Northern introduces new Sunday timetable in North West to address high numbers of cancellations

Rail operator, Northern, is to introduce a new Sunday timetable in the North West as part of efforts to address high numbers of cancellations on its weekend services.

The train operator says it is to provide passengers with more certainty about those services it will be able to run and to reduce the number of short-notice cancellations. The amended timetable will take affect from 22nd December, ahead of additional disruption from planned engineering works across the region over the Christmas period.

Northern, which been run by the Department for Transport’s Operator of Last Resort since 2020, has come under fire in recent months from transport leaders in the region over their poor performance and outdates processes, with Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham calling out their continued use of fax machines for internal communications in a recent grilling of executives by the region’s Rail North Committee.

Proposed changes to the Sunday timetable which will services reduced across the region comes after RMT members rejected Northern’s enhanced four-month pay offer for conductors to work on Sundays, and staff availability is expected to worsen over the Christmas period, with fewer conductors volunteering to work extra shifts or overtime. 

Matt Rice, chief operating officer at Northern, said:

“We are disappointed that our offer for conductors to work on Sundays was rejected and we would like to say sorry to everyone in the North West who will be affected by this disruption in the run up to Christmas.

“We believe the deal that was put to RMT members was fair and reasonable and, if it had been accepted, would have improved reliability in the short-term while we worked with the RMT to secure a longer-term agreement.

“Despite this setback, we will continue to work with colleagues and the RMT union to find a new way forward.

“Our performance in the North West has not been good enough for some time and we understand the impact it has on our customers.”

Northern currently employs more than 2,000 drivers and 1,400 conductors – more than ever before – and enough to run its timetable. Like most train operators, Northern relies on some rest-day working and overtime to cover training, sickness, and other unavailability.

Sundays are currently outside the working week for most conductors with a notice period not to work Sundays allowed in the North West due to an agreement which was inherited by Northern Trains Limited when it was set up to run services in 2020.

Northern secured a separate rest-day working agreement for train drivers with the trade union ASLEF earlier this month.