Unreliable train services in north of England ‘ruining people’s lives’

theguardian.com:

Commuters and local leaders in the north of England have spoken out about the “ongoing fiasco” of cancelled and delayed trains, which are “ruining people’s lives”.

The mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, said users of Avanti and TransPennine Express train services were being greeted with “a shrug of the shoulders” when complaining about services.

“And we can’t allow that to happen,” he said, speaking to LBC.

“I was a minister and I would have rightly been dragged over the coals if this was the performance of a service that I was responsible for.”

The West Yorkshire mayor, Tracy Brabin, and the shadow transport secretary, Louise Haigh, also criticised the train companies.

The government should “claw back” taxpayers’ money being used to subsidise trains that are not running, Haigh said, after a third of TransPennine Express trains were cancelled on Tuesday.

Haigh said: “This ongoing fiasco is causing real damage to the public, passengers and the economy.

“Ministers must stop washing their hands of responsibility and intervene.

“They should demand a plan from TransPennine Express for the urgent improvement and restoration of vital services, and claw back taxpayers’ money being handed over for trains that are no longer running.”

Brabin said Tuesday’s train cancellations were “typical of the daily struggles faced by commuters in the north of England” and that her own TransPennine Express train home was cancelled.

She said: “We’re fed up with being badly let down by a failing rail network that isn’t meeting our needs. This is especially unacceptable when our economy needs all the support it can get.”

She called for the government to “urgently” step in but said that “nationalisation is the only real answer”.

Adam Major travels