No overnight fix, but improvements imminent for Northern Rail passengers

Passengers using the Northern rail network have been told to expect improvements, but that there won’t be a transformation overnight.

The Government took over the running of services on Sunday with a commitment to rebuild passenger confidence and put their priorities first.

Nick Donovan is Managing Director and a new panel has been launched featuring political leaders, including Andy Burnham from Manchester and Judith Blake from Leeds, which will provide ongoing advice on how services will be run.

Speaking at the Government’s Public Accounts Committee, Permanent Secretary for the Department for Transport, Bernadette Kelly, said a 100-day plan for measures to improve services as quickly as possible is being produced.

She said: “There won’t be an overnight transformation in train services on that franchise. The problems and performance have been set by a number of problems – some deep rooted.

“The operator is producing a 100-day plan for measures to improve services as quickly as possible for passengers.

“We can already expect to see improvements anyway as a consequence of all pacers finally being removed by May. Work to extend platforms and therefore allow longer trains will be complete by April that should result in improvements. There will be some additional electric services added on part of the franchise to allow for more capacity.

“So, there are things happening now to improve services and the operator has been asked to produce a 100-day plan for further steps that can be taken.

“We are acutely conscious that these are quite challenging performance issues for this part of the network.”

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