Rail franchise move welcomed
EAST Runcorn MP Mike Amesbury has welcomed a Government announcement to scrap Northern’s rail franchise.
The Labour shadow employment minister tweeted that he now wants control to be passed to a not-for-profit under the auspices of transport quango Transport For The North.
His comments followed Transport Secretary Grant Shapps’s announcement that the company was to be stripped of the lucrative deal due to what he told the BBC were ‘unacceptable’ standards.
Northern has faced fierce criticism from commuters and regional politicians over the last year following a surge in cancelled and late services and widely-panned chaos on the network, despite rising ticket prices.
A passenger survey conducted by Transport Focus last year found that trust in Northern had fallen from 49% to 35% between spring 2017 and spring 2019.
Last year, 57% of Northern’s trains were on time.
Reacting to the news that the franchise is ‘finally’ to be stripped, in his tweet, Mr Amesbury said that he, along with
Liverpool and Manchester metro mayors Steve Rotheram and Andy Burnham has been ‘calling for this for months’.
Mr Rotheram said: “For 18 months Andy Burnham and I have been calling on the Government to get to grips with of the chaos on the railways of the North and remove the franchise from Northern.
“Today’s announcement from the Transport Secretary that he is belatedly going to take some action will be welcomed by passengers – however it is still unclear what this means in practice.
“This is not good enough. Passengers and staff need clarity, so the secretary of state should urgently explain his statement and set out a clear plan as to how he will bring back stability to our railways.
“Passengers will also feel rightly aggrieved that rail fares on Northern have gone up by as much as £100 today for a service described as ‘unacceptable’ by the secretary of state.
“Given this, the Government must now step in and cancel today’s fare rises.”
Northern is part of the Arriva transport group.