Mayors in the North have written to the chancellor and secretary of state for transport calling for their support in addressing declining rail services operated by Northern.
Andy Burnham – the mayor of Greater Manchester – called an emergency meeting of the Rail North Committee, which he chairs, on Wednesday.
It saw regional mayors and leaders seek immediate assurances from Northern after a spate of cancellations, overcrowding and ‘Do Not Travel’ warnings on Sundays.
But Northern said it had no option due to high levels of staff sickness – and that cancellations are always its “last resort”.
Mr Burnham said: “It’s feared, without intervention, the situation could get worse, affecting confidence amongst shoppers and travellers at the busiest time of the year.”
The meeting saw leaders interrogate the operator’s remedial plan to get services back to an acceptable standard as swiftly as possible.
The committee heard there had been a notable spike in cancellations, with the past week – half-term for many schools – seeing around 1,600 trains cancelled across the network – almost 10% of services – with a lack of mitigations in place such as ticket acceptance with other operators.
Weekend travel
Mr Burnham reported that Do Not Travel’ warnings had been issued on 45 occasions on Sundays across Greater Manchester routes, in many cases with no replacement bus services or alternative travel methods provided.
He said: “Efficient and reliable public transport is a critical enabler of economic growth, a key ambition we share with the new government. What we heard from Northern at the meeting of the Rail North Committee was not good enough for residents and businesses across the north.
“That is why, on behalf of the Rail North Committee, I have written to the chancellor and the secretary of state to urge them to support us to bring the service back to an acceptable level. Significant modernisation is needed by Northern if they are to match our ambitions for growth.
“The Committee will be closely scrutinising Northern’s plan and seeking assurance that they are addressing the points raised at the meeting, when the Committee meets again on 20 November. We would welcome the Government’s full support in implementing the necessary actions, especially in the urgent areas of Rest Day Working and resolving Sunday arrangements.”
High levels of staff sickness
A Northern spokesperson said: “We are sorry for our recent performance and accept it has not been good enough. Cancellations are always a last resort and only applied when we have no other option.
“We are experiencing high levels of staff sickness and train crew availability remains an issue in the North West, especially on Sundays which rely on crews volunteering to work additional hours.
“We are keen to re-introduce rest-day working for our train drivers and agree a way forward on staffing Sundays with our conductors, by working closely with them and their union representatives.”
He added that the Christmas period is always a challenging time for the railway, particularly when terms and conditions for train crew mean Northern is relying on volunteers to work and staff wanting to spend time with their families, and this may exacerbate Northern’s existing issues with train crew availability.
Northern says its priority is to give customers as much certainty as possible about their journeys so they can plan their travel in advance, adding it would continue to review demand and train crew availability over the Christmas period and let customers know of any changes.
The spokesman added: “We have not yet made any decisions about changes to the timetable or pre-cancelling services which we would do in full consultation with stakeholders.”
Image credit: Bardhok Ndoji
