Northern Rail launches sale offering Yorkshire students 75% off train tickets in bid to encourage more students to use trains instead of cars

The Northern discount is available on annual tickets bought as part of their Under 16 Education Season Ticket programme, which went on sale on Tuesday, August 1, 2023.

Northern runs the scheme in partnership with 166 secondary schools and university technical colleges (UTCs) across the North of England.

The ticket covers unlimited travel between any two stations on the Northern network, including in Yorkshire, seven days a week. This means that they can be used for travel at weekends and during the school holidays too.

Commercial and customer director at Northern, Mark Powles, said: “The school run can be one of the most stressful times of the day for parents - and we want to make it a thing of the past.

“With 75%-off the cost of their journey for anyone that signs-up for the full school year, our Under 16 Education Season Tickets offer one of the most generous discounts of any ticket scheme in the country.”

In the 2022-23 academic year, Northern introduced around 15,000 student commuters on-board its services every week, while only 3,300 (3,294) of them travelled using one of the heavily discounted Under 16 Education Season Tickets, paying an average cost of £200.21 for the year.

You can find more information and details of the scheme by visiting the Northern website.

Mr Powles said: “By encouraging students to use the train from an early age, we also hope to kickstart a lifelong habit of commuting by rail.”

As well as the secondary schools and UTCs already participating in the scheme, there are a further 146 educational establishments with more than 100,000 students (109,013) located within 1km of a railway station served by Northern that have not yet signed up to the scheme.

Parents and guardians of children attending those schools and UTCs are encouraged to email [email protected] so that Northern can enrol them into the scheme.