Mayors call on Government to intervene to end commuters’ misery

The Northern Labour metro-mayors have collectively called on the Government “to step in” and resolve the ongoing rest day dispute between train operating companies and staff that is blighting rail timetables.

West Yorkshire mayor Tracy Brabin convened the 30-minute online meeting but the sole Conservative mayor in the region Ben Houchen declined to attend.

The mayors are essentially powerless to resolve the problems facing rail commuters across the North, which have seen up to 60 TransPennine services a day cancelled despite running reduced services compared to pre-pandemic timetables. Avanti and Northern services have also faced significant disruption.

Tracy Brabin

Brabin said the mayors would be contacting new Transport Secretary Mark Harper “today” to urge him to get involved.

“We’ve come up with the next steps and it is to call for government to step in,” she told TheBusinessDesk.com.

“The new Transport Minister Mark Harper – the third transport minister in as many months – to sit around the table with the unions and the [train operating] companies and come to a resolution.

“He could sign off on rest day working today and next week we would have a more reliable service. It is in the in the gift of the government to intervene.”

The Labour mayors – which also include Greater Manchester’s Andy Burnham, Liverpool City Region’s Steve Rotheram, South Yorkshire’s Oliver Coppard, and North of Tyne’s Jamie Driscoll – also want the Government to “put TransPennine Express on a six-month probation period” ahead of any renewal of its contract next May.

They also requested “an urgent meeting” with transport ministers to agree a long-term plan as they said the problems are “derailing our plans for a strong Northern economy”.

TransPennine has blamed its high level of cancellations on “a range of issues including ongoing high levels of train crew sickness, a persisting training backlog as a direct result of Covid, and infrastructure issues outside of TPE’s control”.

However Brabin is concerned that the situation will deteriorate futher when the bad weather arrives this winter.

“This is really troubling because if this is the state of play now and we get into winter, because TransPennine has said part of the problem is high levels of sickness.

“What’s going to happen when we get winter flu and what’s their mitigation – what are they putting in place to make sure that crisis doesn’t happen?”

Close