Government slammed over crisis
A DAMNING report on the Northern Rail and TransPennine timetable crisis slams the government for failing to use its powers to prevent the chaos.
The report, released by the Northern Powerhouse Partnership (NPP), analyses the disruption that peaked in May and June – and concludes power over rail must be devolved to the north.
It says that between May 20 and June 30, nearly a MILLION hours were lost to delays and cancellations – and £37m was slashed from the economy.
Passengers heading to and from the airport were among those worst affected, according to the report.
Disruption also cost people their jobs, parents’ time with their children and many leading businesses dealt with staff shortages and ‘drastic productivity cuts’.
The report, produced by the NPP, an independent body chaired by George Osborne that was launched in September 2016 to represent the voices of business and civic leaders across the north also concludes:
The Department for Transport (DfT) had at their disposal the ‘over-arching responsibilities to act’ to avoid the disruption caused by the timetables – but failed to do so;
Northern leaders were ‘powerless’ to do anything about the crisis because of the ‘lack of authority’ government have given to Transport for the North (TfN), the body of leaders overseeing the region’s transport;
Franchise agreements mean some services are not in the interest of passengers due to ‘overly bureaucratic constraint’;
TfN needs to be given full franchise control through Rail North and also oversight of infrastructure and Network Rail to prevent the ‘appalling scenes’ of recent months happening again;
TfN needs to take control of the £3bn TransPennine route upgrade – between Manchester Victoria to Leeds and Selby / York – and all northern transport spending;
The north needs £100bn investment by 2050 to deliver the capacity, frequency and journey times needed for the 574,000-plus northern passengers who travel every day.
The contents of the ‘Devolving our Railways’ report will be submitted to the Blake review - set up in the wake of the crisis and jointly led by Leeds City Council leader Judith Blake and Rail Minister Jo Johnson.
George Osborne, Northern Powerhouse chairman, said: “This report sets out a clear message to government – the Northern Powerhouse is crying out for more devolution.”
Northern Powerhouse Partnership director Henri Murison, who co-wrote the report, said: “The bottom line is that this must never happen again. Our report makes it clear that devolving powers of oversight to Transport for the North is an urgent and non-negotiable priority. But we go further – TfN should drive the Trans Pennine upgrades and run the North’s railways.”
A DfT spokesman said progress had been made to improve Northern services but that disruption had been unacceptable and improvements must continue, adding: “An independent inquiry has been launched to establish what went wrong and to ensure this does not happen again and, with Transport for the North, we have set out a comprehensive, industryfunded package of compensation for regular passengers.
“We continue to work with TfN and Network Rail to determine the best way to achieve major improvements for rail passengers between Manchester, Leeds and York, as part of the £3bn upgrade of the Transpennine route being delivered between 2019 and 2024.”
Apologising for disruption, David Brown, Northern MD, said the new timetable had to be delivered in 16 weeks rather than the normal 40 because of Network Rail delays.
He said the interim timetable had ‘stablised services’, adding: “We’re absolutely committed to modernising Northern with £500m of brand new trains – with the first of these now in the UK for testing, refurbished trains, Pacer trains being retired, better stations and more services.”