The media gathered at Liverpool Lime Street on Saturday to hear Steve Rotheram and Andy Burnham speak about ongoing problems on the North of England's railways.
There was only one problem - the train the Liverpool City Region and Greater Manchester mayors were taking to Liverpool was cancelled. Mr Burnham took to Twitter, posting a photo of himself and Mr Rotheram at Newton-le-Willows station with the departure board showing the details of their cancelled train behind them.
The irony of the situation was not lost on anyone. Once the two mayors arrived in Liverpool, they called for an end to "chaos and poor performance" on the railways in the North of England. They also said that two of the region's largest train operators - TransPennine Express (TPE) and Avanti West Coast - should be stripped of their franchises if they don't improve.
READ MORE: Andy Burnham and Steve Rotheram call for an end to train "chaos"
The "chaos and poor performance" has affected many passengers in Merseyside and the wider region over recent months. In September, TPE announced it was making temporary changes to its timetable - reducing services on its Anglo-Scottish route from 40 services a day to 31.
Among the services removed were trains from Liverpool Lime Street to Preston and Glasgow Central to Lime Street. The amended timetable, which the operator said was a result of "higher-than-normal sickness levels and a number of other issues including a training backlog as a direct result of Covid", will be in place until December 10.
As well as reducing the timetable, TPE has been hit by late cancellations - including on Wednesday (October 19), when it cancelled 55 trains - affecting services between Liverpool and Manchester and Liverpool and Newcastle.
Passengers on Avanti West Coast have also been hit by many issues in recent months. Amid a union dispute in August, the operator reduced its services from London Euston on the West Coast Main Line.
The operator cited staff shortages, the "current industrial relations climate" and claims of "unofficial strike action" by ASLEF members as reasons for cutting back the timetable at the time. However, the union rejected these claims as "lies".
Avanti said that drivers stopped volunteering for overtime which led to the timetable reductions and late-notice cancellations. Trains between Manchester and London were reduced to one an hour, but services between Liverpool Lime Street and Euston remained at one an hour in each direction, as has been the case for many years.
Passengers using Avanti to and from Liverpool have still faced issues. People told the ECHO of a number of difficult journeys in recent months, including overheating on a train to London and a "nightmare" return from Scotland after the train was "too full to depart".
Earlier this month, Transport for the North expressed its disappointment as Avanti was given a six-month extension to its contract on the West Coast Main Line. However, the government said this will give Avanti the opportunity to improve service. In statements given to the ECHO both Avanti and TPE apologised for their recent service and said that matters would improve in coming months.
The ECHO spoke to passengers affected by the recent issues and politicians calling for drastic improvements in the region's rail services.
'This type of service has become the standard'
One of the major issues faced by Avanti passengers in Liverpool is tickets not being released until a matter of days before trains are set to leave. Customers can buy tickets for midweek travel in advance (at the minute, tickets are on sale for midweek journeys in December), but, over the past few months, tickets for weekend services have often not been on sale until the week before.
As of Sunday (October 23), Avanti tickets were not available to buy for Sunday, October 30. The operator states this is due to engineering works taking place over that weekend. Tickets for other forthcoming weekends are also not on sale yet - tickets for the weekend of November 12 and 13 and beyond cannot be bought yet.
Among the passengers affected by an inability to buy weekend tickets in advance is Elliot, 25, from Childwall. Elliot is a regular Avanti user as he has to travel through London to visit his partner's family. He was irritated that tickets were not yet available for a planned journey in December.
On Friday, he told the ECHO: "I lived in Luton for five years so have been traveling from London to Liverpool for a while and it seems like the train service has gradually got worse year to year. At the moment, I think the main problem is ticket information. Tickets are released with not a lot of notice.
"I’m traveling through London to visit my partner's family in December and tickets still aren’t available. We both need to give lots of notice to get time off work so the lack of forward planning causes problems."
Danny, 25, also told the ECHO that travelling has become difficult due to a lack of confirmed timetables making it tough to plan ahead. He is travelling with TPE from Newcastle to Merseyside next weekend to meet with a group of friends and watch Australia play Italy in the Rugby League World Cup in St Helens on Saturday (October 29).
He is due to return to the North East on Sunday but received a notification in the Trainline app on Thursday (October 20) telling him part of the 12:52 service from Lime Street to Newcastle, which he was booked on, will no longer run. He said he was offered no further explanation at the time and tried to book on other services that day but they were listed as being sold out.
TPE later clarified that this was due to the timetable not yet being confirmed for Sunday. At the moment, TPE's reduced timetable means that times for Sunday services are not confirmed until the week before.
Danny said that this makes travelling and making plans in advance very difficult. He told the ECHO: "For my return journey on Sunday, it's very frustrating that I can't take the train that I booked on.
"It’s even more infuriating when you consider that this type of service has become the standard, and yet ticket prices continue to be through the roof".
Danny is fed up with the service afforded to rail users in the North. He added: "In my experience, travelling across the North tends to be slow, expensive and full of disruptions. Trains are regularly delayed or cancelled at late notice, usually put down to staffing shortages.
"A lack of direct and affordable routes means that you could be taking two or three trains per journey, so cancellations and delays can really wreak havoc on your plans.
"I often find that it’s cheaper and easier to travel from Newcastle to London than it is to reach many Northern cities by train. The problem’s pretty clear: a lack of care, understanding or investment in Northern transport links and infrastructure.
"We need better connection and, even more importantly, it needs to be affordable - especially right now. Until this is addressed with proper action, and not just empty promises and slogans, I don’t see how the problem goes away."
'It’s just not on'
Mr Rotheram described the situation with Avanti as "completely unacceptable". He also pointed to TPE's recent troubles as proof that passengers in the region have to contend with sub-par service on many routes.
He told the ECHO: “The situation with the Avanti network is completely unacceptable. Delays and cancellations, not just on one bad day, but sustained through months of chaos have left passengers unable to plan journeys for the days and weeks ahead. When people are relying on them for their jobs and businesses, it’s just not on.
“While Avanti’s decision to reduce a number of its intercity services to London to an hourly service is causing mayhem for other Northern cities, it’s not lost on me that the reduction to an hourly service to London has been the standard provision for our region, despite a promised increase to a half hourly service.
“I met with Avanti recently to highlight the issues passengers have raised with me and to seek assurances that current service levels will be protected. I also pressed for the company to commit to working towards the introduction of the half-hourly services.
“Wherever you go in the North, the story is the same: urgent appointments missed, late arrival at work and school, cut off from vital public services, isolated from friends and families – and some put in dangerous situations. Passengers are being forced to contend not only with the failing Avanti, but the ailing Northern and TransPennine Express services too.
“Our region should not be forced to put up with this second-class service."
At the delayed Lime Street press briefing on Saturday, Mr Burnham said: "It's not good enough. We need an action plan to sort out the service across the north of England. If the government can't fix it, they should let another government fix it."
The ECHO understands that Avanti will significantly increase its timetable across the West Coast Line in December - and the new timetable will not be dependent on drivers' overtime. TPE's reduced timetable will be in place until December 10.
Avanti's weekend tickets will be available from four weeks out from November 7, before increasing to six weeks out in the New Year. Improvements will come as a relief to rail users.
Regarding the services in and out of Liverpool recently, an Avanti West Coast spokesperson said: “We know we’ve not been delivering the service our customers rightly expect and we apologise for the enormous frustration and inconvenience. Our customers deserve a dependable train service and we know that making tickets available as early as possible is a key priority.
"We’re working hard to do this. Our weekday tickets are available into December but weekends are made more difficult by engineering work which is taking place almost every weekend until Christmas. We are making progress though, and by early November, we’ll be selling weekend tickets four weeks in advance. We’ll continue to push this booking window further out as quickly as we can.“
On their difficulties in recent months a TransPennine Express spokesperson said: “The recent disruption affecting services in and out of Liverpool Lime Street 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.
“Our customers want reliable and punctual train services, and we are sorry have not been able to consistently provide that due to the ongoing issues. 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 operate our services.
“Due to these factors we are currently operating an amended timetable across our network on Sundays, with the times for each Sunday service released the week before. While Anytime tickets for Sundays can still be bought ahead of time, Advance Purchase tickets can only be purchased once the amended timetable is released.”
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