Mayors across the north could team up to take over Northern trains

North East Mayor Kim McGuinness believes she could team up with other mayors to jointly take over Northern train services. Credit: LDRS

North East mayor Kim McGuinness has said she and other mayors across the North of England could try to seize control of struggling rail services that have “failed” passengers.

She said she will team up with her mayoral colleagues to explore the possibility of taking over Northern Trains, under new Government plans to give local leaders more powers.

The English Devolution White Paper, unveiled by Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner in December, outlines how regional mayors will have a “clear right” to request more control over trains, stations, and infrastructure “up to full devolution of defined local services”.

Ms McGuinness told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that she believes such a system could allow her and her counterparts around the North of England, including the likes of Greater Manchester’s Andy Burnham and York and North Yorkshire Mayor David Skaith, to collectively take over the heavily-criticised Northern franchise.

Northern runs around 2,500 local and regional services every day to towns and cities across the North, including the recently-opened Northumberland Line between Newcastle and Ashington, and is owned by the Department for Transport’s Operator of Last Resort after being nationalised in 2020.

Northern run many train services across the North East of England, including those on the recently re-opened Northumberland Line. Credit: Northern Trains

Its services have been plagued by cancellations and Northern was issued with a formal breach notice last summer because of its “unacceptable” performance levels.

Northern’s problems have been blamed on factors including high levels of sickness and a backlog of training, as well as a lack of train crew availability on Sundays as the day falls outside of some staff’s contracted working week.

Asked if she would want to see mayors take control over Northern, Ms McGuinness told the LDRS: “Absolutely. Unapologetically, we are dead ambitious for this region and control over train stations is something I was open about wanting to have in this region. Similarly, we will absolutely be looking at regional proposals for control of local rail because too many people are failed by poor service levels.

“I always say that transport is not just about getting from A to B, it is about the infrastructure of opportunity and that is true right across the network. So we will be looking at opportunities to do that.”

A spokesperson for Northern said: “We are committed to working with directly-elected mayors across our network to find the optimal solution for passengers as part of an integrated network.”

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