Last month I began with ‘enough is enough’ in the long-running Rail, Maritime & Transport union dispute about a second member of staff on Northern trains that has destroyed rail services right across the north of England for months and looked set to ruin services every Saturday in the run up to Christmas. I criticised the Department for Transport for not taking any action. And lo, just a week later, new DfT Minister Andrew Jones (he’s a northern lad so, unlike his predecessor, probably knows there are railways north of Watford that are not powered by hydrogen!) announced that ‘enough is enough’ – clearly not an iota of original thought in the speech writing department at the DfT! In a complete volte-face of previous policy, Mr Jones confirmed that a second person will, after all, be retained on Northern trains.
