Poor rail services at Penrith train station haws raised in Westminster today (Tuesday 15th July) Westmorland and Lonsdale MP Tim Farron raised the issue that new data from On Time Trains has found that Oxenholme (2,635th) and Penrith (2,637th) ranked in the bottom five of Great Britain’s 2,639 railway station for reliability over the past 12 weeks.
Westmorland and Lonsdale MP Tim Farron has written to the Transport Secretary, Heidi Alexander, urging her to intervene over poor rail services in Cumbria.
Tim Farron MP also raised the situation during a debate in Westminster today on the future of the West Coast Mainline.
Speaking in Westminster Hall, Tim said: “On reliability, there are, I understand, 2639 railway stations in the United Kingdom. The fifth least reliable is Oxenholme. The third least reliable is Penrith”.
“They have got one thing in common, apart from they serve my constituency, but also they’re north of Preston.”
“Avanti have a habit, if there's anything wrong with the line north of Preston, everything stops at Preston, even if it's in Scotland. That is wrong”
“Whilst that is a decision that Avanti take, and they should be rightly held to account for it, it's also the case that it's not all their fault.”
“It's often down to the fact the rail track itself is not properly maintained and there's not been enough investment in it. That should be a priority for this government.”
The ranking of Penrith as third worst in the UK by website “On Time Trains” is based on train service covering delays and cancellations and is not linked to the station or its staff who locals strongly support for delivering a friendly professional service.
In response Connor Naismith MP leading the debate on the future of the WestCoast mainline said: “I have heard from several colleagues about the particular issues on that part of the line”. He added “we should hold the operators to account, Network Rail needs to address key infrastructure issues.”
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