Rail operators are facing calls for them to be stripped of their contracts over “diabolical” cancellations, which left one North East mayor unable to get to a crunch meeting with the transport secretary.
Labour chiefs across the North have pleaded with the Government to take urgent action over a public transport crisis that has seen thousands of trains cancelled at short notice over recent weeks by TransPennine Express, Avanti West Coast and Northern. North of Tyne mayor Jamie Driscoll was due to join other metro mayors at a key sitdown with transport secretary Mark Harper in Manchester on Wednesday afternoon, but was forced to call in via Zoom instead because he feared being left stranded on a station platform if he tried to go by train.
Mr Driscoll told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that 61 TransPennine services that were due to run on Wednesday were cancelled the night before. He said that services should be brought into public ownership and demanded “serious investment” in the North’s railway infrastructure – including a commitment to build Northern Powerhouse Rail in full and a plan to end operators’ reliance on workers volunteering for shifts on their rest days.
