North of England faces rail chaos, warns business lobby
The chaos in the rail industry really is impacting on the lives of rural residents in England and so there is much to agree with in the comments profiled in this article. I would like to see rail worker salaries clearly benchmarked against everyone else so that we can see just how deep seated the cost of living challenge they face is compared to other workers. Not because I dispute their right to strike but because we are desperately short of context to understand the relative impact of inflation on them compared say to health workers and thereby build a rounded picture of what is happening to our economy. This article tells us:
Business leaders in the north of England are warning rail services could “collapse into utter chaos” by January unless the government takes action.
Members of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership have written to ask the transport secretary to address a crisis they say is “wreaking havoc”.
Rail travel in northern England has been severely disrupted in recent months by strikes and cancellations.
The government agreed the current situation was “unacceptable”.
It said it was “investing billions” in northern transport and was “working closely with train operators” to resolve problems around the recruitment of new drivers.
But Juergen Maier, former chief executive of Siemens UK and a vice chair of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, said the government had failed to “use the levers only it can pull, to sort out or train services”.