Harrogate rail timetable ‘may be reinstated’ shortly despite warnings over investment in north

Like many other parts of the country, the Harrogate-Leeds-York line saw timetable cuts during the Covid pandemic.

Earlier this year Northern Rail's plans to reinstate the original December 2021 timetable on the Harrogate-Leeds-York line were approved by Network Rail.

But this week saw the Northern Rail Stakeholder Conference take place in York with a new pledge to Harrogate passengers.

Brian L Dunsby OBE of Harrogate Line Supporters Group, who attended the meeting, is convinced the timetable improvements are likely to be introduced before Christmas.

"It was confirmed at the conference in York that the December timetable changes will see a full restitution of the cuts made on the Harrogate Line in May 2022," said Mr Dunsby.

"This includes the 06.07 and 06.33 early morning services to Leeds and the few late afternoon and late evening services between Leeds, Harrogate and York.

"We should be back to the December 2021 timetable from December 11 this year."

This potentially good news for Harrogate comes amid an increasingly gloomy mood over rail services in the north.

Northern Rail's performance record was labelled "unacceptable" last week by Lord McLoughlin, Chair of Transport for the North.

He cited figures for the middle of summer which showed only 62% of Northern services arrived on time.

Even more recent figures made available to TfN, he added, showed there had been little improvement with 64% of Northern services arriving on time.

But, in Mr Dunsby's opinion, the view from Harrogate is slightly different, despite the general impact on services of a staffing crisis, financial worries and rail strikes.

"There was a general air of satisfaction with services on our side of the Pennines at the Northern Rail Stakeholder Conference, " said Mr Dunsby.

"I am not aware of any serious problems on the Harrogate Line.”

Whatever Harrogate passengers may feel about their experiences on the railways, Northern Rail admits its reliability is suffering amid the wider worsening economic conditions.

Tricia Williams, chief operating officer at Northern, said: “We recognise that the rail network across the north of England has not performed as well as we’d have liked over the last few months and we’re sorry for the disruption and inconvenience caused.

"This is due to several factors which are impacting our performance including infrastructure issues, fully-trained driver availability and the on-going industrial relations issues with the trade unions.

"We are working very hard with other train operators to improve service reliability and we do anticipate service improvements in the near future.”

Brian L Dunsby OBE of Harrogate Line Supporters Group said he had some sympathy for Northern Rail, especially in the context of other rail operators such as Avanti West Coast (AWC) and Transpennine Express (TPE) which are also struggling to deliver.

"The comments by Lord McLoughlin are more general across the North, where the main problem is with Trans Pennine Express service," said Mr Dunsby.

The more positive tone in Harrogate is in stark contrast to general concern over rail services in the north and long-promised investment.

New Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has already signalled he will reverse his short-lived predecessor Liz Truss’s promise to build the long-promised northern rail scheme in full.

In particular, the Government is said to be paring back plans for a new high-speed line, known as Northern Powerhouse Rail.

Liz Truss had revived an idea originally raised, then ditched, by Boris Johnson that would have seen a new high-speed link built from Manchester to Leeds, including a station in Bradford, plus a link to HS2, the Tories’ flagship transport levelling up project in the north of England.

Mr Sunak is now said to be rethinking the nation's infrastructure plans as a whole - with the aim of cutting public spending as the Government makes reducing the national debt and tackling inflation its top priorities.

Many transport leaders in the north fear that all thoughts of delivering Northern Powerhouse Rail may fall victim to a new era of austerity.

Henri Murison, chief executive of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership lobby group, has complained that reverting to a scaled-back NPR would be a “serious setback to levelling up”, adding: “It raises serious questions about their plans for growth, given that the north’s woeful transport infrastructure continues to weigh down our economy and hold back private investment.”

Transport for the North is calling for a ‘Rail Academy of the North’ to be set up to fast-track the training of new drivers to help address the systemic problem.

It believes the key to better rail services lies in using the current devolved structures such as the Rail North Partnership Board (RNPB) by giving it the flexibility to work with the North’s train operators to solve the Rest Day Working issue whilst continuing to hold the operators to account for delivery.

Lord McLoughlin, Chair of Transport for the North, said: “We want to see the operators given the freedom to negotiate a solution to Rest Day Working by themselves, and for current devolved structures such as the Rail North Partnership Board to be strengthened and play a bigger role.”

But morale has not been raised by the Government’s announcement last month of the postponement of its plans to create Great British Railways, a new single public body to run the nation’s railways.