in developing the operator’s new rolling stock strategy.<\/p>\n

He became director of New Rolling Stock Programmes in December 2025.<\/p>\n

Image credit: Northern<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>James Howard, who was recently appointed as Northern\u2019s director of New Rolling Stock Programmes, has taken charge of the operator\u2019s plan to buy hundreds of new trains. Northern is planning to make the largest ever investment in its fleet, by purchasing up to 450 trains in three phases. That will include around 130 trains in [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16017,16014,47,180,16016,85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-353625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-industry-news","category-people-moves","category-rail-news","category-rolling-stock","category-train-operating-companies","category-uk"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=353625"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":353626,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353625\/revisions\/353626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=353625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=353625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=353625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}