North of Tyne mayor Jamie Driscoll claims North East's rail links 'worse than the 1850s'
The North East must have a "transport revolution" to drag services up to the standard of the 21st century, a regional mayor has said.
Northern leaders and transport bosses came together at the annual summit of Transport for the North in Newcastle on Monday, where it was claimed that an incoming £4 billion devolution deal could see routes upgraded and ticket prices cut.
Anger has been mounting over the state of the region's rail and bus networks following an extended period of delays and cancellations.
Some attendees struggled to reach the conference on time due to the latest raft of cancellations on services arriving from places like Leeds and Manchester.
Speaking at the conference, North of Tyne mayor Jamie Driscoll said the North East's rail connections were worse today than they were in the 1850s and said a "transport revolution" was needed to get people out of cars and back onto public transport.
Mr Driscoll, who hopes to be selected as Labour's candidate to stand for a new North East mayoral position in 2024, pledged to create a "total single network" which would allow travel across bus, Metro and rail services across all of Tyne and Wear, County Durham, and Northumberland using a single ticket - including a daily cap on fare prices.
TransPennine Express
Transport for the North chief executive Martin Tugwell said that leaders must "restore people's confidence in public transport" adding that the regular axeing of services by TransPennine Express was "not acceptable".
The disruption was partly attributed to train drivers no longer volunteering to work paid overtime shifts, while union Aslef has rejected an offer aimed at restoring rest day working arrangements.
A spokesperson for TransPennine Express said: "We know the service levels over the past year have not been good enough and we are pulling out all the stops to make things better.
"Restoring driver overtime is an important part of that process and we urge Aslef to act in the interests of the members, the customers and the communities across our network and accept the offer on the table in order to enable a rapid reduction in train cancellations."
Transport Minister Mark Harper would not be drawn on whether the company would have its contract renewed in May.
Leamside Line
Meanwhile, Labour's Shadow Transport secretary Louise Haigh MP said the party would build HS2 in full and restore the mothballed Leamside Line, which previously ran between Gateshead and County Durham, if it won the next general election.
She said: "The Labour Party is promising a decade of national renewal after the last thirteen years of cuts and delays and denied promises to the North and to the North East.
"We believe reopening the Leamside line and electrifying it is essential to the kind of sustained growth and improving productivity that we know the North East is absolutely capable of."
Dualling the A1
Transport minister Mark Harper MP remained tight-lipped on proposals to dual part of the A1 in Northumberland. He said: "Like a lot of these projects, there are business cases to get made, they get get looked at and we make announcements in the usual way. We don't make announcements as we go along.
"I know Anne Marie Trevelyan, one of the local members of Parliament, has been campaigning very strong for it and she takes every opportunity to make the case to me very strongly for it.
"The department is working on the case for that project, and when we're ready to say something we will."
The government had also faced major criticism for scaling back pledges to build the Northern Powerhouse Rail last year - but Mr Harper said there had "never been a question of our commitment to the North ever being put on the backburner".
He added that he had to be "straight with people about how we pay for things", adding: "People who come to conferences like this and pretend, with no way of paying for it, that they are going to do things to get a clap are not being straight with people."
It was also confirmed that passenger rail services will return to the disused line between Ashington and Newcastle next summer, rather than as planned at the end of this year.
It was also confirmed the North East would receive government funding amounting to £118m this year to improve bus services, which forms part of previously announced £163m Bus Service Improvement Plan funding.
It was later announced that the money would be partly used to launch a flat £1 bus fare for young people under the age of 22.
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