The notion of Britain having a national rail network is nonsense - Yorkshire Post Letters

The Yorkshire Post often refers to our national rail network but I beg to dispute that any such thing exists after my recent experience in travelling from Sheffield to Whitby on August 26.

All went well until York was reached and our conductor announced that "trespassers on the line at Middlesbrough" were the cause of a delay; this lasted for some 35 minutes.

Consequently the Trans-Pennine express was late into Middlesbrough and the connection for the Whitby branch was missed...by three minutes! This in spite of our conductor contacting the ticket office at Middlesbrough and requesting that the branch train would be held.

He did say that he wasn't hopeful and he had every reason not to be. Apparently, because Northern runs the Whitby trains and TransPennine Express the Manchester Airport to Redcar service on which I was travelling, the two companies do not cooperate on such things as connections. Madness.

Happily, a very smart TransPennine official emerged from the Middlesbrough station offices, she took details of the dozen or so passengers who had missed the Whitby branch train and organised taxis for all of us.

Otherwise it would have been at least a three hour wait, such is the paucity of services to Whitby. Such efficiency and consideration would not have been necessary if the Whitby train had been delayed by just a few minutes.

Would it really have been too much for Northern to accede to the request of the TransPennine conductor to hold the Whitby train for a few minutes? According to several railway staff that I spoke to, it would! Pathetic.

A national rail network? Nonsense!

Incidentally, there were trespassers on the line again at Middlesbrough when I journeyed homeward the following week. Hey ho!