As the Northern Rail franchise this weekend moves into new ownership, leaders from across the North of England have said it is now ‘more important than ever’ that a ‘Thameslink-level’ of commitment is made to progress vital work at one of the North’s top rail congestion hotspots.
From March 1st Northern rail will be run by a public holding company, Northern Trains Ltd, under the Operator of Last Resort. The franchise will be ‘re-baselined’ to address performance and reliability issues which have plagued passenger services for the last two years.
But, with Network Rail infrastructure projects such as the Castlefield corridor still to be delivered, and levelling-up an agreed national priority – the North’s leaders believe the new operator will struggle to deliver promised enhancements to services unless vital work to improve capacity on the corridor is given full priority.
Now they have spoken out together on the need for work on the corridor to be signed off as a matter of urgency because of the impact it is having on journeys across the North.
They say rail services across the North of England are being severely affected by decades of under-investment, while spending on London’s Thameslink, another cross-city corridor, shows railways can be made fit for purpose if the investment commitment is made.
The Castlefield corridor faces comparable issues to some of those once faced by the Thameslink corridor. It is one of only three officially designated ‘Congested Infrastructure’ rail hotspots – and the only one still waiting for vital major investment.
David Hoggarth, Strategic Rail Director for Transport for the North, said:
“Every day the ripple effect from congestion in this corridor is felt across the North by tens of thousands of commuters. The network simply can’t cope with the demand being put on it.
“The fact is, a scheme designed to provide extra capacity on this corridor was planned for delivery between 2014 and 2019, but it has still not been delivered. If we are to truly address the issue of levelling up, then we need the same level of commitment that was given to Thameslink to be given to the Castlefield corridor here in the North.”
He said passenger numbers have trebled on rail services in the North over the last 20 years, and with additional services and capacity promised on the basis that the rail infrastructure would have been delivered, the pressure on tracks, platforms and signalling has now become unsustainable.
David continued: “The effects of this unreliability spread out, not just across the greater Manchester area, but across the whole of the North of England with services being delayed locally and then exporting that delay as far afield as Newcastle, Teesside, North and West Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cumbria, Merseyside, Cheshire and North Wales.
“Without resolving these issues it will not be possible to deliver a level of performance across the North of England that we believe is acceptable to the public.”
Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, said:
“Thousands of passengers are impacted every day by delayed trains crawling through central Manchester. This has a knock-on effect for the whole of the North as services get delayed and platforms get overcrowded.
“Improving capacity on the Castlefield Corridor in Manchester is essential if we are going to fix the railways in the North. But, frustratingly, Network Rail and Ministers continue to put it off and drag their feet.
“Building two new platforms at Manchester Piccadilly has been reviewed multiple times by Network Rail and each review has concluded that the work must be carried out. If the Prime Minister wants an example of a “shovel-ready” project that will bring benefits to the entire North of England then he should commit to investing in the Castlefield Corridor in the forthcoming Budget.
“It is time Government gave passengers in the North the same level of commitment they have given passengers in London.”
