Labour plan to improve “Dickensian” Southport service resulting from Tory rail chaos

Labour plan to improve “Dickensian” Southport service resulting from Tory rail chaos.

Southport commuters have been forced to endure “Dickensian” rail journeys on far too many occasions due to recent rail problems say Labour campaigners.

The claim came as Labour’s parliamentary candidate for the town, Liz Savage, and Merseytravel Chair Councillor Liam Robinson launched a programme for change for local rail users as part of a national day of events protesting rail problems across the country.

The local Labour plan called “A Step Change for Passengers: Labour’s vision for Rail Travel in Southport” states:

“Privatisation has failed passengers across the country but here in Southport, it has led to an even worse service. Merseyrail is much improved with our links south to Liverpool good, thanks to local Labour politicians since the service was devolved to our local councils; privatised rail eastwards though is very different.

Links to the east are poor and slow, failing to properly connect our town to the rest of the North and the wider country. The crisis with Northern Rail and its very poor Tory handling has caused even more chaos for local travellers. This cannot go on and a Labour government will change this significantly. Labour will:

• Bring the railway back into public ownership, so that the interests of passengers, not shareholders, come first. The money currently lost to private dividends will be re-invested in services and keep fares low.
• Continue to strengthen our links to Liverpool on Merseyrail – Labour Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram and Labour-controlled Merseytravel have already purchased state of the art new trains for the network to be introduced in 2020 giving faster and more comfortable services across the region.
• Ensure Southport has its services to Manchester Piccadilly and beyond – including being served by the brand new rolling stock that has been promised to the North.
• Fast, Express, Intercity Services for Southport – we will enhance the services aiming to introduce Express services to Manchester with journey times under 60 minutes with express services to other parts of the North such as Leeds, Sheffield and the North East.”

The plan will help transform local travel and open Southport up to greater local investment, says Liz Savage:

” At present, it really is a tale of two cities, with our locally controlled service to Liverpool and beyond giving a far better experience for local commuters than the privately run service to Manchester and on. Local commuters have been hugely disadvantaged on the eastern route and it has caused a great deal of distress for working people and holidaymakers alike.

I know of one incident recently where a couple had to endure a four-hour rail journey trying to get back home to Southport from Manchester Airport. Ironically, staff eventually told them to take a train to Liverpool Southparkway and go via there as at least with Merseytravel they could be guaranteed to get home.

We need to see a vast improvement in that eastern route for the benefit of Southport and certainly not the attitudes revealed by the emails of Department for Transport officials in the House of Commons recently, which showed nothing but contempt for local rail users.”

Merseytravel Chair Liam Robinson commented:

“Charles Dickens himself could have travelled from Manchester to Southport quicker than many commuters have recently experienced, so in that respect, it has become a Dickensian service. This isn’t just a matter of blaming the rail operator, the Tories have pushed privatisation and now services are failing across the country. Southport has been badly hit and deserves far better. Labour will provide that.