Rail firm has missed targets for
NORTHERN Rail has continually failed to hit punctuality targets for two years – proving the chaos did not begin with May’s timetable changes.
The operator has not run the expected number of trains on time in any month since June 2016, just weeks after it took up the contract.
It has also missed its cancellation targets every month since last August, bar January.
By June 1 of this year it was cancelling up to 340 trains a day.
Meanwhile, it has also failed to deliver five key commitments laid out in its franchise agreement – including new Sunday services, new trains and more trains an hour.
When the Northern franchise was announced to fanfare in 2015, the government said it amounted to a ‘massive boost to rail services.’
But an update to council chiefs shows it was already missing its punctuality targets by the time it saw a ‘significant decline in performance in autumn last year’ – and long before the timetabling fiasco of May 20.
‘Short-forming,’ which is when fewer carriages are used than planned, also began to rocket in December, particularly on lines around north Manchester.
By March, four times more trains were being cancelled in Lancashire and Cumbria – 649 – than two years earlier, the month before Northern took over.
Overall the worstaffected line since the franchise began has been the Blackpool to Manchester Victoria route, where up to a third of trains have been delayed in any given month over the past two years.
“Northern experienced a significant decline in performance