Railway threat to Hull economy

This is even more pertinent to Hull and areas surrounding it which do not enjoy direct access to either the A1 or M1 motorways or the East Coast Main Line which runs through the spine of the county. If they’re to attract new businesses to break the cycle of unemployment, then the transport network needs to run smoothly.

However, businesses considering whether to move to the area will think twice if Hull is effectively cut off from the rest of the rail network due to various repairs which will take months to finish.

This prospect is a serious one if engineering work to shore up a major landslip near Hatfield colliery is not completed before long-awaited repairs begin on a swing bridge at Selby, the only viable alternative route for affected services.

Of course safety is paramount and the disintegration of the railway at Stainforth under tonnes of spoil from the colliery shows the fragility of the entire network.

Yet, by Network Rail’s own admission, the “damage to the railway is a lot worse than we originally thought and the repair work will be more complex” – an indication that the line may be closed for longer than the envisaged 18 weeks. And while they hope the route will be restored by the time that the bridge at Selby is closed, there is no guarantee that this will be the case.

Given this, Hull City Council is right to press for assurances to delay the repairs at Selby until the most direct rail route from their city to Doncaster has been reopened.

A failure to do so will not only create unnecessary extra inconvenience for travellers, but send out a damaging message that Hull is closed to business when this is patently not the case.

This must not be allowed to happen. Given the rail industry’s complacency, there is every likelihood of this scenario coming to pass unless Network Rail and the train operators work with council leaders rather than operating in isolation. As publicly-subsidised entities, they, too, have obligations to the communities that they purport to serve.