Northern defends further cuts to Wakefield to Leeds train services

The company’s service that links Wakefield Westgate with Leeds and Sheffield will be among those scaled back in May, with three weekday journeys each way cut.

Passengers who board that train at Moorthorpe, Fitzwilliam, Sandal and Agbrigg and Outwood will be affected too.

The changes come into effect in May, with Northern insisting they are “temporary” changes in place for the summer only.

It has blamed a huge driver training backlog for the problem, which was caused by the pandemic.

But with Arriva also announcing further cuts to the local bus network this week, there are concerns that more commuters will abandon public transport altogether and those who have to rely on it will be left even more isolated.

Northern is yet to reinstate services it cut around Pontefract and the Five Towns just after Christmas, having promised then that they would be running again within weeks.

Speaking to local passenger representatives at an online meeting, Northern stakeholder manager Pete Myers said the operator was also trying to adjust to changing demand.

He denied, however, that the cuts had been made for commercial gain and insisted no areas have been singled out for changes.

Mr Myers said: “It’s important to realise that the market has changed.

“Whereas commuting was once very much what Northern was all about a few years ago, the commuting part of the market is only 40 per cent of what it was.

“But the leisure market is terrific. On a weekend, we have more people travelling than we did before the pandemic.”

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Mr Myers said that more people were travelling to the Yorkshire Dales, the coast, as well as to Leeds, Sheffield and Meadowhall.

He added: “The timetable this summer will meet that changing market. That’s really important.

“I do emphasise these are short-term changes and these services will come back when we have the resources to allow them to do so.”

But Wakefield councillor Charlie Keith said he feared for the future of local public transport and the impact on passengers.

Labour’s Coun Keith told the meeting: “Everybody deserves a service.

“Operators that run a business are concentrating on running a business and that means some of the less profitable routes are the ones that go to the wall.

“This is the age-old conflict between running a business and running a public service.

“I’m concerned about further cuts and the long-term impact on us providing public transport as an alternative to getting in your car.”

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