Transport Secretary reaffirms plans to strip Northern of rail franchise

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has reaffirmed his intention to strip rail operator Northern of its franchise because of “unacceptable” performance.

Speaking on the BBC Breakfast show on Thursday morning (2 January), Mr Shapps said: “It is completely unacceptable to have a situation where trains just almost routinely don’t run to a routine, don’t run on time.

“I simply will not put up with that. I’ve already kicked off that process [to remove the franchise] and I’ll be saying more about that very soon.”

When asked if he thought Northern Rail “were not fit to run the service they are currently operating”, he said: “That absolutely is the case. I do not think the service being operated on Northern is anywhere near acceptable. I’ve been a long-suffering commuter myself for many years, and I don’t think it’s right that people can’t always rely on their train services.”

The Transport Secretary then confirmed he plans to remove the franchise from Northern, after he wrote to the ‘necessary parties’ in the autumn with what is called a 'request for proposal'.

He said: "There are a couple of ways that can go [the request for proposal]. One is to strip the franchise, one is to have a short-term contract."

A short-term contract on the network could be drawn up with Arriva - Northern's parent company.

The existing franchise agreement with Northern was due to run until March 2025.

Mr Shapps added: “I am not prepared for the service on Northern to carry on as it is, and I am taking action.”

Mr Shapps’ comments came as rail passengers across England and Wales face an average rise in ticket fares by 2.7%, despite just 65% of trains being on time last year.

Between 10 November and 7 December, Northern’s own performance data show that just 40.5% of trains were on time, with 19% being early, and 6.2% being cancelled. The rest, roughly one third, were all late.

In North Manchester for the same time period, this fell to just 33.6% of trains being on time, and almost one in every 10 services being cancelled (9.8%).

The Northern network is operated by Arriva Rail North, which is owned by the German railway, Deutsche Bahn. The region extends from Nottingham to Northumberland and from Stoke-on-Trent to Carlisle.

In response to the Transport Secretary’s comments, David Brown, Managing Director at Northern, said: “It’s on record that the Northern franchise has faced several material and unprecedented challenges in the past couple of years, outside the direct control of Northern. The most significant of these is the ongoing, late delivery of major infrastructure upgrades.

“The North West electrification was more than two years late, which meant we could not use electric trains on that route or cascade diesel trains from that route to run more services elsewhere on our network. More recently, new and longer platforms at Leeds stations are delayed, which means we have had to postpone our plans to run longer trains.

“These factors – alongside the damage caused by strike action and lower than expected economic growth – have had a significant effect on the revenue expected in our original franchise business plan agreed with government back in 2015.

“That’s why the Government has asked us to prepare a business plan for a shorter ‘Direct Award’ which will see the completion of our transformation programme.”

Mr Brown added: “Arriva and Northern remain fully committed to delivering the transformation of the North’s railways and improving customers’ experience.

“We are delivering the biggest transformation of local rail for a generation, with 52 of our 101 new trains in service and driver training taking place on dozens more trains right now.

“Alongside 2,000 extra services per week, this is part of a £600 million investment in improving customers’ experience; we are continuing to invest in better stations, better offers for customers and more recruitment.

“These discussions have no impact on rail services for customers. Our job is to continue to provide the best service possible for our customers whilst any discussions are taking place.”

The Department for Transport has issued the following statement on the situation: “As the Secretary of State said, he has started a process which would either strip Northern of its franchise or to issue a short-term contract to them.

“We are taking action to ensure passengers in the North get a better service and we will provide an update in due course.”