Northern responds to Harrogate passengers criticisms over rail cancellations on non-strike days

With passengers facing strike action by RMT rail workers' union this Christmas weekend (from 6pm, Saturday, December 24 to 6am, Tuesday, December 26), disruption is becoming almost normal.

But commuters on the York-Harrogate-Leeds line got in touch with the Harrogate Advertiser to protest over cancellations on 'normal' days.

One of them, David Houlgate of Knaresborough, asked:

Why was the service so "poor on December 15th and 18th December - even though these weren't strike days (which were on 13th, 14th, 16th and 17th December for the RMT)?

Why did no trains ran between Harrogate and York on these days even though train units were in their usual place at Harrogate station?

Why was Northern unable to run a service to and from York on the Sunday before Christmas?

Tony Baxter, regional director for Northern, said: “Industrial action doesn’t just impact the days in question.

"It also causes widespread displacement of our fleet of over 300 trains across the network, which means services on days immediately following a ‘strike day’ cannot begin until later in the day.

"With regards to extended periods of industrial action, which can result in ‘non-strike days’ being sandwiched in-between strikes – such as the two 48 hour strikes we have seen by the RMT this month - we have kept the same timetable in place across the period to give customers some reassurance and reliability of the services that will be able to run.

"Some Sunday services have also been impacted by a union ban on all overtime and rest day working.”

So far, the new year sees no signs of bringing back normality on the railways.

More RMT strikes are scheduled for 3rd, 4th, 6th and 7th January, 2023 with train drivers union Aslef holding a one-day strike on January 5.

National Rail, whose membership includes all the passenger train operators in England, Scotland, and Wales, has issued a warning there will be a reduced train services across the rail network until Sunday, January 8, 2023.