Using Northern rail is own goal for football fans across Yorkshire and Lincolnshire – Yorkshire Post Letters

I HAVE to bring to your attention the service provided by Northern over the last few weeks (The Yorkshire Post, January 29 and 30).

I, along with many others, attend Lincoln City home matches using the Saxilby to Lincoln service.

End of line for Northern but why did Ministers take so long to act? – The Yorkshire Post says

On Tuesday night, around 20 people were on Saxilby station awaiting a train which never came. There was no information regarding this at the station and only after a subsequent phone call was made were we told the train was cancelled but the one in an hour’s time was running.

It made a frantic rush for all to get to the match.

Just spending more money won’t fix the North’s railways, says Transport Secretary Grant Shapps

This is the second time in just over a fortnight this has happened, with a return journey from a Saturday fixture also cancelled. At least a rival train company had a train running a bit later.

Northern rail executive’s 18 per cent pay rise is yet another insult to passengers - Tom Richmond

One has to ask if Northern were bothered about paying customers. I suggest not.

The slogan of yesteryear – ‘Let the train take the strain’ – certainly doesn’t apply as we all tried frantically to reach the stadium for kick-off.

From: Dan Jarvis, Sheffield City Region mayor and Labour MP for Barnsley Central.

FOR too long, passengers in the North have been let down by delayed, overcrowded, and expensive rail services. Although I welcome this week’s announcement by the Government, much more will need to be done to address the challenges we face with our railways in the North.

The overriding priority must be to ensure passengers have reliable rail services. To see real change and restore passenger confidence in what has been an unacceptably poor transport system, significant investment is needed in infrastructure across the North – where spending is still a fraction of that in London and the South East.

That’s why I’m calling for Government to commit to a sustained programme of investment in our public transport system. As a priority, they need to work closely with Northern leaders on the Operator of Last Resort arrangement and focus investment on shovel-ready schemes that ensure passengers see the benefits sooner rather than later.

From: Mick Cash, General Secretary, RMT.

NORTHERN has become a signal for everything that is wrong on Britain’s broken, privatised railways and the fact that the Government has now been forced to take action will open the floodgates towards wholesale public ownership of our railways as other franchises fall like dominoes – or simply choose to cut and run in the face of the inevitable.

The return of Northern to the public domain, joining the East Coast Main Line, should not be seen as a short-term fix and a holding operation pending another punt on another bunch of private speculators. This has to be a permanent move followed up with the investment and planning needed to deliver the rail services that passengers deserve after years of privatised chaos.

RMT will take whatever action is required to protect our members, their jobs and their conditions, caught in the crossfire of the rail franchise meltdown and the union will now be stepping up the campaign for the whole industry to now be brought back together as an integrated, national public service, shaking off the grim legacy of 25 years of private profiteering.

From: Henri Murison, Director, Northern Powerhouse Partnership.

WHILE the forthcoming Williams review will rightly address issues with the franchising process in the North, the Government should urgently act to undertake the engineering works needed to allow operators to run services more effectively, as well as get started with the £3bn long-awaited TransPennine route upgrade which is essential.

Otherwise we risk a situation where the North faces years more misery on its rail network – regardless of who runs the trains. The only permanent solution is to give the oversight of both upgrade schemes and services to the North for our leaders here to take responsibility for them