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. The lobby group is chaired by the former chancellor George Osborne to push for economic development in the north of England.
Maier said the disruption was costing travellers and companies dearly in lost time and business, with corporate events and associated businesses such as hotels and restaurants 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.”
The proportion of cancelled services in Great Britain has more than doubled since 2015, rising to one in 26 of all train journeys being disrupted in the year to 15 October, according to an analysis this month by the Observer of figures from the Office of Rail and Road (ORR). Services have also been disrupted by a wave of strikes, with more due to take place over Christmas unless unions can reach agreements with the government.
The NPP said there were already more cancellations across the north of England on TransPennine Express than after the May 2018 crisis, when the introduction of a new timetable led to the cancellation of thousands of trains over weeks of disruption. That has raised concerns about an even worse impact this time around, when a new timetable with increased services comes in 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. The Avanti disruption has meant that services between London and Manchester are running only once an hour compared with the usual three times an hour. First Group was approached 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.”
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North of England rail faces ‘utter chaos’, warns business group
