RAIL users are constantly experiencing frequent delays and cancellations as weekend services across the area are dubbed "shambolic".

Data collected from across a variety of weekends shows operator Northern has consistently failed to meet its own targets for arriving on time at stations connecting Barrow, Ulverston and Bootle with the North West and beyond.

Tony Parker, honorary secretary of the Furness Line Association Group, (FLAG) collated the data, which revealed that for three consecutive Saturdays from August 19, the average percentage of on time trains was only 68.9, well below the requirement set by the franchise of 92.8 per cent.

The percentage of services which were cancelled or more than 30 minutes late was 15.4 per cent, more than nine times higher than the 1.7 per cent requirement.

Mr Parker blamed the failings of the lack of staff operating on the rails.

He said: "They are working on a knife's edge, we have more crew cancellations than any other area.

"Over July and August there were 15 cancellations because of crews, which impacted on services to Barrow, and two this week alone.

"The unfortunate thing about this is that if we went to the Department for Transport they would say they are doing their job because they are meeting targets.

"Performance is up, customer satisfaction is up in the North West, but in our part of the world it isn't the case.

"We would just like to know why they have so many shortages here and see it sorted out."

An ongoing issue for Barrow

Barrow and Furness MP John Woodcock has been campaigning for a number of years to improve rail services and was not impressed by the findings.

He said: "A situation where on some days only just over half of all trains coming in to Barrow perform properly is clearly unacceptable and the public are rightly fed up.

“I have re-formed the Cumbria Better Connected campaign to demand improvements, including better rolling stock and an end to delays and cancellations, and I will be pushing the government and rail operators on this in the months and years ahead.”

Tourism impact

Concerns have also been raised over whether the trains running up and down the county's rails are suitable for the influx of tourists heading to the Lakes in light of the area's new Unesco World Heritage status.

Westmorland and Lonsdale MP Tim Farron said the figures were a "prime example" of how little the government cares about people in south Cumbria and despite the area being a "world-class" destination, people were "stranded with fifth rate rail infrastructure".

He said: "From the cancelling the electrification of the Lakes Line, to trains regularly being delayed and cancelled on the Furness Line, commuters across the South Lakes are constantly being let down while billions continue to be pumped into rail infrastructure in London.

Northern's response

A spokesman for Northern said: “We have outlined our commitment to introduce new and refurbished trains across our network and to modernise our stations to provide a rail service fit for the 21st century.

“From December 2019 everyone travelling on the Northern network will benefit from brand new or completely refurbished ‘as new’ trains through our multi-million-pound fleet investment. This will allow us to operate a timetable with improved connectivity and direct through services to major centres from the region and, undoubtedly, encourage greater use of our services going forward.

“In the meantime it is important that we deliver a consistent service both on our trains and at stations to ensure we provide our customers with the service they deserve and provide them with confidence to use our services.

“We want our customers to experience a consistently high quality service from the moment they search for a ticket, to the moment they reach their end destination and this is something that Northern is working hard to achieve.”

Here come the statistics:

PPM: Public performance measure

The percentage of trains which successfully run their entire planned route, calling at all timetabled stations, arriving at their terminating station on time or within five minutes of the timetable times.

CaSL: Cancellation and significant lateness

A train is counted as being a CaSL failure if it is cancelled, part cancelled, has skipped stops or is more than 30 minutes late.

The requirements:

Northern’s franchise requirement for PPM is 92.8 per cent and for CaSLs is 1.7 per cent.

The results of 'shambolic' Saturday services in and out of Barrow

August 19 : PPM 70per cent, CaSL 13.3 per cent

Overall: 63.3 per cent of trains were early, on time or within one minute late.

Cancellation and significant lateness was 13.5 per cent

August 26: PPM 56.6 per cent, CaSL 20.0 per cent

Overall: 46.7 per cent of trains were early, on time or within one minute late.

Cancellation and significant lateness was 19.2 per cent.

September 2:

PPM 80 per cent and CaSL 13.3 per cent

66.7 per cent of trains were early, on time or within one minute late.

Cancellation and significant lateness was 13.5 per cent.