As part of the privatisation of British Rail, the Regional Railways North East franchise was awarded by the Director of Passenger Rail Franchising to MTL after it won the contest from a field of Connex, FirstBus, Grand Central, a management/Via-GTI consortium, National Express, Prism Rail and Stagecoach [REF].
On 18 February 2000, MTL was purchased by Arriva,[REF][REF][REF] and on 27 April 2001 the franchise was rebranded as Arriva Trains Northern [REF].