CrossCountry trains have announced that a number of services will no longer stop at Wakefield Westgate.
Commenting on the decision, Wakefield’s Labour Member of Parliament, Simon Lightwood MP, said:
“I am immensely disappointed that CrossCountry have taken this reckless step without the proper consultation that my constituents deserve.
“Countless Wakefield residents will now be left in the lurch thanks to CrossCountry’s choice to withdraw these long-distance services from stopping at Wakefield Westgate.
“CrossCountry claim this step is necessary to reduce overcrowding, but cutting off my constituents from vital arterial routes and forcing passengers onto other services already stretched to the limit is not the answer.
“If CrossCountry were serious about relieving overcrowding, they’d have already taken steps to boost rolling stock capacity. Instead, after decades of deregulation of the railways, passengers in Wakefield have been let down yet again by an unaccountable private operator.
“This cannot go on. Labour will bring rail routes back into public ownership as contracts expire, ending the chaos and managed decline of our railways. Labour will establish a vital new watchdog, the Passenger Standards Authority, to scrutinise rail routes and deliver the services that passengers desperately deserve.”