TransPennine Express told to come up with 'immediate solution' to end 'chaos'

TransPennine Express (TPE), has been cancelling services at short notice in recent weeks, with more than 50 cancellations announced last Wednesday alone.

The company, which is owned by FirstGroup, has blamed the “prolonged disruption” on a range of issues, including a high level of staff sickness and driver training backlog caused by the pandemic.

It comes after TPE brought in an amended timetable last month, which cut the number of services operating between North West England and Scotland, to try and reduce disruption.

Ms Brabin met with representatives from the company yesterday and told them to “come up with an immediate solution" to the ongoing issues.

Speaking after the meeting, she said: “My own train this morning was cancelled, and I know that passengers across the North all have their own horror stories of how the rail network has let them down.”

She added: “At this time of severe economic instability, we cannot have a rail network that’s reliant on drivers not becoming sick and trains not breaking down. This simply isn’t good enough.

"We need an immediate solution, and the Transport Secretary must engage with the operators and unions to make this happen.”

It comes as Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham and Metro Mayor of Liverpool Steve Rotheram are calling on the Government to provide TPE and Northern with more funding, so they can address staffing issues and improve services.

Mr Burnham said they are “being hamstrung by the financial constraints imposed on them by Whitehall” and “the financial and negotiating room to breathe in order to start fixing our broken system”.

A TPE spokesman said: “Prolonged disruption affecting our services has been caused by a range of issues including ongoing high levels of train crew sickness, a persisting training backlog as a direct result of Covid, and infrastructure issues outside of TPE’s control.

“Combined, these factors have seen a number of on-the-day or ‘evening before’ cancellations being made.

“In normal circumstances, we have enough people to fully operate our scheduled timetable – and have more drivers now than ever before – however the combination of factors has put unprecedented pressure on our ability to effectively operate our services.

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

The Government said it is working with operators to minimise disruption and has already agreed to provide more than £16bn to support the rail industry during the pandemic.

According to TPE’s latest accounts, it recorded an operating profit of £73m in the year ending March 2021 and a significant drop in passenger numbers was “largely mitigated” by A £325m Government grant.