David Crausby: Northern rail must be held accountable for its failures

4 min read04 June 2018

If Northern cannot ensure that basic services are available, the government must strip it of its rail franchise – and bring it back into public ownership, writes Sir David Crausby

Our railways are failing and we need to change the way the system works. I don’t say this from an ideological point of view. This comes from the experiences of my constituents who are left to struggle day after day with overcrowded, unreliable, dirty and inaccessible trains.

Each day I look at Twitter and my emails and I’m met with stories from Bolton residents about their terrible journeys. Some are worried they might lose their job because the trains have been so undependable. Others are missing out on time with their family as their commute has slowly expanded from half an hour to two hours or more. On four separate occasions, I’ve heard from people who had to spend their commute in the train toilet with strangers as it was the only place left to stand and it was better than being left behind on the platform.

These stories don’t get much attention in political discussions but they should. That is why I’ve secured a debate in Parliament focused on Northern rail services in Greater Manchester on 6 June. Ministers can’t keep ignoring something so fundamental to the lives of so many people.

Commuters are frustrated at the standards that they are expected to put up with and they are angry that nobody will take responsibility. In our part-private part-public system we see the Government, rail operators, Network Rail and rolling stock leasing companies all fighting to blame each other for problems. They ignore the interests of passengers and doing nothing to improve the service.

In these last few months, Northern services have been even worse than normal. The management of the company have taken decisions that have denied my constituents even a basic service. An overtime working dispute with drivers and a delay of staff training on the re-opening Blackpool line has caused a huge shortage of drivers.

Northern knew the combination of these two factors would leave them unable to operate a full timetable yet no action was taken to reduce the impact on passengers. Every day is the same, Northern act like they are surprised by the driver shortage and leave passengers with a roulette to find out which trains will be cancelled. This was not a couple days of inconvenience, it has gone on for weeks.

According to the Northern Fail app on Wednesday 16th May, a full month after the issues with driver training began, there were 91 trains fully cancelled, 140 part cancelled and 48 trains ran with reduced carriages across the Northern network.

Yet there was no strategy in place. Why was there no set schedule for cancellations so passengers knew what to expect? Why were there no rail replacement bus services to take pressure off the overcrowded trains that were able to run? Northern provided no explanation to me or the public.

The situation only got worse last week when Northern’s new timetable began. Ninety per cent of services were changed; already overcrowded routes through my constituency saw their capacity decrease, and the change was so badly handled that 42 trains were cancelled on the first day at Bolton station alone.

The system is failing and nobody is being held accountable. After days of outcry following the timetable chaos the Rail Minister Jo Johnson described the issues with Northern as “teething problems”. This just shows how completely out of touch ministers are with the daily reality for rail passengers in the north.

Northern need to be held accountable for their failures. The Government has to step up and ensure that basic services are available and if Northern can’t deliver then they must strip them of the franchise and bring it back into public ownership.

Sir David Crausby is Labour MP for Bolton North East. His Westminster Hall debate takes place on Wednesday 6 June.

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