Mayor argues case for takeover of train company

The North East mayor says she would like to join other regional leaders to take over the running of rail company Northern Trains.

Kim McGuinness said she and other mayors would explore their options under government plans to give local leaders more powers.

Northern admitted its service was not good enough after it cancelled 1,000 services during 2024’s October half-term, but said it was committed to working with elected mayors.

The Department for Transport (DfT), which owns the rail operator through a holding company, said: “Northern’s performance is completely unacceptable, and it is on a detailed improvement plan.”

The English Devolution White Paper, announced by Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner in December, gives regional mayors a right to request more control over trains, stations and infrastructure “up to full devolution of defined local services”.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, McGuinness said: “We will absolutely be looking at regional proposals for control of local rail because too many people are failed by poor service levels.

“As a northern group of mayors we want to be working together more in the interests of the Great North.”

Northern runs about 2,500 local and regional services every day to towns and cities across the North of England.

It was issued with a formal breach notice last summer because of its “unacceptable” performance levels, while managers admitted in October they were still using fax machines.

The operator said it wanted to have 90% of trains run on time and only 2% of services cancelled by 2027.

McGuinness said she hoped to have “the actual power to make change”.

“I want us to get out of the cycle where it is basically us just shouting at operators,” she added.

A spokesperson for Northern said: “We are committed to working with directly-elected mayors across our network to find the optimal solution for passengers as part of an integrated network.”

In a statement, the DfT spokesperson said the improvement plan “would ensure Northern provides better services while we move to a more unified and reliable network”.

“Mayors know their areas best and will be given a statutory role in running their networks as well as the ability to ask the Transport Secretary for greater devolution of rail responsibilities.”

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