On the day Andy Burnham becomes UK PM, a northern city loses trains to London

By Andy Bruce

SHEFFIELD, England, July 20 (Reuters) - On the day Andy Burnham became prime minister, the man who has vowed to give greater powers and investment to the north of England faced a setback when one of its key train operators cut many direct services to London. 

Burnham, the former Greater Manchester mayor, has promised to take greater control of key privatised services such as trains, to help boost connectivity and productivity, lift living conditions and revive the economy.

But on Monday, a reduced timetable from East Midlands Railway took effect, disrupting services running from Sheffield and Nottingham to London. The company set no end date for services to resume.

The cutbacks are a tangible example of a frustration that Burnham has promised to address: the fact Britain routinely struggles to build and run infrastructure reliably, and that many of its services are provided by private companies that do not answer to local politicians.

Oliver Coppard, mayor of the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority that oversees Sheffield and neighbouring towns, told Reuters it was a "test case" for whether Burnham's promise to empower the regions can fix such problems.

"Right now, I'm reduced to having to say to these private companies: 'Do better'," Coppard said.

"That's not good enough. I want that power and control back in South Yorkshire, so we can make those decisions and we can change these systems so they work for people."

EMR said the reduced timetable was due to delays to the rollout of new Hitachi trains. 

Data provided by EMR showed that, across a full week, almost one in five scheduled services between Sheffield or Nottingham and London will either be cut or run with fewer carriages.

The company said it understood that the "temporary" changes may cause inconvenience but said it would work hard to minimise the impact. The Department for Transport was not immediately available for comment.

Sheffield, known for its historic steel industry, has a population of almost 600,000 and counts Boeing and McLaren Automotive as major employers.

Henri Murison, head of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, a business-backed group that lobbies for investment in northern England, said he was concerned that the news could damage the attractiveness of the area on a permanent basis.

(Reporting by Andy Bruce; Editing by Hugh Lawson)