Coronavirus: Northern train services to increase from Monday

The number of train services across the north of England is set to increase from Monday, a rail boss has revealed.

A Transport for the North (TfN) committee meeting heard services run by train operator Northern would rise from 45% to 63%.

But Nick Donovan, managing director of Northern, said social distancing would "impact the way we run services".

The train operator was originally due to introduce a new timetable this weekend.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the meeting was told it could be many weeks before train services returned to normal, as the lockdown and social distancing rules meant staff were unable to take part in routine training.

In the meeting, Mr Donovan said the "uplift in services" was dictated by the change in behaviour by commuters.

"There is already an enhanced cleaning regime in place - we need to remain nimble and agile to respond to the situation.

"We are ready to roll - it is a resource-led timetable. We have been stressing internally the resilience and reliability of the timetable as we rebuild it is paramount."

A document entitled "restoration of full timetable", which was presented to the meeting, warned of a potentially "different railway in future from pre-Covid-19" and expected "significant staff shortages" for weeks.

It also stated "great uncertainty regarding passenger demand and capacity requirements".

Mr Donovan said: "The ability to lift up to capacity across the timetable will take time to get in place - this will happen later in the year."

He also claimed no pacer trains would be in service despite a proportion being kept in storage until the end of the year for "contingency".

TfN was set up to co-ordinate transport in the North and advise government on transport strategy.