A train commuter has revealed she's regularly forced to shell out up to £50 in taxis to get to and from work in Manchester because of the state of the north's railways.
The angry worker spoke of 'regularly' being stuck at Warrington due to train cancellations and said on at least four occasions this year, she's paid out for taxis more than she's earned in the day.
Her comments come as northern mayors including the mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, were due to meet the Transport Secretary, Mark Harper, yesterday (Wednesday) to demand he takes action to end the 'chaos' blighting the region's railways. Labour mayors from West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Liverpool and North Tyneside will urge Mr Harper to improve services.
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But one said he wouldn't be at the meeting in person, because trains from the north east couldn't be trusted to run on time. Jamie Driscoll, mayor of the North of Tyne, said he would join in the meeting over Zoom, adding that he 'printed out' three pages on Tuesday night of '61 train cancellations by TransPennine Express'.
He said: "The trains are so unreliable that I might not have been able to get there - and it was probably a good call."
Thousands of trains have been cancelled across northern England at short notice in recent weeks, with TransPennine Express, Avanti West Coast and Northern all affected. The Manchester Evening News has previously reported a key transport committee was told rail cancellations and delays being made by train operators serving Greater Manchester passengers are costing the economy of the north around £8m a week.
Jenna, who commutes from Chester to Manchester, told BBC Radio Four's Today programme that she was getting taxis more often because of train cancellations. She said: "It should be Chester to Manchester and just change at Warrington. So it should be a fairly easy, kind of within an hour, nice and simple.
"But I would say I'm regularly stuck in Warrington for a good hour or so or I have to get a taxi. It's about £30 to £40 depending on what time of day it is. It can be up to £50. It can be really, really expensive.
"I used to probably once every five months have to get a taxi. They used to put on buses. It used to be really, really helpful. It doesn't really matter what route I am on. They cancel. You look at other countries and it works really well. They are on time and you get a seat. It could be done so well and it just isn't.
"It is absolutely exhausting to constantly have to look at the train times every single day and hope beyond hope that I am not going to be stranded anywhere. Financially it is a lot because you are coming to work to make money and then you spent literally more than your day's wage on getting home.
"I have at least four times this year spent more getting here and back than I have earned that day."
Mr Driscoll said of TransPennine Express' short-notice cancellations: "This is standard practice - we have had it before. We've had a Transport for the North meeting in Manchester and the mayors couldn't get there because the trains were cancelled. The irony of it would be funny if it wasn't so serious. We have the Secretary of State coming to meet mayors to talk about poor rail services and we can't get there."
Mr Driscoll said many people were missing their trains - and schoolchildren were standing on 'cold, dark platforms for hours at a time'. He said: "The infrastructure is Victorian. The signalling is the old-fashioned semaphore you will see from black and white movies. No one knows where the trains are. There is a bus replacement service at the moment and they haven't got drivers, so it doesn't turn up."
Mr Driscoll said the government hasn't admitted the rail service is 'creaking'.
"We need Northern Powerhouse Rail in full, which was promised to us by the government and they have now said 'well we can't afford it'," he added.
Speaking ahead of the meeting in Manchester, West Yorkshire mayor Tracy Brabin said: “Enough is enough. The Transport Secretary has promised to get a grip on this crisis and we welcome that. But the people of the north need more than warm words. We need a concrete plan that will get our rail network back on track.
"This chaos is having a devastating impact on the northern economy and our attempts to rebuild from the pandemic, while we try and support our communities against the cost-of-living crisis with record levels of inflation.
"The Secretary of State is the person who can step in and has a fresh opportunity to help solve the problem and that’s exactly what we’ll be telling him today."
Much of the disruption is being caused by rail workers no longer volunteering to do shifts on their rest days, amid an industrial relations crisis across the sector.
The mayors said they would call on Mr Harper to do whatever he can to encourage the train companies and trade unions to reach an agreement on rest day working. They also want TransPennine Express to be put on a 'six-month probation' to raise its performance before its contract is up for renewal in May 2023.
A spokesperson for TransPennine Express said: “Prior to December 2021 TransPennine Express (TPE) had posted its best ever performance results, and was subsequently recognised as “Train Operator of the Year” at the Rail Business Awards. Since then, prolonged disruption affecting our services has been caused by 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. Combined, these factors have seen a number of on-the-day or ‘evening before’ cancellations being made.
"In normal circumstances, we have enough people to fully operate our scheduled timetable – and have more drivers now than ever before – however the combination of factors has put unprecedented pressure on our ability to effectively operate our services.
"Our customers want, and deserve, reliable and punctual train services, and we are sorry have not been able to consistently provide that due to the ongoing issues. TPE’s team continues to work flat-out to deliver higher levels of service delivery and to tackle the issues that are being experienced by customers."
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