Under-fire train operator TransPennine Express should be placed on a 'six-month probation period' before 'any suggestion' of the renewal of its contract next May, northern mayors including Andy Burnham have said.
And in a collective statement - spanning Manchester, Liverpool, Yorkshire and the north east - the Labour mayors called for an 'urgent meeting' with transport ministers, saying they believe 'action would already have been taken' if the recent chaos on the region's rail networks had been 'in other parts of the country'.
The mayors listed a series of demands on Government - including for more funding - after what they called the 'shambles' of rail services 'inflicting misery on millions of people' across the north west and Greater Manchester.
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The Manchester Evening News has reported how TransPennine Express cancelled 55 trains in one day last week, with the Labour Party claiming more than 40 services were cancelled on Tuesday and more than 60 on Wednesday. Today - Thursday - its website displayed 52 cancelled services, with a host of other amended services, with many affecting Manchester Piccadilly and Manchester Airport.
The M.E.N. asked the operator today how many services in total had been cancelled so far this week, and what the same figures were for last week. But a spokesman for TransPennine Express said it wouldn't have a list available 'until the end of the performance period as the data needs to be validated so a true comparison can be made'.
Together - after an emergency meeting called for by West Yorkshire mayor Tracy Brabin - the northern mayors called on the Government to agree a long-term plan for their rail networks, claiming that its underfunding is 'derailing' their plans for the economy.
It follows weeks of disruption which has seen hundreds of services cancelled by a number of rail operators, including TransPennine Express, Avanti West Coast and Northern. TransPennine Express has cancelled hundreds of services in recent weeks due to staffing issues after the implementation of an emergency timetable, with passengers travelling between Manchester and Liverpool and Leeds hit badly by delays.
A statement jointly drawn up by Ms Brabin; mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham; the mayor of the Liverpool City Region, Steve Rotheram; mayor of the North of Tyne, Jamie Driscoll and mayor of South Yorkshire, Oliver Coppard, said: "As thousands of last-minute cancellations continue to make life miserable for people in the North, and cause serious damage to the economy, the Government remains in a state of paralysis having just appointed its third Transport Secretary in seven weeks.
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"If this level of disruption was being experienced in other parts of the country, we believe action would already have been taken to improve matters. We do not accept that passengers in the North should be treated in this way and just expected to put up with it. We won’t.
"So today we are calling on the Prime Minister and his Transport Secretary Mark Harper to treat this emergency with the urgency it deserves. Only the Government can haul operators to the table to sort out this mess.
"The Transport Secretary should sign off without delay the agreement on rest day working that is on his desk. This will put more drivers on our railways within days and we can see no reason why this shouldn’t be approved immediately.
"The Government must immediately put TransPennine Express on a six-month probation period before any suggestion of the renewal of its contract in May 2023. We believe there needs to be a review of its recruitment processes and management practices. Clear performance standards must be set for the company to reach and their actual performance against them evaluated before any decision to renew.
"We need an urgent meeting with Ministers to agree a long-term plan for the future. Our transport network has been starved of support for years. This is derailing our plans for a strong Northern economy. We need to explore potential for more devolved and local control of our railways so they can be integrated into public transport systems within city-regions.
"If 'levelling up' is to be more than a slogan under the new Prime Minister, then he must give us the rail funding and powers we need to deliver."
Avanti West Coast has been given until April 1 next year to improve its services following a reduction of its trains as well.
A spokesperson for TransPennine Express said: "Prior to December 2021 TransPennine Express (TPE) had posted its best ever performance results, and was subsequently recognised as “Train Operator of the Year” at the Rail Business Awards. Since then, 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. 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."
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