A BRADFORD councillor is calling for a radical overhaul of rail across Yorkshire.

Martin Love, leader of the Green group on Bradford Council, wants a halt of annual rail fare increases in the face of "woeful" performance and Pacers still operating on some routes in 2020.

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He said: “2019 has been another year of woeful performance on our rail network and the British public deserve better.

“Not only are rail users across Bradford left waiting for trains that are often late, but when and if they turn up they are old, falling apart and overcrowded.

"We are increasingly being told that many services are being cancelled due to either ageing trains needing maintenance or because of a lack of staff – it is pretty basic stuff.

“They have had years to recruit and train new staff.

"We wouldn’t tolerate shops not opening because they didn’t have enough staff to open so why do the management of the train lines think this is ok.”

Councillor Love added: “Hopefully, we will soon see the pacer trains phased out here in Bradford but some of the other train stock being used on the Airedale and Wharfedale line is also past its sell by date.”

A Northern spokesperson said: “Our customers deserve the best possible rail service and we are working hard, alongside our partners, to improve industry performance.

“We have delivered on our commitment to increase the number of train services – we now operate 2,000 more services each week than at the start of the franchise.

"This means we will deliver 30 per cent more “train miles” in 2019 than in 2016. By the end of the year almost 110 million journeys will have been made using Northern trains in 2019 – that’s a record for the North.

“And yet there has been no real increase in track capacity since 2016, which has led to more congested railways across the North. This congestion has taken its toll on punctuality. This year has also seen a number of extreme weather events – including unprecedented levels of flooding in September and November which have further impacted performance. “

The spokesperson 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 now in service. This is part of a £600 million investment in improving customers’ experience; we are also continuing to invest in better stations, better offers for customers and more recruitment.”