Northern leaders questioned ‘unacceptable’ service after ‘do not travel’ warnings issued

Northern leaders have appeared before politicians on the “unacceptable” level of service in response to a series of ‘no-go’ warnings issued in recent weeks.

The Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, called an emergency meeting of the Rail North Committee on Wednesday to “need an immediate plan to end” the notices, describing them as “disgraceful” and accusing Northern “of damaging the economy of home”.

In an emergency meeting Wednesday, Mayor Burnham said Northern had canceled 155 services that morning. He also accused the operator of ‘not seeming to have a plan’, due to the lack of acceptance of both tickets and other staff and bus systems in place when trains are cancelled.

Director of Operations, Tricia Williams, said that the Sunday services in the North West came about because the staff did not have to work that day, and admitted that she was “well aware” of the effect of the cancellation on people.

“We don’t always know where these cancellations will fall,” he told the committee,” adding that there is “no permanent capacity to install new vehicles”.

Northern has issued warnings of not running for several weekends without new buses, something Mayor Burnham said “shouldn’t be happening”.

Chief Operating Officer Matt Rice said that every four to five months the firm is testing, on a weekly basis, “to determine who will volunteer to work on certain routes. , who is not volunteering, and how we patchwork together to make the train service available”.

He said: “We have that right on some weekends but it usually doesn’t work and we end up leaving people behind.

Rice also said that Northern will be looking to strengthen the retreat option during November and December.

“We know there will be big events in December, especially those that we have to work together to protect,” he added. “As it stands now, it will probably mean that there will be some services that we will not be able to run.

“What we have to do is stop trying to do a lot of things where we probably don’t do a lot of things where we probably don’t do a lot of things well, to a smart list of services, smart lines or more. ways in between. of the main economy and main events and to guarantee a high level of service.

“None of that is where we want to be. We want to run 2,500 trains a week, 1,500 or more that we promised on Sunday, hopefully. ”

A provisional design for the bridge is due to be submitted to Rail North as Northern bosses want to “provide certainty”.

Lord Patrick McLoughlin asked what was stopping Northern from having express ticket deals, particularly with the Operator of Last Resort-run LNER and TransPennine Express, and when decisions about P-coding, where services are canceled in advance, citing situations where it was assumed that the absence from work had not yet occurred. as bad as advertised.

Regarding P-coding, Williams said “we haven’t been P-coding where we have people, if there’s something we’ve written too late, we believe people will be there, and I believe that is one of the important changes we can make”.

Rice added that P-coding was a 72-hour job when the registered teams knew how many workers there were, where the trains were, and set the rotas, but the factory “didn’t have the technology” to distribute the equipment where the “big bang for the buck is” as quickly as they like.

This led the meeting to hear how fax machines are used to communicate with employees.

When asked if Northern would “take off tomorrow”, Rice said: “Because the tools we use to get information and messages to our employees rely on faxes, it’s amazing.”

Williams added: “We would not be able to end them tomorrow without an agreement with our unions. We have to look at these issues in depth and their complexity and historical issues that we are definitely going to talk about.

“It’s not as simple as turning them off tomorrow because we currently have an agreement to use the systems we have, and to change that, we have to change the agreement.”

The committee called on Northern to improve its communication with passengers, make ticketing arrangements with other staff when services are cancelled, and improve training schedules and how it deals with staff illness.

The Committee will also write to the Department of Finance and the Department of Transport to get an agreement on the holiday and Sunday schedule as soon as possible.

“We need this now,” said Mayor Burnham, adding: “The North needs better than an unreliable fax machine.”

“We are looking to you to lead change,” he told Williams and Rice, adding that he had been told the proposed plan was “not enough”.

“In short, we need a new plan from you, and it needs to be better than what we’ve seen so far so that we can minimize the disruption to businesses and residents.”

The plan will be discussed on November 20, where the Rail North Committee hopes to have an agreement with the Department of Finance and the Department of Transport on public holidays and Sundays.