While I have not had to use the Leeds to Manchester Transpennine rail service that often, the times I have used it have generally been overcrowded, busy and frankly rather unpleasant with jostling over seats and sitting by the doors my main memories!

After it had emerged yesterday that National Rail was working behind schedule and was scheduled to go over budget the Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin has decided to ditch the elements of rail upgrades that had been planned to boost the North of England with major implications for Yorkshire.

With previous plans to upgrade the route between York and Manchester (via Leeds) now being shelved, as well as the same happening for the Sheffield to York route, this means that the long suffering commuters of the North are once again going to be left in limbo despite months of delays and ‘improvements’ that they had hoped would end in a decent level of rail service being provided.

Despite the fact that the same amount of money is still being allocated, this is only focusing on work on the Great Western Line meaning that the work in other areas has been “paused”. The even more disappointing aspect of this given the fact that there has been much talk of the idea of a ‘Northern Powerhouse’ is that there have been suggestions that the Department for Transport had known these project were at risk for at least a year. Instead of admitting this, the government instead is suggested to have waited until it was more politically expedient after the election to announce the changes to the planned upgrades.

Are you a commuter between Leeds and Manchester? What do you think of these changes? Let us know by commenting below.