More rail misery in the North after withdrawn trains return in chaos
Prime Minister ‘understands anger and frustration’ Dismay as passengers in North face more delays
RAIL MISERY returned to the North yesterday despite the reinstatement of services withdrawn during early summer’s timetable meltdown.
Passengers faced more delays and cancellations as Northern rail reintroduced three quarters of the routes it had withdrawn.
The majority of the chaos played out on TransPennine Express (TPE) trains, with nearly half of services either late, very late, or cancelled.
Northern’s performance also dipped slightly, with a nearly a fifth of services running late although just five per cent were very late or cancelled.
Amid the misery, Theresa May expressed “full confidence” in her under-fire Transport Secretary Chris Grayling but called for “further significant improvements” to services in the North.
TPE blamed the loss of signalling between Durham and Northallerton and “track circuit failures” between Manchester and Sheffield for the poor service.
Northern said it was “pleased” that the vast majority of its services were running to plan.
Passengers vented their anger on Twitter, with one, @wretched ascrisp, lamented the cancellation of the 8.17am Urmston to Manchester Oxford Road, posting: “It’s ok it’s the summer holidays, not like anyone’s going to work today,” before posting a photo of a later overcrowded train.
THERESA MAY yesterday rebuffed growing calls to sack her embattled Transport Secretary Chris Grayling as rail passengers endured fresh misery on trains in the North.
The Prime Minister “understands the anger and frustration” of rail passengers in the North and wants to see “further significant improvements” to “unacceptable” services, her official spokesman told a regular Westminster briefing.
But calls from Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham to sack Mr Grayling were rejected by the PM’s spokesman, who said: “The Prime Minister has full confidence in the Transport Secretary.”
It came amid more chaos on rail routes, with TransPennine Express (TPE) the main culprit in terms of delayed and cancelled services.
According to performance statistics on the trains.im website, as of 5pm yesterday 24 per cent of TPE services were either very late or cancelled, with nearly 23 per cent marked as late. Only about half (53 per cent) were on time.
Northern, which reintroduced three quarters of services withdrawn after the meltdown which followed the introduction of a new timetable on May 20, fared better but still saw a dip in performance.
More than three quarters of its trains ran on time, but nearly a fifth (19 per cent) were late, and five per cent were very late or cancelled.
Mr Burnham called for the “chaos” to end and for the Transport Secretary to face the axe.
Told of the Prime Minister’s “full confidence” in Mr Grayling, Mr Burnham responded: “Well I don’t know how she can make that statement because we have got chaos on our railways.
“He hasn’t been doing his job. If he had been doing his job northern commuters wouldn’t be putting up with the daily lottery of not knowing whether or not they are going to arrive at work on time.
“This isn’t a new problem, the chaos goes back a long way, there is no sign of it ending.
“Where has he been? Why hasn’t he been dealing with that?”
The Department for Transport said it would not comment on Ministerial diaries but a Whitehall source said Mr Grayling was not on holiday and would be back at his desk today but gave no details about his whereabouts.
Former Transport Secretary and Labour peer Lord Adonis told
The Yorkshire Post: “It is unbelievable that Chris Grayling seems incapable of sorting anything out.”
And Labour MP for Bradford South Judith Cummins said: “If the Prime Minister really did understand the anger and frustration of rail passengers as she says, Chris Grayling would no longer be in his job. He has consistently let down the travelling public.”
Last week, the leaders of Trafford Council and Tameside Council called for Mr Grayling to be sacked. David Brown, managing director at Northern, said: “Our team has been working hard over the weekend to ensure our customers experience stable and reliable journeys today as we reinstate many services taken out as part of the interim timetable introduced in early June.
“We are pleased to say that, whilst we have experienced a few local operational issues, as we do every day, so far the vast majority of services are running to plan.”
A TPE spokesman said: “During Monday our services were affected by numerous infrastructure issues which saw the loss of signalling between Durham and Northallerton and numerous track circuit failures between Manchester and Sheffield.
“While Network Rail sought to repair their equipment as quickly as possible, these two incidents caused delays and cancellations to our services on those two routes. We apologise to customers affected by this disruption and are pressing Network Rail to ensure the routes we use are resilient.”
If he had been doing his job commuters would not be facing a lottery Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham.
UNTIL NOW, Theresa May and her 10 Downing Street team have appeared to be in denial about the summer of discontent on the region’s railways. It is reflected by their failure to publicly respond to the unprecedented One North joint editorial, published by The Yorkshire Post and rival newspapers, on June 5 which urged the Prime Minister to take a number of urgent steps on behalf of long-suffering passengers.
Yet, while Mrs May tried to ignore a number of critical interventions at Prime Minister’s Questions amid growing calls for Transport Secretary Chris Grayling to be sacked, there is now an acceptance that the Government does, in fact, need to do more to improve the punctuality and reliability of trains here.
After the Northern Powerhouse Partnership published a damning report which revealed that the region’s economy had suffered a £38m hit as a direct result of the disruption, and that more than one million hours had been lost, Mrs May’s spokesman said that the Prime Minister would study the figures. For once, they weren’t totally dismissive.
And, on a day when some services were withdrawn at the height of the timetable chaos were reinstated, the spokesman accepted that the disruption is “unacceptable” and “we must continue to see further significant improvements”. Judging by the number of Northern and TransPennine Express services yesterday that were either very late or cancelled, this is an understatement.
Though this intervention will – just like the trains – be too late for many people, it is a start and this newspaper will continue to maintain the pressure on Mrs May until the Government prioritises the North. What is less clear is how this region’s rail services can be overhauled when 10 Downing Street says it has complete confidence in a Transport Secretary who still says that it is not his job to run the railways. Over to you, Prime Minister.