PM urged to step in to end railways chaos in the North

THERESA May is facing calls to end the chaos affecting thousands of rail passengers in the North.

In a strongly-worded letter, the Mayor of Greater Manchester said services on Northern Rail continued to be poor despite repeated calls for action from Transport Secretary Chris Grayling.

Labour’s Andy Burnham pointed out there were almost 1,200 full or part cancellations of services in Lancashire and Cumbria in just three weeks following the introduction of an emergency timetable in June.

He also said that Merseyside services into Manchester and Wigan had suffered 991 cancellations.

Mr Burnham said he had no choice but to ask the Prime Minister to intervene.

He said passengers were left in the lurch yesterday when Northern emailed customers to inform them it expected about 47 services to be withdrawn, including from Liverpool to Manchester Airport, to ensure trains were in the right depots this morning. ‘It is frankly outrageous for emails to be dispatched at 9pm on a Saturday night telling people that there will be a mucha reduced service the following day,’ he said. ‘People heading to Manchester Airport to go on holiday will have been left stranded as will others with work and family commitments. Passengers cannot be left in the lurch like this. This is no way to run a railway and we cannot continue to put up with rail service provided when the operators can be bothered.

‘People’s lives are being badly affected by this chaos and the Government cannot continue to turn a blind eye to the plight of Northern commuters.

‘There are only so many times that I can call on Chris Grayling to do his job and help rail passengers in the North.

‘He has failed to deliver on his promise to make sorting out rail chaos here his top priority and that is why I feel I have no choice but to ask the Prime Minister to intervene.’

Mr Burnham invited Mrs May to visit Greater Manchester to speak to commuters about the ‘detrimental effect this chaos is having on their lives’.

Last week the leaders of Trafford Council and Tameside Council said Mr Grayling should be sacked.

‘Passengers left in the lurch’