Plan to Improve rail services

Northern Rail

Transport for the North and the Department for Transport, acting through The Rail North Partnership, has agreed a plan with Northern in response to the current performance issues.

Concern over continued travel disruption for rail passengers using Northern’s services has resulted in the operator introducing a plan to restore services to acceptable levels of reliability at the earliest opportunity.

Barry White, chief executive of Transport for the North, said: “We are extremely disappointed and concerned with the inadequate performance of Northern. We have received a timetable recovery plan from Northern to address these concerns and improve the rail experience for passengers. Both Transport for the North and the Department for Transport, through the Rail North Partnership, will be monitoring progress against the plan on a daily basis.”

Northern’s action plan includes:

• Improving driver rostering to get more trains running now.
• Increasing driver training on new routes to get more services on line as quickly as possible.
• Additional contingency drivers and management presence at key locations in Manchester.
• Putting extra peak services in the timetable along the Bolton corridor, including between Buckshaw and Manchester Victoria, and Preston and Manchester Oxford Road.

In ensuring the effective implementation of the plan with Northern, the Rail North Partnership will be focusing on the following key measures:

• Calling on Northern to improve early communication of service disruptions to the public.
• Strengthening resources within The Rail North Partnership Team to ensure
• Northern’s Action Plan can be closely monitored throughout its implementation.
• Daily calls between the train companies and Network Rail to manage the operational elements of running the new timetable.