The contract, which covers the North West and North East of England, Yorkshire and Humberside, was worth between £500,000 and £1m a year under Titan, but only 37 of the 471 stations had advertising.
CBS, formerly Viacom Outdoor, plans to invest a six-figure sum in developing the estate and hopes to achieve ad revenue of £2.5m a year.
Andrew Oldham, chief operating officer of CBS Outdoor, said the company's rail footprint covered 10 of the country's 18 rail operators and 60% of all stations in the UK.
"Over the past two years, we've taken over a series of underperforming contracts and turned them around," Oldham said.
The Northern Rail contract includes stations in major cities such as Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle and Manchester, but excludes those held by Titan under the separate Network Rail concession, such as Manchester Piccadilly.
Oldham said the company would develop new poster sites and ad opportunities, including commuter packages for Leeds and Manchester.
"This deal gives us 100% of everything north of Watford, so we can sell the whole of the audience in that area in one package, offering advertisers a one-stop shop.Advertisers are buying the audience, so the easier we can package and put that together geographically, the better," said Oldham.
Outdoor specialists are waiting for a decision on the ad concession for the South Eastern train operating company.
_1.jpg)
.jpg)
