End of the line for ‘wasted tickets’ - Northern customers on even the cheapest fares can now swap tickets if their plans change

The train company has teamed up with revolutionary rail ticketing app, Seatfrog, to offer customers the opportunity to swap their ticket to another train on the same day.

This “game-changing feature” massively reduces the barriers to changing trains, bosses say, making it easy for passengers to swap their tickets from just £2.50, through the Seatfrog app in just a few taps.

It marks a huge shift for the use of Advance Purchase tickets, which until now, once purchased, were only valid on one service.

Customers with an Advance Purchase ticket who need to swap to another service should visit: https://trainswap.seatfrog.com.

Mark Powles, commercial and customer director at Northern, said: “Railcard discounts aside, Advance Purchase tickets offer the cheapest fares on our network. But with those low prices came strict restrictions on travel dates and times.

“As such, we know some customers that had Advance Purchase tickets were frustrated when their plans changed but they couldn’t easily change their train ticket."

Seatfrog has already made waves in the rail industry with its simple and passenger-friendly tech and the partnership with Northern comes at a perfect time with the Easter holidays starting this week.

Northern customers can now organise their travel plans safe in the knowledge that it won’t cost the earth to make any last minute tweaks to their itinerary.

Using Seatfrog, Northern customers are able to change their Advance Purchase ticket starting from one day before their original departure date, up until just 10 mins before their original train is due to leave the station.

Iain Griffin, co-founder of Seatfrog, said: “Two thirds of the 1.8 billion train tickets purchased every year are advanced tickets which cost less, but lock passengers into rigid travel plans with no wiggle room. We know life doesn’t work to a set timetable and from today Northern passengers will no longer have to miss out on unplanned life moments because of ticket restrictions."

Northern has invested in the largest network of digital ticket infrastructure of any train operator in the UK, making it easier than ever to buy a ticket via its app, website or one of more than 600 ticket machines across the network.