Exclusive:Commuters crammed in as almost one in four Northern services shortened on some routes

Research from the Conservatives has found that Northern operated more than 85,000 shortened services over the last 18 months.

Many of Northern’s busiest routes run with fewer carriages than planned more than a fifth of the time, leaving commuters cramming into shortened trains, The Yorkshire Post can reveal.

Research from the Conservatives has found that Northern operated more than 85,000 shortened services over the last 18 months.

On many of these lines Northern only uses three coaches, so shortening the trains leaves commuters and passengers squeezing on and cramming in.

The most frequent route that was shortened was on the Hope Valley line between Manchester and Sheffield, with the service from Piccadilly and New Mills Central being cut almost a quarter of the time.

Meanwhile, two routes out of Leeds - to Manchester Victoria and also to Chester - were shortened more than one in five times.

The seven most-shortened routes travel through the constituencies of new Prime Minister Andy Burnham, Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds and Health Secretary Yvette Cooper.

Northern was one of the first operators to be brought into Labour’s Great British Railways, as the Department for Transport already had control of the rail firm due to performance issues.

The Government said the shortened services are “in large part due to the age of the rolling stock”, yet the first replacement trains are not expected to enter service until 2030-31.

Shadow Transport Secretary Richard Holden said: “Labour promised passengers better rail services, but instead they're increasingly being squeezed onto overcrowded trains while ministers admit people will be waiting years for replacement rolling stock.

“It's yet another example of Labour failing to deliver for passengers and taxpayers.

"Rather than ideologically pursuing state control of parts of the network that are working well, Labour would be serving passengers best by focusing relentlessly on reliability, safety and capacity, and make sure passengers get the services they're paying for instead of a service that doesn’t even meet basic expectations."

A DfT spokesperson said: "Passengers rightly expect enough space on board, and we recognise the frustration when trains operate with fewer carriages than planned.

“We expect operators to match train capacity with demand, and Northern is addressing this by investing in hundreds of new trains and thousands more carriages, while also exploring options to bring in extra trains in the short term.

"Bringing track and train together under Great British Railways will help make journeys better and simpler for passengers, saving taxpayers up to £150m per year on operator fees once they are all publicly owned.”

Northern said: “We work hard to match capacity to demand. Services are actively managed on the day to ensure available capacity is deployed where needed and in response to changing resources, demand and disruption.”