Northern rail services could be cut FURTHER next year ‘in post-Covid managed decline’
manchestereveningnews.co.ukRail services across the North could be cut even further from Spring 2023, despite ‘levelling up' promises and passenger numbers bouncing back faster than the national average.
A paper tabled to northern leaders reveals that the latest Treasury funding package for operators could soon lead to some ‘hard choices’, meaning ‘it isn’t clear that there will be sufficient funding to continue to support all services included in next year’s plan’.
Any cuts from 2023 would come on top of a reduced timetable already planned from next December due to chronic capacity constraints through Castlefield. READ MORE: North’s own rail plan would have meant faster journeys and more trains, admits government - but it was too expensive Andy Burnham called the threatened cut ‘fundamentally unacceptable’, while politicians in Liverpool, Warrington, Yorkshire and Lincolnshire all expressed similar concerns, warning the move amounted to the ‘managed decline’ of the northern network post-pandemic.
There are also fears that the reduction in funding could lead to the loss of guards on trains or staff on stations. The paper, drawn up by officials at Transport for the North and tabled to leaders at their latest meeting, says the indicative funding provided in autumn’s spending review means operators are now required to make ‘substantial savings to their costs’.
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