An emergency meeting has been called by ‘Northern Mayors’ today over the Avanti, Transpenine and Northern Rail “shambles” which has affected rail passengers in the region, after hundreds of services were cancelled by the rail operators.
The talks with West Yorkshire Mayor Tracy Brabin, the Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham, the Mayor of the Liverpool City Region Steve Rotheram, the Mayor of the North of Tyne Jamie Driscoll and the Mayor of South Yorkshire Oliver Coppard, are expected to culminate in them making a formal plea to the newly appointed Transport Secretary, Mark Harper.
Tracy Brabin, says: “Today, we as Northern Mayors come together to send a clear message that we will not stand for this shambles.
“This is inflicting misery on millions of people, derailing our plans to build a strong Northern economy and putting us in the slow lane.
“The North has been left behind for far too long, and we’re calling on the third transport secretary in as many months to step in with an immediate intervention.”
Just days ago, Kevin Foster the outgoing rail minister said the Government was making preparations to intervene should Avanti fail to deliver “significant” improvements on the West Coast Main Line.
Avanti West Coast was given a 6 month extension to improve its services [by April 2023] following a reduction of its trains in the summer. It had been thought that the extension would provide an opportunity for Avanti to improve its services to the “standard we and the public expect”.
However, Mr Foster also made it clear that the Government could take over Avanti’s network, which includes services from London to the West Midlands, the North West of England and Scotland, via its Operator of Last Resort.
