Put Northern in public hands – MPs

Political Editor MORE than 80 MPs from across the North have told Transport Secretary Chris Grayling to strip Northern of its rail franchise, following weeks of travel chaos.

They said Northern, owned by transport giant Arriva, should lose the right to run rail services.

Instead, trains should be returned to public control, MPs said.

The letter was written by Ian Mearns, Labour MP for Gateshead, and signed by 82 Labour colleagues from across the North East, North West, Yorkshire and Humberside.

More than 2,000 Northern trains have been cancelled completely, around 2,000 have been “part cancelled” and hundreds of services have been confined to shortened trains.

It follows the introduction of a new timetable.

Northern runs services between Carlisle and Middlesbrough, via Hexham, Gateshead’s MetroCentre and Newcastle.

“It also runs trains in the North West, Yorkshire and across the Pennines, and much of the disruption has affected services in the North West.

Mr Mearns said: “It is obvious that, first and foremost, Northern Rail passengers, our constituents, deserve much better than the service that they are being given.

“Secondly, it is clear that Chris Grayling and the Conservative Government should have been attempting to fix these problems before they reached crisis point. Why have they been allowed to reach this stage?

“If it is clear to me, and the majority of the travelling public, that the current system does not work, then how is it not clear to the Government?

“Returning the rails to public control is an overwhelmingly popular policy. To not do so is a simple case of the Tories putting their out of touch ideology before the needs of the people of the country.”

The 83 Labour MPs call upon the Government to abolish the franchise system and return the rails to public ownership and public control.

They told Mr Grayling in their letter: “The franchise system is not fit for purpose and the travelling public would, by vast majority, welcome a radical solution to this systemic failure and a return to public ownership and public control.”

Mr Grayling has told the House of Commons that the cancellations are unacceptable, and ordered an inquiry into what went wrong at Northern and at Thameslink, a rail network in the south, which has also experienced delays.