Government urged to nationalise TransPennine Express as service ‘has never been worse’

Shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh has repeatedly criticised the operator, which is owned by First Group, because it has forced passengers to endure months of severe disruption by cancelling thousands of services at short-notice.

The latest figures also show TransPennine Express (TPE) had one of the worst punctuality records in the country between July and September last year, as just over half (55.8 per cent) of its trains ran on time.

Ms Haigh said more than 120 TPE services were cancelled or disrupted on Thursday morning, adding the Government “cannot pretend” the management is “blameless in this farce”.

It comes after Rail Minister Huw Merriman said TPE’s performance is “clearly unacceptable” and the operator needs to “turn it around” if it wants to continue running services.

TPE has a contract to run services in the North until May and the Government will have to decide whether to renew it or appoint its Operator of Last Resort (OLR) to take over.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Ms Haigh said: “The Minister must surely agree this simply isn’t good enough. In November he assured us the new timetable would be deliverable. This week the results are in and the service has never been worse.

“This morning alone at least 123 services have been cancelled or disrupted on TPE and he cannot pretend that the management are blameless in this farce.

“The North cannot afford to continue like this any longer. So will he strip TPE of their contract and bring it under the OLR?”

Mr Merriman said “decisions will be made” if TPE cannot make the necessary improvements, but appointing the OLR is not a simple solution.

"The OLR does a great job but I also hear criticis,” he said. “With regards to Northern Rail that also has higher than average cancellations, and Northern Rail is operated by the OLR.”

West Yorkshire Mayor Tracy Brabin has also criticised TPE, claiming passengers are fed up of listening to “excuse after excuse”.

She added: “TPE should not have their contract renewed in May if they can’t do their job. How can it be that private companies are rewarded for their failure, time and time again?”

TPE has been struggling with driver shortages in recent months, as they have stopped volunteering to work on rest days and the training programme for new recruits was disrupted by the pandemic.

Industrial action and high levels of staff sickness have also caused disruption for passengers.

Both TPE and Northern have been attempting to negotiate new rest-day working agreements with the drivers union ASLEF since December, to ensure they have enough drivers to operate reliable services throughout the week.

A TPE spokeswoman said: “Our customers want, and deserve, reliable and punctual train services, and we are sorry we have not been able to consistently provide that due to the ongoing issues.

"TPE’s team continues to work flat-out to deliver higher levels of service delivery and to tackle the issues that are being experienced by customers.”