Let’s bash Northern seemed to be the cry. Led by Secretary of State Chris Grayling, with the unlikely agreement of Labour Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, and supported by the excitable mass media of the north, Northern suffered a daily drubbing for the number of its trains that ran late or were cancelled in the first two weeks of the new May timetable. Mr Grayling said the rail industry had ‘failed the passengers it serves’ and that there were ‘wholly unsatisfactory levels of disruption’ on Northern. And on the face of it, all that was certainly true.
For the 14 million long-suffering folk of the North, who had been promised a franchise that delivered more electrification, newer, faster and more trains, the promises didn’t quite match up to what was on offer.
It began to emerge that the real culprit was Network Rail.
I suspect the origins of the shambles that unfolded at the end of May go back years, to the Network Rail decision to centralise its timetabling function in Milton Keynes. Experts in the traditional regional offices in York, Croydon and elsewhere politely declined the kind offer of a move and, at a stroke, a substantial percentage of NR’s timetabling expertise evaporated. NR was forced to a…
