‘Delayed. Cancelled. Yep, Northern are back to their regular timetable...’
RAIL PASSENGERS FURIOUS AS REINSTATEMENT OF SERVICES MARRED BY PROBLEMS
SCORES of commuters faced delays on the trains – despite Northern Rail’s plans to reinstate 75 per cent of services scrapped when an emergency timetable was introduced.
The under-fire operator said the services would be put back on in phases after the interim measures were introduced last month.
The majority – 75pc – were due to be put back on yesterday morning. But things didn’t go to plan.
A total of 131 trains were fully or partially cancelled by 9pm last night, according to the Northern Fail app which documents disruption.
Passengers took to Twitter to vent their frustration.
David Seaborne tweeted: “@northernassist 1st day with 75% cancelled services back and yet my train is cancelled due to lack of drivers...why is this?”
David Jenkins posted: “First train for 2 months and they cancel it two mins after it’s meant to arrive. @northernassist @northernfailz @BadNorthernRail #northernrail #northernfail.”
Meanwhile, Mike W tweeted: “Delayed. Delayed. Cancelled. Yep, looks like @northernassist are back to their regular timetable.”
Hamza Patel said: “The day @NorthernAssist reintroduce the new timetable and the majority of the services are delayed or cancelled. Chris Grayling has failed to do his job & help rail passengers in the north. I back @AndyBurnhamGM call for the Prime Minister to intervene & sort out this chaos #NorthernFail.”
Northern introduced a new timetable, aimed at boosting capacity for passengers, in May.
It didn’t go to plan, with many commuters facing delays or cancellations.
An emergency timetable was introduced on June 4, which cut six per cent of services – 168 a day. The remaining 25pc of scrapped services will be reintroduced in September. Speaking ahead of the reintroduction of services, David Brown, managing director for Northern, said: “The May timetable caused significant disruption for customers on some routes on our network and we’re truly sorry for that. “We introduced an interim timetable on a number of routes from June 4, and that has enabled us to accelerate our driver training, stabilise service levels, improve performance and significantly reduce last-minute cancellations.”
“Whilst we are ready to reintroduce all 168 daily services, given the need to drive further improvements across Manchester, we have agreed to a more gradual reintroduction of our services.
“A phased introduction is the right approach to ensure a more stable and reliable service for customers.”
The M.E.N. has contacted Northern over yesterday’s delays.