Accuses Northern Rail of ‘planning cancellations for next day’
NORTHERN Rail managers appear to know dozens of trains are ‘likely’ to be cancelled the night before, but don’t tell the public, it has been claimed.
The under-fire operator, which insists it always plans to run a full service, has been accused by Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham of ‘misleading’ passengers.
He said he has been ‘shown an email which appears to suggest Northern produces a cancellation list the night before.’
Northern bosses deny lists of preplanned train cancellations are produced. Services are cancelled, they said, with ‘great reluctance.’
A leaked email seen by the M.E.N. shows senior staff shared a list of services that were unlikely to run the following day. Sent at around 9.40pm one evening earlier this month, the email says ‘the following services are likely to be cancelled tomorrow,’ before listing 64 services. Analysis shows around 60 per cent of the ‘planned cancellations’ went ahead.
Northern Rail has publicly insisted it does not plan cancellations in advance. But Mr Burnham has accused the operator of not being ‘straight’ with the public and has called for an investigation.
On Wednesday, Northern was asked by a customer on Twitter about cancellations on the Preston to Blackpool North service. The official account replied: “There are no planned cancellations. We make every effort to run all our scheduled services.
“I’m afraid it often is a lastminute decision, because we make every effort to run all our services and we always try to find a way to do so. Cancelling is a last resort.”
This was reiterated by Liam Sumpter, regional director at Northern, in a letter he sent to Mr Burnham two weeks ago. Mr Sumpter said the company made ‘last minute changes to a number of services, which in turn, is causing the delays and cancellations’ and that ‘even station staff don’t always know about these late changes.’ Mr Sumpter’s Twitter account is now locked after he was accused of ‘taking customer service backwards’ with ‘aggressive’ responses to customer complaints. Earlier this week, the M.E.N. told how Northern has cancelled 900 trains in the past fortnight alone. Mr Burnham has written to Transport Secretary Chris Grayling demanding action ‘as a matter of urgency.’ “If true, these revelations are very worrying,” he wrote. “It now looks like Northern have simply not been straight with the Greater Manchester public. “Unbeknownst to passengers, Northern appears to be planning significant numbers of cancellations for the next day as a matter of course every evening. “The Transport Andy Burnham Secretary must investigate these claims as a matter of the upmost priority.”
Mr Burnham has already written to Transport for the North, asking chairman John Cridland to assess whether Northern has breached its licence to operate.
A Northern spokesman said: “We want to deliver the best service we can for customers, including operating our published timetable.
“There is no list of pre-planned train cancellations, we cancel trains with great reluctance, and never for financial reasons.”
A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “We constantly monitor the performance of franchises and expect operators to be completely transparent and meet the full requirements of their franchise agreements.
“There is no cap on performance sum payments in Northern’s franchise agreement, which apply every time there is a cancellation.
“We expect all rail operating firms to let passengers know as early as possible if a train is going to be cancelled.”