Time for North’s rail operators to step up
David Hoggarth, Transport for the North’s strategic rail director
TRANSPORT for the North has called on rail operators Northern and TransPennine Express to ‘step up, and be open and honest’ over the festive period after a damaging week of cancellations, crowding and confusion.
The timetable change, which came into effect in December, saw already poor performance deteriorate even further, with a high volume of pre-planned and last-minute cancellations, as well as shortened trains, overcrowding and growing palpable frustration at the North’s train stations.
Already weary passengers are being tested to their limit and Christmas cheer is running short.
The services from both operators have been way below par, with so many delays and cancellations.
The impact of that is northerners being late for work, missing their children’s bedtime, spending hours to travel short distances and simply avoiding trains.
Too often they are left standing on the platform with little or no idea of what is happening – a rough welcome home for Christmas. As part of our Rail North Committee, the North’s leaders have been scrutinising operators intensively throughout the year ahead of this timetable change.
We repeatedly urged the changes to be realistic and deliverable; for detailed contingency packages to be in place; for the rollout of new trains to be intensively monitored; and for staffing issues to be ironed out well in advance.
We were repeatedly reassured that these matters would be effectively tackled. They weren’t. Passengers are again paying the price.
Operators should be experienced enough to plan for smooth and reliable deployment with sufficient contingency planning in place to cope with any unexpected issues.
Urgent recovery and subsequent enforcement action now needs to be taken – including remedial plans to restore resilience and reliability.
Above all, the operators need to be open and honest about what they can deliver to give the North a rail service it can rely on this Christmas.
The North’s leaders, as part of Transport for the North’s
Rail North Committee, are set to gather in Leeds on January 8 to discuss the issues and way forward, and have called for senior leaders at both operators to attend.
They have previously recommended to the Secretary of State that an Operator of
Last Resort for the Northern franchise would help restore public confidence.
What do you think?
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