Northern Rail could be renationalised within months, government says

Transport secretary Grant Shapps says the operator will only continue for ‘a number of months’

The Northern Rail franchise will only continue for “a number of months”, according to transport secretary Grant Shapps.

It follows his announcement last week that the beleaguered train operator would be stripped of its franchise following “unacceptable” performance.

It is the latest rail franchise to run into financial problems.

The Northern network is operated by Arriva Rail North, which is owned by the German railway, Deutsche Bahn.

While the region extends from Nottingham to Northumberland and from Stoke-on-Trent to Carlisle, the main cities it serves are Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield and Hull.

Mr Shapps, said: “Passengers in the north have had to put up with unacceptable services for too long.

“We understand how frustrating this has been for people and we are taking action to make sure that performance improves.

“The franchise will only be able to continue for a number of months.”

The transport secretary will decide whether to allow Northern Rail to continue under a short-term management contract or to bring the franchise in to be run by the Department of Transport.

In the short term, though, there will be no noticeable changes.

The Department for Transport (DfT) has made it clear: “Services will continue to run and there will be no impact on staff.”

Over Christmas 2019, the train operator made hundreds of cancellations due to what it called “unprecedented levels of staff sickness”.

Many in the rail industry place the blame for past problems – notably the botched introduction of new timetables in May 2018 – on delayed infrastructure improvements and problems with new rolling stock.

The partnership director for the Northern Powerhouse, Henri Murison, said: “The crying shame is that whoever operates the railways in the north will struggle to run good and reliable services because of the major infrastructure issues in and out of some of our major cities.

“The government should urgently act to undertake the engineering works needed to allow operators to run services more effectively, including a number that could be started immediately. Otherwise we risk a situation where the north faces years more misery on its rail network – regardless of who runs the trains.”

Steve Rotheram, the Labour mayor of the Liverpool City Region, said: “Northern should be stripped of the franchise – and not be put on a short term contract.

“The government needs to properly invest in our railways and work with Northern leaders to give us the service we deserve – not the second class service we currently get.”

His counterpart in Manchester, Andy Burnham, said: “Recovery will take time. But with more public control I believe it will be quicker than would otherwise have been.”

It is understood the Northern Rail operation may be split into east and west divisions to try to improve performance.

Meanwhile, passengers between Leeds and Huddersfield face long delays because of a signal failure at Dewsbury.