TWO busy rail operators serving Huddersfield will continue for a further two years, it has been revealed.

Franchises run by First Trans-Pennine Express (FTPE) and Northern Rail will not come up for renewal until April, 2016, Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin has announced.

FTPE operates trans-Pennine express services linking Huddersfield with cities including Leeds, York, Hull, Newcastle, Manchester Piccadilly and Liverpool while Northern Rail runs local routes across the North including services from Huddersfield to Penistone, Barnsley, Sheffield, Brighouse, Halifax, Bradford, Mirfield, Wakefield and Manchester Victoria.

But rail lobbyist Peter Marshall, of the Huddersfield Penistone Sheffield Rail Users’ Association, said the decision to delay renewing the franchises was disappointing.

He said: “In some respects, we are pleased that two perfectly good operators have been allowed to carry on.

“The downside is that this decision delays the opportunity to have further improvements because the franchises will carry on under existing conditions.”

Mr Marshall said recent figures showed there had been a 5% increase in the number of passengers using the Huddersfield-Penistone-Sheffield line in the past two years.

He said: “We would hope that a new operator would undertake to make further improvements because we desperately need to increase capacity on that line.

“Trains are running full virtually all day and passengers are being shoe-horned in.

Unfortunately, the government let the franchise in 2007 on the basis that there would be no growth – but we have seen a steady increase in passenger numbers in the six years since then.”

Meanwhile, the East Coast main line – used by many Huddersfield people travelling to London via Wakefield or Leeds and to Scotland – could be back in private hands in less than two years, Mr McLoughlin revealed.

The route has been operated by East Coast – run at arms-length by the Department for Transport – since November 2009, when transport company National Express pulled out.

Now Mr McLoughlin has announced the start of a bidding competition for the East Coast franchise – with new operator expected to take over from February 2015.

Mr Marshall said users would be disappointed that East Coast is not allowed to bid for the new franchise alongside private operators.

He said: “As it is a successful operator, that seems to be unfair. Many passengers on the East Coast line would be happy to see the current incumbent carry on.”

The news comes 50 years to the day after former Transport Secretary Dr Richard Beeching published his famous document outlining massive cuts on the rail network.

Mr McLoughlin published a detailed timetable for all UK rail franchise arrangements over the next eight years.

That follows a major review after the West Coast bidding process had to be abandoned last year due to serious errors by DoT civil servants.

The West Coast services are used by Huddersfield people travelling to London via Manchester Piccadilly.

The Government has announced the extension of Virgin Trains’ operation of the franchise until 2017.

Rail unions reacted with dismay to the East Coast news, saying the private sector had twice given up the franchise, with GNER pulling out some years ago.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow said the government had wasted hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money on the “franchising circus”.