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Reynolds: Investment needed to get railways back on track

The future of the railways belongs in 'public ownership' says Hyde and Stalybridge MP Jonathan Reynolds.

His view comes after Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said at the start of the new year that Northern would be stripped of its franchise after years of poor performance.

“Successful railways around the world combine the services and infrastructure of the tracks and we tried that originally with Railtrack, but that didn’t last long, then we had the split between a publicly owned Network Rail effectively and the privatised rail services.

“Frankly, that system has failed because the companies can’t deliver on what they’ve been asked to do and there’s no one to give it to if you take the franchise off them, so I think we are moving towards a public sector railway.”

Reynolds (pictured below) added that there were other real issues too - although the record of Northern was ‘indefensible’.

“When we face, quite regularly, delays at Stalybridge it’s often because of the infrastructure beyond Dewsbury and when you get past Huddersfield.

“Unless there’s extra money these things will never be satisfactory, but what we really need is for the government to sign off on the extra capacity for Manchester city centre.

“You just can’t get as many trains through per hour - as was promised to us.

“People might well remember the campaigns for the extra platforms at Piccadilly - but we still haven’t got the action we need on that. 

“So, hopefully there will not just be words from the government but some real promises of delivery.”

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