Northern Spirit

Northern Spirit was a British Train Operating Company that held the Regional Railways North East franchise from 2 March 1997 until 23 September 2001. It was originally part of the MTL Trust (a Liverpool-based bus and rail group), which was bought by Arriva in February 2000.

The franchise covered the regional and inter-urban services in the north of England, broadly Yorkshire, the North East and parts of the North West, operated mainly with first-generation Pacer (Class 142, 143, 144) and Sprinter (Class 150, 153, 156, 158) DMU classes inherited from BR. The franchise was rebranded as Arriva Trains Northern after the Arriva acquisition.

The Northern Spirit / Arriva Trains Northern franchise was terminated by the Strategic Rail Authority in 2004 over performance failures and absorbed into the new Northern Rail franchise (Serco-NedRail).