The North doesn’t have enough people to warrant rail investment? Try telling that to those forced to stay in hotels overnight - Ismail Mulla
Misery is never far off for rail passengers in the North. Delays, cancellations, overcrowded platforms and trains. The daily commute is a never-ending trauma.
The only reason for optimism is the countless promises of jam tomorrow. Jam that never materialises. In fact, traffic is the only variety of jam that we’re properly acquainted with. For it is becoming impossible to even drive to cities like Leeds for fear of becoming stuck in traffic.
And perish the thought you take a wrong turn and end up in a bus lane or one-way with no escape in sight. Forget the jam, you’ll simply be toast.
Leeds has had the tag of ‘motorway city’ attached to it for a few decades now but while may have been a boast in the 60s and 70s, it has become a millstone around the neck of Leeds.
The city, and indeed many like it across the North, should rightly be focusing on reducing the number of cars on the road. It’s better for the environment, air quality and safer for pedestrians.
I’ve heard of far too many accidents involving high-powered cars with under-powered brains behind the wheel, to feel truly comfortable on the roads.
However, what choice do people actually have? The buses by and large have to fight through the traffic. The trains simply do not work. And the mass transit network is a further promise of jam tomorrow.
I was talking to a friend and colleague the other day, who has for the past few years been carrying an overnight bag with him for fear of getting stuck in Leeds as a result of the sorry excuse of a rail network that we have here in the North.
He commutes in from Slaithwaite and has found himself booking into a hotel because the trains simply do not work. Only this week did he find himself jumping from one train to another, only to find that none of them would be going anywhere.
What does it say about the railways if he can’t make a 20 mile journey between Leeds and Huddersfield?
Which brings me to Lord Moylan, the Conservatives’ transport spokesperson in the House of Lords.
The former deputy chairman of Transport for London suggested that the North doesn't have enough people to warrant rail investment. Try telling that to the traffic snaking into one of the region’s cities every morning. Or to those who have to navigate the morass of people jostling to get onto trains that are running.
He also said that the “North has to take a bit more control of its own thinking and be more imaginative about some of these solutions”.
There has been no shortage of imagination. In fact, passengers here are sick of shiny artists' impressions. Unless His Lordship was suggesting that the North hire a caravan of camels to solve its transport problems.
Lord Moylan’s comments show just how out of touch Westminster politicians are with the region.
For all the promises of jam tomorrow, what is needed first and foremost is to fix what we have. HS2 would have unlocked much needed capacity but there seems little appetite to revisit it.
When commuters are unable to make a simple 20 mile journey, then it really is time for jam today.
Ismail Mulla is the Comment Editor of The Yorkshire Post.