Minutes:
Northern Rail
Richard Isaacs gave the following performance update for the most recent period:-
On time 62.3% - above target
Time to 3 82.7% - slightly above target
Time to 15 98.6% - slightly above target
Cancellations 2.1% - slightly above target
The restructure had now been completed and the performance for South and East Yorkshire was:
On time 60.9% slightly below target
Time to 3 81.3% slightly below target
Time to 15 98.4% above target
Cancellations 1.9% above target
There had been some issues with a fire in Standish Tunnel which came across the Pennines resulting in a knock on effect throughout Yorkshire in terms of serviceability but generally performance was moving in the right direction.
There was a major session for tracks maintenance on 22nd February between Sheffield, Retford and Lincoln. A bus replacement service would operate on the Sunday.
The Yorkshire Flyer had been launched with Mayor Brabbin (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) at Leeds Station. This cut the journey time to 47 minutes to Leeds and Sheffield with one stop at Wakefield. This added an extra 30,000 seats a week to the service.
Northern Rail was saying goodbye to Alan Hope, the Station Manager for South Yorkshire, who was retiring. He had looked after stations for 40 years.
In the wider rail industry, London North-Western Railway and West Midlands Railway had joined DFTO (DfT Operator Ltd) so as the move towards to Great British Railway progressed, there were more and more operators moving back into DFTO.
On 14th February there were to be major engineering works at Manchester Picadilly which would affect services down the Hope Valley into South Yorkshire.
Northern Rail had worked closed with the Combined Authority in Leeds with regard to youth engagement and getting young people enthused about the improvements to Leeds Station. The outcome had been fed through to the Talking Transport events which Mayor Brabin had been holding across the region.
Similarly in North Yorkshire, there was to be an event on 13th February with young people at York Station to look at the major improvements taking place to increase capacity from 10M to 20M over the next few years.
Last month was International Faith Day so work had taken place within the industry regarding faith in the workplace and working with the faith leaders in Leeds. There had been an opportunity for the managers to visit the temple, synagogue and mosque to learn about the different faiths.
The Chair stated that, at the last Council meeting, a motion had been passed calling for train services to be reinstalled at Swinton Interchange and Rotherham Central to pre-covid levels.
Richard reported that, in terms of the fast service, it was direct to Sheffield and did not go via Swinton. He would take the question away and report to the next meeting.
Councillor Harper also pointed out that there was a large number of trains that only had 2 carriages and was always full. Why could there not be a third carriage given the number of passengers.
Richard agreed to look at capacity and overcrowding issue on that line. Northern Rail was finding unit availability a real challenge at the moment and had seen a real shift from the commuter market to the weekend market with the latter being the predominant market.
Northern Rail was moving to a new fleet procurement process hopefully for delivery in 2033/34. There were some units that required replacing and took a significant amount of maintenance.
The age requirement to become a train driver had been lowered. Moving forward, Northern Rail would become a Centre of Train Driving Training in the north and had 12 new driver assimilation units on order based in Leeds. Work continued with Rotherham College but Richard emphasised that there were lots of opportunities within the rail industry particularly in the north of the country.
The Chair asked if there was anything the Council could do to help promote the activity carried out by Northern Rail and promoting the career opportunities available for young people.
Richard stated that what was working for Northern Rail in North and West Yorkshire was “if you can see it you can be it” approach. They would prefer to bring in small groups of young people to speak to the teams, speak to other young people, young people that sounded like them, came from Rotherham, and worked in the rail industry. That was the preferred approach; a much more targeted approach so if the young person was interested in social media/train driver/engineer they were much more smaller targeted events that could deliver those candidates through to Northern.
Agreed:- That Northern Rail provide an update at the next meeting on Swinton Interchange and Rotherham Central and the possibility of increasing train services to that of pre-covid levels as well as the capacity/overcrowding issues raised.