It significantly increases the booking window for Advance Purchase tickets and follows demand from customers who want to plan their journeys further in advance of travel.

The new rule takes effect next Friday (23 August) when tickets as far ahead as Friday 15 November will be available to buy at the cheapest rate.

Advance Purchase tickets offer customers up to 65%-off the standard fare and are available on selected routes across the Northern network.

The further in advance they are booked the cheaper the fare. For more information about Advance Purchase tickets, visit: northernrailway.co.uk/tickets/advance.

The last time tickets were available 12 weeks ahead of travel was before the Covid-19 pandemic when strict travel restrictions came into effect. Since then, they have only been available as far as six weeks in advance.

Mark Powles, commercial and customer director at Northern, said:

“We’ve listened to our customers and are reinstating the 12-week booking period.

“Advance Purchase tickets offer great low fares to places all across our network and we hope this decision will encourage people to use the train to get out and explore the region.”

Northern’s decision to reinstate the 12 week booking window for Advance Purchase fares is part of an industry move to provide more certainty to customers and enable them to plan further in advance

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.