BRADFORD Council’s leader has urged rail bosses not to completely re-draw their time tables due to the disruption caused by the Covid Pandemic.

At a meeting of Transport for the North’s Rail North Committee on Wednesday, representatives of both Northern Rail and Transpennine Express revealed how rail services have been impacted by the pandemic.

Although weekend rail services were getting busier, commuter services were still seeing only a fraction of their pre-pandemic customer levels, with much fewer passengers on Mondays as more people work from home some days of the week.

Members were told that rail services would “adapt” to the changes, which could lead to services being reduced at some times of the week and increased at others.

But Susan Hinchcliffe, Leader of Bradford Council and Transport portfolio holder on West Yorkshire Combined Authority, cautioned against making permanent changes to services due to pandemic related passenger issues.

Matthew Golton from Transpennine Express, said passengers levels were around 66 per cent of what they were pre-pandemic.

Leisure and weekend journeys were increasing fastest, with routes to places like Scotland proving particularly popular.

He said it was a “leisure based recovery” rather than a commuter based one.

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Mark Powles of Northern Rail had a similar story, saying “staycations and daycations” meant that weekend services were busier, with services to places like Blackpool more popular now than before the pandemic.

But the morning routes once popular with commuters were as low as 39 per cent of pre-pandemic levels.

They said future services may have to altered based on demand.

In response to this Cllr Hinchcliffe said: “We have gone through a really unique time, and we’re starting to get passengers coming back, but in uneven patterns.

“The commuter market will come back. What I wouldn’t want is time table decisions to be made based on the situation we have now.

“We don’t want to see the pandemic leading to timetables being changed to reduce services, then those services becoming less popular and then being cut.

“It could be the death knell for some very important services.

“Look at the example of the Castleford to Huddersfield line. It used to be hourly, now it is three times a day. it is more of a commuter route than a leisure route. We don’t want routes like this cut further because fewer people use it.

“Don’t rely on current data. The mission is to get services back to pre-pandemic.”

Mark Powles from Northern Rail said: “We do need to be data led.

“Yesterday’s market is not the same as tomorrow’s market.

“The 8am - 9am rush is shifting. A lot of people are only working Tuesday to Thursday. We have to look at what patterns are emerging and respond to them. The weekend market is strong. Mondays are not quite as strong. We need to look at how we redeploy services to support new markets.”

Cllr Hinchcliffe said: “People do seem to think that people will all work from home from now on.

“During the pandemic around 75 per cent of people in Bradford had to still go to work.

“It is alright for professionals sat in offices to say everything has changed, but a lot of people still have to go to work.

“Yes, things may have changed, but we won’t know the full impact until a few years out.”