Number of disrupted train services along York to Leeds route revealed

Out of the 14,813 trains scheduled to arrive and depart at the York and Leeds stations, six months on from Saturday, August 28, 2021, 1,179 were either delayed by over 10 minutes or cancelled – according to Northern Rail.

These disruptions occurred along the Blackpool to York, and Leeds to York via Garforth services.

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The number of delayed and cancelled trains Picture: Northern Rail

Northern Rail explained to The Press that this data captures the delays and cancellations at the York and Leeds stations alone.

They gave the example that there may be a three minute delay at Bradford with passenger assistance, then a three minute delay at Pudsey with signalling problems, which would result in a six minute delay by the time it terminated at York station.

Therefore, there is not always a specific reason as to why a train is delayed.

Tony Baxter, regional director at Northern, said: “Northern operates thousands of services every single day with the huge majority being completed as per schedule.

"Unfortunately, there are times when some services either need to be cancelled in full or for part of their planned journey.

"Cancellations can occur for a large number of reasons, many outside of Northern's control and may include for example, bad weather, faulty infrastructure (signals and track etc), line blockages (i.e. fallen trees), incidents of safety, staff sickness, other train operator problems and train faults.

"We continue to work closely with colleagues from Network Rail, and the other operators, to keep this disruption to a minimum and our customers on the move.”

Northern Rail cited that the three most common reasons for delays at York station were: as a knock-on effect from another train, at 3,234 occurrences, unit displacement at 1,536, and platform alterations at 240.

The most common reasons for full cancellations at York station were: reasons relating to the driver in 65 instances, 15 unit faults, and 11 cases of high winds.

Similarly with early terminations of trains, reasons relating to the driver was 47 times, reasons relating to the conductor in 18 instances, and 12 unit faults.

The part cancellation of regular train service, which occurred on Sundays during January 16, to May 8, 2022, was a bus replacement along the York to Micklefield, Micklefield to York subsection of the York to Leeds route, which ran from 9.52am to 10.11pm.

This meant that the train started from Micklefield, 16.75 miles away from York, as opposed to at York station - passengers took a bus replacement from York to Micklefield to then join the train service.

Northern Rail has specified that some delays were owing to other Train Operating Companies.