A train operator has received 8,000 messages from customers since joining Whatsapp.

Northern's Whatsapp service is entirely operated by artificial intelligence (AI), saving more than 1,000 hours of employee time for more complex inquiries.

Northern's customers can use Whatsapp to ask for live train times, service updates and information about any related disruption.

The service also provides the option to inquire about onward ground transport connections such as local taxi services.

Additional uses include guiding people on requesting assistance, making inquiries about lost property, reporting problems, submitting a 'delay repay' claim or lodging a complaint.

Mark Powles, commercial and customer director at Northern, said: "We launched our Whatsapp service to simplify the process of getting live train information to customers ‘on the go’. It functions entirely on AI and is therefore available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

"By answering thousands of basic questions for us in the blink of an eye, it frees-up time that our customer experience centre can instead dedicate to the more in-depth, complex enquiries we receive.

"We hope to develop the service this year so that users can ask any question you can find the answer to on our website via Whatsapp instead."

Northern used customer insights to predict what the top queries would be before initiating its Whatsapp service.

This information came from existing queries received by the train operator's customer experience centre, station teams and on-board train crew.

Before its official launch in August 2023, the service ran focus group trials.

Since then, it has continuously adapted to meet its customers' needs.

This effort to change how Northern interacts with its patrons hasn't gone unnoticed – it was nominated for a Transport Ticketing Global Award shortly after its launch.

Northern is the UK's second largest train operator, providing 2,500 services a day to over 500 stations across Northern England.