Figures show high level of services scrapped (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Figures show high level of services scrapped

2:46pm Monday 26th January 2009 in

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Northern Rail, which operates across West Yorkshire, cancelled more services last year than any other train company, new figures have revealed.

Figures released by the Liberal Democrats show 7,474 trains were cancelled from the 811,980 services operated by the company last year – one service out of each 108 on average.

The firm’s cancellation tally accounted for 11.9 per cent of the 62,640 cancellations made by all 19 train companies across the country.

A Northern Rail spokes-man said: We operate more than 800,000 local and regional train services across the North of England every year. While we regret having to cancel any train, in 2008 we cancelled fewer than one per cent of our total planned services.

“We have worked hard to improve the service we offer to passengers and in doing so have improved the punctuality of our trains from 83 per cent on time when Northern started to over 89 per cent today.”

Reasons for cancellations can include staff absence, mechanical or infrastructure failure and flooding.

The figures cover all unplanned cancellations but do not include trains where scheduled bus replacement services were arranged.

Bradford Rail Users’ Group chairman Phillip Ferriby said: “It is appalling considering the money that has been put in.

“Cancellations have been happening for years. It is not fair on passengers that are seeing higher fares. We keep being told there will be extra carriages but that will not be for many years and they are needed now.”

National Express East Coast, which runs mainline services, cancelled 654 of its 44,246 services.

Norman Baker, Liberal Democrat Shadow Trans-port Secretary who uncovered the figures, accused the Government of wanting to shift costs on to passengers rather than pay for better services and more trains.

He said: “Not only do we have the most expensive railway in Europe, but passengers in Britain are expected to put up with tens of thousands of cancelled trains every year.

“We need to raise standards on the railways, with longer franchises and tough passenger satisfaction targets to bring in much needed investment.”

The Association of Train Operating Companies (Atoc), which represents operators across the UK, said the proportion of services cancelled was relatively low and passengers were on the whole satisfied with rail services.