LABOUR leader Jeremy Corbyn has called for improvements to the way Bradford is connected to the rail network.

He made the comments as he travelled the proposed route of Crossrail for the North, talking to passengers about their experiences on Britain’s rail services and Labour’s plans for public ownership of rail and boosting infrastructure investment in the North.

Mr Corbyn made his way across the country by train, as he pledged to improve services for northern commuters.

He started his day at Liverpool Lime Street before travelling to Manchester, Leeds and Hull, as Labour hit out at what it dubbed “Tory rail mayhem”.

The final stretch of the journey saw a 15-minute wait for the political leader on the platform of Leeds station as late-running trains from Manchester delayed the Transpennine Express service.

Mr Corbyn voiced his support for keeping guards on trains, as proposals for driver-only trains have led to industrial disputes.

He spoke to passenger Patricia Russell, who was travelling to Bradford, who said: “I’d like to think they were going to keep our guards, hopefully.”

Mr Corbyn replied: “There should be staff on trains, it’s just not safe without them.”

Labour has committed at least £10 billion to Crossrail for the North and he told the Telegraph & Argus: “Bradford needs better connectivity into the whole system, there’s far too few through trains from Bradford, too many people travelling to Bradford, from anywhere, end up changing in Leeds to get there first and that is not acceptable.”

He added: “I understand that and I would want to see better through transport and direct railway services to Bradford.”

While plans for Crossrail for the North will take time to come to fruition, Mr Corbyn said he would like to see new rolling stock, longer trains and more certainty of the timetable from Northern Rail amid a troubled summer for commuters.

He said: “The chaos when they introduced the new timetable, which should have been eminently predictable to anyone, cannot be repeated."

Mr Corbyn described the journey from the south to the north in Britain as a “sort of train history” with older and older trains on the route.

“It is a ludicrous situation,” he said. “We have to say that everyone deserves a decent rail service Our transport policy is about wider than that because there are approximately one-and-a-half billion train journeys made a year, there are four-and-a-half billion bus journeys made every year – there has to be much better integration. London has a fully regulated bus service, and a very good bus service it is too, the rest of the country deserves the same.”

He said people should feel confident that Labour is “utterly determined” to improve rail services - and bringing them back into public ownership is key to that.

The Department for Transport has said it is “committed” to developing Northern Powerhouse Rail, while Robert Nisbet, regional director of the Rail Delivery Group - the organisation that represents the public and private rail partnership, said: “There is no simple answer to the complex challenges the railway is facing, but the lesson from the last two decades is the private sector working with the public sector has a vital role to play in the solution.”