Northern needs to put on more trains in Yorkshire - Yorkshire Post Letters

Your columnist Roger Ratcliffe is so right. A two carriage train on the Settle and Carlisle line on a busy weekend is completely unacceptable. Whilst Northern clearly made a bad choice in only allocating a two car unit to this service, we need to ask why.

The stark fact is Northern Rail does not have enough trains. Northern has been very successful in attracting leisure passengers, and weekend train loadings on many lines are now well above pre-Covid levels. But it does not have enough trains and because of that, wrong decisions are sometimes made as to how they are allocated.

Northern must have more trains, and an early opportunity arises next year when Transport for Wales will be releasing 27 class 158 Super Sprinter trains that are being replaced with new rolling stock.

The 158s are the class of train that Northern uses on many of its routes including the Settle and Carlisle. It is absolutely vital that next year, all or at least most, of these train sets from Wales are transferred to Northern.

The decision will be made by the Department of Transport, with HM Treasury doubtless involved. The Government must approve the transfer of these trains, and as extra units, not as replacements for Northern's oldest trains.

Passengers need trains with enough seats for demand.

Getting more units would also give Northern the tools it needs to extend some Leeds-Pontefract services to Doncaster; to run an hourly service from Goole to Leeds; and to run an hourly service from Sheffield to York via Pontefract.

The Government must not let Yorkshire people down.