{"id":42896,"date":"2022-12-02T16:41:14","date_gmt":"2022-12-02T16:41:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sheffieldwire.co.uk\/?p=42896"},"modified":"2022-12-02T16:43:09","modified_gmt":"2022-12-02T16:43:09","slug":"has-train-chaos-hit-the-north-the-hardest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sheffieldwire.co.uk\/index.php\/2022\/12\/02\/has-train-chaos-hit-the-north-the-hardest\/","title":{"rendered":"Has train chaos hit the north the hardest?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s 4pm on Tuesday November 29, and there are no more trains from Manchester Piccadilly to Sheffield.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was left with no choice but to travel to Stockport – a station comparably well connected to the rest of the UK, thanks to the conditions in which it was built. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While no Act of Parliament exists to say it is true, every Stockfordian knows that the station was built on the promise that all trains going through must stop, and so it does. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s usually a fifty minute, direct journey, one which I, and many other Gen Z\u2019s, require to link university to home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even when a scheduled train does turn up, a poll by Sheffield Wire revealed 90% of commuters from Stockport to Sheffield have been forced to stand throughout the 40 minute journey, despite having booked a ticket. This is due to reduced carriages, cancellations and overbooked trains. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While I take this as a given as I clamber into a gap between the loos and the emergency exit, the fumes an eclectic mix of Yorkshire dales and public toilets, I think to myself this can\u2019t be the reality of Northern train services. Or is it? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lynsey Hansley, a journalist and Northern-convert who has investigated Britain\u2019s transport divide, said: \u201cIn Transport terms, the north really is a different country,”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Government\u2019s \u201cLevelling up in the United Kingdom\u201d report, published in February 2022, revealed 30% of all public transport infrastructure is spent in London alone. That being said, the government has also stated by 2030 the North will have a London-style transport system. However, with months of chaos and cancellations, currently costing the Northern economy \u00a38 million<\/a> a week, this seems unlikely. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So how does it compare down south? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, December 2, between 8am-6pm, there are 50 trains running between Brighton and London, a one hour journey. Comparably, there are 20 trains scheduled from Sheffield to Manchester, over a third of which are cancelled or even worse, rail replacement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Eva Betts, who commutes to London from Brighton every day, said: \u201cEven though the service is poor, with frequent delays and of course, strikes, it feels like the network and infrastructure is quite broad. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There are always a lot of trains, and a lot of ways to get to different places – particularly getting into and around London.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lord Mayor of Sheffield, Sioned-Mair Richards, is disappointed. She said: \u201cThere is far more spent towards infrastructure in the South than the North, and our links to Manchester have decreased rather than increased over the years. Sheffield has become the forgotten city.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These sentiments do little to dispel the myths that the HS2 project is little more than a Tory vanity project. One year following The Integrated Rail Plan, the government\u2019s plan for delivering rail investment in the North and Midlands, the Yorkshire mayors have criticised the lack of progress. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oliver Coppard, Mayor of South Yorkshire, highlighted that the Transport for North\u2019s<\/a> route has been cancelled, re-announced and altered by the government over 60 times since it was first announced in 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ironically, Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire, struggled to attend a long-awaited meeting with the Northern Mayors and Transport Secretary Mark Harper. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

At Manchester Piccadilly trying to head back to Leeds following our meeting with @Mark_J_Harper<\/a>

It was all going quite well until staff announced TransPennine had only sent half the train.

Just look at the crowds.

This just about sums it up. pic.twitter.com\/Day2TnLeor<\/a><\/p>— Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire (@MayorOfWY) November 30, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote>