Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the decision by the Manchester Recovery Task Force to terminate the direct train service between Sheffield and Manchester Airport, when they expect that service to be reinstated.

Early in 2020 we set up the Manchester Recovery Task Force, a cross-industry group comprising both the train operators and Network Rail, to work collaboratively together for the first time to look at ways of solving the performance problems of Manchester’s complex railway network, in the short term through timetable changes and in the long term through developing a package of infrastructure enhancements.

Analysis by the task force showed that, pre-Covid, three services were particularly poor performers in central Manchester and had a significant impact on the transfer of delays across the network. One of the three was South Yorkshire to Manchester Airport services which reverse at Manchester Piccadilly, consuming two train paths in each direction. These trains impact on the Castlefield Corridor through the reversing moves they make.

As new infrastructure is realised and longer trains allow for a greater capacity with less congestion, we will look at services that could be reintroduced while maintaining a reliable timetable.