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Fears of rail cuts in new study of service

Clarissa Satchell
2/ 2/2005

TRAIN services could be cut after a review of rail services in the north west.

The Strategic Rail Authority says it is studying how many train services the Northern rail company will operate during its first two years of running services.

Northern, jointly run by Serco and Dutch Ned Railways, took over from First North Western and Arriva last December.

It is understood that the review is part of the franchise agreement between Northern and the Strategic Rail Authority, which is shortly to be abolished and its functions taken over by the Department for Transport.

But the move will lead to fears that some services could be cut on lines which attract the lowest number of passengers and have to be heavily subsidised by the government.

A spokesman for the Strategic Rail Authority insisted that they had been open about conducting the review and said it was too soon to say what the outcome would be.

"This is not unexpected. We were clear from the start that we would review the level of service in the Northern franchise during the first two years of operation.

"It was made clear to all stakeholders and interested parties when the SRA issued the Invitation to Tender for the new franchise.

The review is logical given the fact that the franchise is new. It came out of merging two franchises and extracting the intercity services forming TransPennine Express.

"The review has not even started yet. No conclusions have been reached. We are not going to speculate on outcome - but people will be consulted."

The M.E.N. has revealed that the SRA has abandoned hopes of new train links to the airport.

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