Furious commuters aboard a Northern Rail train service have posted a bunch of angry notes to back of the seats urging the company to 'lower prices' on its 'overcrowded' and 'often delayed or cancelled' services.
The notes read: "Your late cancelled, no lights, striking, two carriages in rush hour trains aren't worth the ticket price", "Your anxiety inducing trains aren't worth the ticket price" and "I love paying Northern £60 to go get my education". They were left taped to the back of seats on a train from Buxton and Manchester.
Regular Northern Rail user Gari Davies spotted the stunt, which he reckons may have been put on by students who use the service.
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Speaking to the Manchester Evening News, he said: "It tickled me. They're right. It's everything we've been saying about Northern for years."
Northern Rail is currently locked in a dispute with its staff, resulting in strike actions. Unless the issue is resolved, planned strike action will take place every Saturday until the New Year. The system was hit with chaos in May when a new timetable was introduced, with dozens of cancellations and delays.
In response to the notes, a spokesperson from Northern Rail told LADbible: "We would like to apologise to any customer who has suffered delays, cancellations or a reduction in carriages recently.
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"Autumn conditions have hit us hard recently. Issues related to the time of year - excess leaves on the line and damp weather - have continued to cause problems for the rail industry and have resulted in delays and many carriages to be taken out of service."
The spokesperson added that the company is trying to keep disruption to a minimum and is 'working hard to keep the tracks in the best possible condition'.
The notes were spotted ahead of today's announcement that rail fares are set to rise by 3.1 percent on 2 January.
Those increases mean that some popular journeys will see prices raised by more than £100. For example, an annual season ticket from Liverpool to Manchester will rise by £100 per year and anyone travelling from Peterborough to Kings Cross will see the cost of their annual season ticket go up by £248.
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The increase, which is across the whole rail service and not just Northern Rail, is due to rail companies not receiving as much funding from the government.
As you can probably imagine, those who rely on trains to get around are less than thrilled with the announcement, with many slamming rail companies for raising prices without any noticeable improvement to services.
Chief executive of watchdog Transport Focus Anthony Smith told Sky News: "Until day-to-day reliability returns - with fewer significant delays and cancellations - passenger trust won't begin to recover.
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"Passengers now pour over £10billion a year into the rail industry alongside significant government investment, so the rail industry cannot be short of funding.
"When will this translate into a more reliable railway and better value for money for passengers?
"It's also time for a fairer, clearer fares formula based on a calculation that uses the Consumer Prices Index, rather than the discredited Retail Prices Index."
When asked by LADbible about the price increase, a Northern Rail spokesperson said: "Northern's average annual fare increase is 3.2 percent which means an average weekly season ticket will rise by £1.30 and the average off peak day ticket by just 25p.
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"These rises, which are in line with RPI, will help fund current and future investment in rail services across the north of England.
"Northern is delivering new trains, improved trains, better stations and more services to transform local rail for current and future customers in the North.
"Fares are an important factor in enabling the investment that will make this happen and ensure the railway continues to support our customers, communities and the regional economy."
Featured Image Credit: Manchester Evening News/Gari Davies