Rail cancellations and delays being made by train operators serving Greater Manchester passengers are costing the economy of the north around £8m a week, a key transport committee heard.
The figures, for Northern and TransPennine Express (TPE) only, do not cover Avanti West Coast, which has been under-fire for cuts made to train services between Manchester Piccadilly and London Euston, meaning the exact sum could be far greater.
And 'decisionmakers' in London - the Government - have been accused of not fully understanding the current level of rail disruption hitting Greater Manchester and the north, with a report claiming there's a 'tacit acceptance of poor performance in the north in a way which would not be tolerated in London and the south east'.
David Hoggarth, strategic rail director of Transport for the North (TfN), made the comments at a meeting of the Rail North Committee on Tuesday, at which Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, delivered a withering attack towards operators, describing rail performance in Greater Manchester as 'beyond appalling at times'. "People here have had year, after year after year of this," he said.
Another regional mayor, meanwhile, also spoke of hearing about businesses not opening because staff cannot get to work on time, schoolchildren being left alone on dark station platforms and replacement buses failing to arrive.
Mr Burnham said the delays and cancellations were 'heaping costs onto people in a cost of living crisis' and driving more people back into their cars in Greater Manchester. He said: "The services standards we have had have been truly appalling. It has had a ruinous effect on people's lives and businesses and our economy as a whole. There is a real risk to the industry that people are losing trust in the rail industry.
"People in the north west of England have a really unreliable service for the best part of five years. That is the reality of the situation."
The mayor called for greater 'honesty' from operators and said he had heard there was 'no guarantee' of a return to three Avanti trains an hour between London and Manchester next month when the new national timetable comes into force on December 11.
Steve Montgomery, First Rail managing director, said three trains an hour was planned on the West Coast Mainline, but discussions with unions over working rosters was ongoing.
TfN Works with local authorities, business leaders and the Government on how best to direct investment in the Northern transport network to boost the economy for the people in the region and the country as a whole.
The Manchester Evening News reported last week that the percentage of trains arriving at their terminating stations 'on time' - less than five minutes late - is now worse now than in pre-Covid times for four of the six train companies running services in Greater Manchester. Councillors - and transport bosses - also ripped into 'abhorrent, 11th hour' train cancellations as late as 10pm the night before - known as 'P-coded' trains. TransPennine Express, alone, were said to be 'pulling between 50 to 80 trains a day on some days with P-codes'.
A 'future of rail in the north' report delivered to the committee by Mr Hoggarth said: "The impact on the north's economy is substantial. Transport for the North provisionally estimates that the impact of delays and cancellations on TPE alone could be £2m per week.
"Whilst Northern hasn’t suffered from the same level of cancellations as TPE and Avanti, performance has still been below target and it is operating a reduced timetable which also has an adverse impact on the economy and people’s lives."
Mr Hoggarth told the meeting performance was 'unacceptable' and was 'stifling' bounce-back from Covid.
He said: "We have actually done some calculations where we put the cost of delays on TransPennine Express alone to be around £2m a week.
"We have actually extended that to look at Northern as well and we think the total is probably at least £8m per week just in terms of the cost of delays from the current levels of performance. And that's really, really significant levels. That doesn't actually include any Avanti figures either."
His report, presented to members, went on: "It appears that the current level of disruption is not fully understood by decisionmakers in London and that there is a tacit acceptance of poor performance in the North in a way which would not be tolerated in London and the South-East.
"Further devolution, building on the existing Rail North Partnership, appears the only solution to avoid such a situation in the future. Moreover, such an approach would enable the committee's commitment to 'double devolution' to be realised thereby ensuring that local rail services in city regions can be aligned with the rest of the local transport system."
Transport for the North said it has identified a number of 'key actions' that it said 'can and should be taken by Government' to alleviate passenger misery here.
They included giving train operators flexibility to put in place 'short term arrangements' including rest day working agreements with the unions and establishing a train drivers' training academy for the north to ensure 'there is a pipeline of trained drivers to end the reliance on overtime working and also deliver the growth in services needed'.
The report said: "This would not only reduce the current level of cancellations, it would assist with delivery of the long-planned timetable change in the Manchester area from December 2022 by providing more flexibility and resilience."
A number of recommendations were agreed. They included the committee agreeing to seek assurances from the Department for Transport that train operators in the North would be provided with the flexibility to put in place short term arrangements that could bring about an immediate improvement to performance - including rest day working agreements.
The committee also agreed to seek the support of the department to complete a business case for the drivers' training academy and to 'continue to make the case for the funding the north needs to support a growing railway - including revenue budgets for the train operators and capital investment'.
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