Northern regional mayors late for rail briefing after train cancelled

Two mayors were late for their press conference about “rail chaos” in the north of England because their train was cancelled.

Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham and Liverpool City Region mayor Steve Rotheram are lobbying for a cash boost for TransPennine Express and Northern.

They are calling on the government to immediately increase funding for train operators.

Mr Rotheram said the irony of their cancelled service was not lost on them.

“This rail chaos is not only inflicting misery on people’s lives, its wreaking havoc on our local economies too,” he said in a statement.

“If this was happening in London or the South East, it would be treated as a national scandal.

“And let me be clear: we are not being critical of investment in the South, but we are concerned about the lack of investment in the North.”

Mr Burnham said rail passengers had suffered from delays, cancellations, and poor performance for far too long.

“Both [rail operators] have a long way to go to win back the trust of passengers in the North, but they will never do so if they are being hamstrung by the financial constraints imposed on them by Whitehall,” he said.

“Millions of passengers in the North need to know that the government has their back when it comes to the delivery of reliable, functioning public transport.”

The press conference was held on the same day a number of Avanti West Coast rail services were axed due to strike action by train managers.

A TransPennine Express spokesman said prior to December 2021, the company had posted its best-ever performance results, and was subsequently recognised as Train Operator of the Year at the Rail Business Awards.

“Since then, prolonged disruption affecting our services has been caused by a range of issues including ongoing high levels of train crew sickness, a persisting training backlog as a direct result of Covid, and infrastructure issues outside of TPE’s control,” the spokesman said.

“TransPennine Express team continues to work flat-out to deliver higher levels of service delivery and to tackle the issues that are being experienced by customers.”

A Department for Transport spokesman said it had has earmarked more than £16 billion of funding for passenger services since the start of the pandemic.

“We are working closely with train operators to ensure disruption is kept to a minimum, long term solutions are put in place, and passengers can continue to travel while also recruiting and training significant numbers of new drivers at speed.”

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