Success of the Northumberland Line shows there is demand for rail travel - Ismail Mulla

The line between Ashington and Newcastle gets especially busy during Newcastle United match days.

Perhaps policymakers can have a word with all the football clubs around our region, see what they have to say. I’m sure someone like Leeds United would welcome better connectivity.

This £298m project shows that there is a demand for rail travel in this country. It also shows that the ill-conceived Beeching cuts can in some instances be reversed.

The council there think 250,000 journeys will have been made by Easter, against initial expectations of 50,000. That just highlights the scope there is for rail travel.

Regardless of where rail lines are, reliable and affordable rail travel can transform the country. And reopening more lines that fell victim to the Beeching cuts would be a good way of reconnecting communities.

At the same time, here in Yorkshire we had Labour grandee David Blunkett saying he was left “absolutely staggered” by the state of Yorkshire’s rail network, while working on a review of the county’s connectivity.

Lord Blunkett met the Transport Secretary, Heidi Alexander, and Rail Minister, Peter Hendy, alongside Yorkshire’s three metro mayors, to discuss his recommendations.

The review pointed out that Leeds station had the highest amount of time lost to delays of any station in the UK in 2023 - at 34,922 minutes which is more than 24 days.

Reading was the second worst affected station with 22,069 minutes lost, while Sheffield, York and Bradford Interchanges were all in the top 10.

Only two London stations - London Bridge and Heathrow - feature in this list, despite the capital having the 12 busiest stations in the UK.

If that doesn’t paint a clear enough picture for the Government about the sorry state of railway travel here in Yorkshire then nothing will.

Lord Blunkett told this newspaper: “Its capacity - obviously the redevelopment of [Leeds] station and around the station is going to be vital, but it’s also about signalling and the use of technology.

“You get slow trains in front of express trains, you get people shunted into sidings, you get all kinds of timetabling problems.

"The knock on with delays and subsequent cancellations have made people’s lives a misery.

“These are staggering figures - even I was surprised and it takes a lot to surprise me.”

That is saying something. It’s little wonder that my colleague Andrew Vine referred to the region as the Bermuda Triangle of railway travel.

While this review was useful, it is now time for action. The region’s remaining rail passengers have seen enough reviews and consultations. They know the rail system is broken because they experience it first hand.

For many of us, who did at one point travel into places like Leeds on the train, the Covid lockdown saved us from further misery. It was the number one reason for many commuters to want to carry on working from home. If you speak to those who still commute by train, they will tell you that the experience has not improved much.

There have been too many false dawns for rail passengers to welcome developments with any confidence. But I’m willing to give the mayors a chance to show the region that they can hold the Government’s feet to the fire on rail travel and deliver the much needed improvements.

At the very least, they’re closer to the experience of the rail passenger in the North than those in Westminster. I remember a few years ago the Mayor of West Yorkshire was stuck on the same line as me, we’d both attended the Great Northern Conference in Sheffield that year where one of the big talking points was rail connectivity. Only to be greeted with the irony of chaos at Sheffield station.

If the Government is serious about a number of its objectives - whether that is net zero or economic development - then it needs to fix the region’s rail network.

Making communities in Yorkshire more mobile will open up more opportunities for them. Take Bradford, for example, one of the youngest cities in the country. Driving isn’t always financially feasible and they are clearly not being served well by the rail network.