Northern Railway: mayors call for government takeover

The elected mayors called on the government to take control of the Northern rail operator, accusing it of not keeping its promises to pbadengers.

Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham and Liverpool Mayor Steve Rotheram accused the firm of failing to deliver the promised improvements.

They said that commuters were crammed into smaller trains and faced regular delays.

The BBC has approached Northern for comments.

The latest criticism of the operator's toll comes a year after the widespread chaos of rail schedules has affected services across the country.

The mayors said that Northern, operated by Arriva Rail North, had failed to solve problems such as overcrowding and that the number of trains running on smaller cars had increased since last December.

& # 39; Too much is too much & # 39;

They accused Northern of repeatedly failing to introduce promised suburban services in cities such as Knutsford and Northwich, Cheshire, and said they might not respect their deadline to phase out aging Pacer trains by 2019.

Northern used one fifth of his services late and canceled 255 services last Sunday, according to figures released by town halls.

The mayors said they were forced to intervene to end a labor dispute with the Railways, Merchant Marine and Transport (RMT) union over the role of the guards who ended thousands of services performed Saturday, for 47 weeks.

Mr Burnham said: "We have been extremely patient with Northern, but too much is too much.

"They promised us that things would be much better by May 2019 and that this did not happen."

The mayors said that the Ministry of Transport (DfT) had "the legal obligation" to take over as operator of last resort in the same way that it had taken control of the main line of the east coast last year.

Northern's concessions cover northwest, Yorkshire, part of Derbyshire and the northeast and are expected to last until 2025.

RMT Secretary General Mick Cash said, "There should now be a rapid transition from the northern roads to a public sector operation, there can be no excuse for such a delay."

The BBC approached the DfT for comment.