Northern is reintroducing the 12-week booking period for its cheapest tickets due to customer demand.

The change significantly extends the booking window for Advance Purchase tickets which allows customers to plan their trips further ahead.

The move comes due to customer demand as they want to plan their journeys further in advance and will start from next Friday, August 23.

Tickets for travel dates as far as November 15 will then be available at the lowest rate.

Customers can look forward to up to 65 per cent discounts on standard fares with Advance Purchase tickets on selected routes across the Northern network.

The earlier the booking, the lower the fare.

The last time Northern offered tickets 12 weeks ahead of travel was before the Covid-19 pandemic when strict restrictions came into effect.

Since then bookings have been limited to just 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."

The decision by Northern, the second largest train operator in the UK running 2,500 services a day to more than 500 stations in the North of England, is part of an industry drive to provide more certainty to customers and enable them to plan further in advance.