A group of students were able to receive the chance to learn about operating one of the region’s biggest rail services.

Back in May, twenty five college students from the Manchester area completed a four day project run in collaboration with The Rail Safety and Standards Board, Talent Foundry, as well as Northern themselves.

Northern is the second largest train operator in the UK, with 2,500 services a day to more than 500 stations across the North of England.

During the four days, they visited different locations. This included visiting Northern’s Newton Heath Train Care Depot, which is one of Northern’s largest depots and is based in Manchester, and are responsible for maintaining the Class 150, 156 and 195 fleet for Northern Rail.

Here they learnt how the team of over 300 northern employees work tirelessly behind the scenes in order to keep trains in service and available for passengers.

They completed a range of interactive workshops, exercises as well as group projects based on different scenarios that happen on a regular basis in the railway industry.

At the end of the four days, they produced presentations on these scenarios and how they would approach them in terms of working within schedules, managing tasks, and resources.

After these presentations, they received feedback from experienced Northern Rail colleagues and the top students were presented with awards during a ceremony in London

The team were really impressed by the students’ willingness to learn and their approach to tackling some of the challenges our staff deal with.

Lisa Leighton, People Director for Northern

Prior to this, during last month The Northern and Community Rail Network organised for Community Rail Week 2024, 30 Students from Fairfield High School for Girls in Droylsden, to Visit Newton heath TrainCare Centre.

They met engineers at the depot and asked them questions about opportunities within the industry as well as sustainable travel across the UK.