The rail service that occasionally runs trains between Southport and Manchester is “killing us” say local business owners.
Norman Wallis, the CEO at Southport Pleasureland, is among those demanding improvements to a rail service that has seen passengers suffer poor performance for years.
On Sunday 27th October, Northern Rail apologised after it was branded ‘incompetent’ for cancelling every train between Southport and Manchester for the entire day.
It follows timetable changes in recent years which has seen Northern axe rail services between Southport and Manchester city stations such as Piccadilly and Deansgate.
Passengers take their chances on the services that are left, with Northern cancelling more than 1,000 trains during the recent half term.
Norman Wallis, owner of Southport Pleasureland, told the BBC: “We are a tourism destination, and basically, Northern is killing us.”
“Not just our business, but the hotels, the retailers, the restaurants.
“Everything in the town is being killed off, because we haven’t got the lifeblood, which is the people – they haven’t got an easy way to get into Southport.
“It’s extremely difficult, we can’t get the people in.”
A senior Northern manager said the firm was “sorry” for its recent performance, which has “not been good enough”.
Transport secretary Louise Haigh claimed an improvement plan the firm has proposed would “reduce cancellations and improve reliability for passengers”.
Northern operates services across northern England and into the Midlands, including to stations in Southport, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Newcastle, and Nottingham.
The firm was brought under government control in 2020, but problems dogging the network continued.
In July, Northern Rail was issued a “breach notice” by the Department for Transport for cancelling too many trains, which required it to work on a plan to fix the problem.
The firm has said one of its main problems is train crew availability, pointing to high levels of sickness, and also that Sundays are outside contracted working hours.
Between 13 October and 9 November this year, fewer than half of its services ran on time.
Matt Rice, Northern’s chief operating officer, said the firm was “sorry for our recent performance, accept it has not been good enough and understand the impact this has on our customers”.
He added that Northern Rail was “working hard to address issues with traincrew availability so we can improve reliability for our customers”, including agreeing a new rest-day working agreement for train drivers.
Northern said that by 2027 it wanted 90% of its trains to be on time, with only 2% cancellations.
It said it would improve its service by getting Sunday and rest day working agreements in place and by bringing in a “sickness action plan”.
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