North of England rail faces ‘utter chaos’, warns business group | Rail industry
Business leaders have warned that rail services across the north of England could “collapse into utter chaos” unless the government pushes urgently for a resolution to months of disruption.
Rail services are already recording historic levels of cancellations, and the imminent introduction of a new timetable could lead to a “crisis”, the Northern Powerhouse Partnership (NPP), which represents industry in the north of England, has warned in a letter to the UK transport secretary, Mark Harper.
The call for urgent government intervention in the privately run rail services was led by the NPP’s vice-chairs, the former Siemens UK chief executive Jürgen Maier and Jim O’Neill, the former chief economist at investment bank Goldman Sachs, who is among the possible bidders for Manchester United football club. Former chancellor George Osborne chairs the lobby group to promote economic development in northern England.
Maier claimed that the disruption was causing major losses for both travellers and businesses in terms of lost time and business. Maier also stated that corporate events, as well as associated businesses such restaurants and hotels were particularly affected.
“We’re saying: government, you really need to put pressure on and make sure you resolve this issue and get business going again before we have a miserable Christmas,” Maier told BBC radio on Monday.
The rail companies’ current reliance on employees working overtime to run services was just not sustainable, he said. “The whole timetable is going to fall to pieces, and there’s going to be even more cancellations, and people won’t be able to rely on these important services.
“We are not able to continue as we are. If we do not get approval for a rest day working agreement to be negotiated this week it will be too late.”
According to an analysis of figures from the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) this month, the proportion of cancelled train services in Great Britain increased more than twice since 2015. This has resulted to one in 26 of all train journeys being interrupted in the year to October 2015. A wave of strikes has also disrupted services, with more likely disruptions occurring over Christmas if unions are unable to reach an agreement with the government.
NPP stated that there are already more TransPennine Express cancellations in the north of England than before the May 2018 crisis. That was when TransPennine Express introduced a new schedule and caused thousands of trains to be cancelled. It also said that the disruption of weeks had resulted in the cancellation of hundreds of thousands of trains. Concerns have been raised about the possibility of an even more severe impact when TransPennine Express introduces a new schedule with improved services on 11 December.
“When the new timetable comes in, as soon as it is attempted to deliver it in full, the system will collapse into utter chaos,” said a statement by the vice-chairs.
The NPP highlighted in particular services run by Transpennine Express and the Avanti West Coast main line, both of which are majority-owned by First Group, an £800m company listed on the London Stock Exchange. Services between London and Manchester now run only once an hour due to the Avanti disruption, as opposed to three times per hour previously. First Group was contacted for comment.
In a statement to the BBC, which first reported on the NPP’s letter, Transpennine said: “We are sorry to anyone who has been affected by this ongoing disruption. This has been caused by high levels of train crew sickness, an intensive crew training programme (which includes a training backlog as a direct result of Covid), and infrastructure issues outside of our control.”