Rail services in the north of England are “embarrassing”, the mayor of Greater Manchester has said ahead of an emergency meeting aimed to combat poor performance.
The Rail North Committee meeting has been taking place following the “big deterioration” of services by rail operator Northern.
Andy Burnham said 155 Northern trains had already been cancelled for Wednesday with more than 1,000 services cancelled over half-term.
Northern has previously said the expiry of a rest day working agreement had affected staffing levels and it was working hard to improve train crew availability.
Mr Burnham told BBC Breakfast that people could no longer trust the trains across the North and it was “ruining people’s lives”.
“We’ve seen a big deterioration in performance of Northern Trains in recent months, they need to be held to account,” he said.
“People in the north of England should not be expected to put up with a substandard service. People here should no longer be treated as second-class citizens when it comes to transport.
“Everyone knows this would not be tolerated in London.”
Northern has previously been asked by politicians to set out an action plan to restore an acceptable level of reliability for passengers in the run-up to Christmas.
Mr Burnham said the government needed to ensure that improving rail services in the north was a top priority.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Mr Burnham said the rail industry was dragging the north backwards and it was hitting businesses.
He said: “Last Sunday we had ‘do not travel’ notices issued for English cities between Manchester and Stoke, Manchester and Chester, that is embarrassing is it not?
“That, I think, brings the UK’s northern travel system into real disrepute and it has to to be addressed if we are going to get growth happening everywhere.”
The BBC has asked Northern and the department for transport for a response.
Northern, which is owned by a holding company of the Department of Transport, operates across the north of England, running services in Greater Manchester, Yorkshire, Merseyside, Teesside, Tyne & Wear and Northumberland, as well as into parts of the Midlands.
