Chaotic. Frustrating. Shit show. Just some of the words that can accurately describe the insufferable rail services in the north of England for months now.
Avanti West Coast, Northern, and TransPennine Express (Express!!!) have delivered record numbers of cancellations. Trains are often overcrowded – getting a seat is akin to winning the lottery. Toilets are regularly out of service. Air conditioning? Are you having a laugh. If you are lucky enough to get on a train that is running, then you expect it to run late. Bad enough that we have to suffer a nineteenth century rail network and twentieth century trains. Horse and cart would be a more comfortable and reliable mode of travel at the moment.
In economic terms, the cost is estimated to be £8 million a week to the regional economy – or half a billion pounds a year. But that figure takes no account of the deals lost, the investment missed, the long-term impact on the confidence of companies to put their faith in the future of the – cough – ‘Northern Powerhouse’.
Operators blame the Unions; the Unions blame management. Meanwhile passengers and businesses bear the brunt of the total abomination that are train services in the north.
The current government (I know we are mark 3 now, but still) won a thumping majority via its success in the Red Wall. It promised ‘Levelling Up’.
But it seems that ministers are so busy focussing on party management that the issues that need to be addressed – transport being ultra-urgent as far as the north and those red wall voters are concerned – are being ignored and neglected.
If the government will not intervene in the catastrophic rail situation, described by former Tory Transport Minister Patrick McLoughlin as a “meltdown”, to at least demonstrate a modicum of concern to those who leant their vote to the Conservatives in 2019, then surely there is no greater indication that Rishi Sunak and his colleagues have already written off many of those Northern constituencies and expect to lose them at the next election.
Meanwhile, as rail Unions announce a series of strikes that are causing anxiety and consternation in the rest of the country, northerners just shrug and say “how will we be able to tell?”
