Put passengers – not profit – first’

we should have had an extra train every hour between Bradford, Calderdale and Manchester with a regular service to the south side of Manchester city and the airport.

“But this seems to be indefinitely postponed. We know there is demand for this for travel across Manchester for employment and educational purposes, for city attractions and longer-distance connections. My group, HADRAG, does not take a view on public versus private ownership.

“What we do say is that a broken railway needs putting back together.

“The Northern train operator is surely running out of external factors to blame for its problems. It is also, we understand, about to run out of money, the franchise can not go on, and the Government have said they will announce what is to be done in the short term by the end of this month.

“It will, we are told, be either a ‘direct award’ giving Arriva Rail North, the present train operator, a short term management contract, or the Operator of Last Resort – a government-owned company – will be brought in.

“This will take time, but many commuters will be outraged if the present failed train operator is simply allowed to carry on. The railway needs to be operated in an integrated way instead of the present system where we have vital functions like service planning and control fragmented into different offices in the train companies like Northern and TPE and Network Rail as track and system operator.”