We still use fax machines to contact train crews, Northern Rail official admits in excruciating grilling

A Northern Rail official has admitted the operator still uses fax machines to communicate with its train crews in an excruciating exchange about the state of its services.

The shocking admission came as Northern mayors were grilling the rail operator on its poor performance on Wednesday, with issues raised including staffing problems, underinvestment, bad communication, and a lack of coordination with other parts of the sector – which has all led to repeated cancellations and growing anger among passengers.

When Andy Burnham put to the rail official that he had heard Northern is still using fax machines, they argued that it was an issue of “depth and complexity” that would require a change in the agreement made with colleagues – a point disrupted by the incredulous Greater Manchester mayor.

The Financial Times reported Mr Burnham posed the question over the use of fax machines: “Can that possibly be true?” to which the official responded, “It is very much true, chair.”

The mayor demanded an explanation, “How? How on earth is that the case in 2024?” with the official replying: “That is a very fair and reasonable question. It’s our challenge to get rid of them. We have plans to get rid of them.”

Mr Burnham stated: “You could do it tomorrow.” And the official agreed – but when the mayor asked if the operator was going to, they admitted it was not, “because the tools we use to get information and messages to our crew rely on faxes, amazingly. We will get there before we’re forced to because fax technology, in telecoms terms, turns off. Our plan that we’re putting forward...”

Mr Burnham interrupted: “People will say: ‘How come we have three decades of privatisation when money was being poured into the railway and you are still communicating via fax machines in 2024?’”

The official admitted: “It is a very fair question. Our job is to get rid of them. Our job is to unleash the full potential of emerging technological revolution,” but added that the “right agreement with our colleagues” needs to be reached.

The mayor responded: “I hear what you say but it tells me though that your modernisation plan, like your training plan, is moving nowhere near fast enough. You could get rid of this stuff tomorrow. You could put in place IT to support people to communicate differently.”

He went on to accuse Northern of having a “disregard for the travelling public”.

Another official from the operator waded into the debate, arguing: “We wouldn’t be able to get rid of them tomorrow without an agreement with our train unions. We have to look at these issues with the depth and complexity they have and the historical issues that we absolutely are going to address. It isn’t as simple as turning them off tomorrow because at the moment we have an agreement to use the processes that we have, and in order to change that, we do have to change the agreement.”

Mr Burnham countered: “I mean I personally don’t think many people watching this will consider replacing fax machines as issues of depth and complexity.”

Northern has been issued with a “breach notice” by its owner the Department for Transport, which requires the operator to produce an improvement plan.

The operator has made a high number of cancellations in recent months, particularly on Sundays.

Many train drivers and other crew members do not have Sunday working included in their contracts, with numerous operators such as Northern often relying on them volunteering to work extra paid shifts to run timetabled services on that day.

A spokesperson for Northern previously said: “Our customers have experienced higher levels of cancellations in recent weeks and for that we are sorry.

“The underlying reason for services being cancelled remains traincrew availability and Sundays being contractually outside of the working week.

“The breach notice issued by the Department for Transport is being taken incredibly seriously and improving the reliability of our timetable remains our top priority.”