First North Western

First North Western are one of Britains privatised train companies. They offer train services across much of the North of England. They operate a number of routes with Manchester being where there core business is although they operate routes as far south as Birmingham, as far east as Sheffield, as far west as Wales, Liverpool and Blackpool and as far north as Carlisle. I have had a number of experiences of travelling with First North Western, all very good I am pleased to say. I have travelled to various sporting events in the north with First and also several trips to Manchester Airport to which they offer a very frequent service. They operate a number of ...  Read the complete review

I am a regular traveller on FNW's trains and whilst I consider them good value and generally better than driving, I think they could improve somewhat. Regular travellers will be aware that over the last year passengers have suffered a number of strikes, reduced timetables due to industrial action and complete closures of some sections of line (for weeks at a time). FNW use various excuses for not counting these in the passenger charter figures (e.g pre advertised etc..) however the bottom line is the trains didn't run, the replacement buses were ever non existant or double the normal journey time. And to cap it all FNW's charter figures show an ...  Read the complete review

I am a regular commuter, and every day i travel from Manchester Victoria to Liverpool Lime Street. Every day i am greeted by a cheerful young lady at the manchester victoria ticket office who always reccommends the cheapest ticket for me to buy, I am then without any need for prompting advised of which platform my train will be leaving from and if there are any delays on it. I have to say that although a lot of the fares are steep, these are predominately set by the British Railways board and are more often than not set by First north western. Sadly the train crews on these services are very hit & miss. One day you can come across someone who has just had his ...  Read the complete review

People can rarely choose where to live and work, but they can choose their mode of transport. For those living and working in the North West, you could do worse than choose First North Wastern (was North West Trains). Most of Manchester's most congested roads have equivalent rail routes, so if you spend your mornings staring at the back end of some else's Ford Focus, go on, give rail a try! fNW are one of Britain's 25 Train Operating Companies (TOCs), private companies entrusted with operating regional and Inter-City rail franchises. fNW's major market is commuter traffic into Manchester, although it operates trains as far afield as Barrow, ...  Read the complete review

It's 7.30am, very cold and I'm runnig to the train station as per usual. I'm greeted by a woman from the Metro in a very bright yellow jacket who hands a free newspaper to me with a very cheery smile and a very high pitched "Morning". It always makes me wonder how this woman (who's newspaper-handing-out shift starts at 6) can manage to be so happy every single morning! Hmm... Anyway, I rush past the guards and flash my pass at them in the manner of an FBI agent (Very cool) and race onto the platform to wait for my usual commuter train. Taking my seat on the red poles on the platform, which are definitely NOT designed for sitting I ...  Read the complete review