Once, it seemed like a good idea to live in the Pennines and commute by train. Susannah Simmons, a violinist at Opera North, moved to Marsden for quick and easy access to her work in Leeds and Manchester. “The service was far from perfect but satisfactory,” she says. “But for at least the past year nearly all trains I would have used have been cancelled or delayed, forcing me to drive everywhere.”
Like countless others, her life has been upended by ripped-up schedules and woeful performance of TransPennine Express.
Ministers are expected to announce this week whether the operator will be replaced or awarded a fresh deal – potentially for up to eight years.
Expectations are that TPE, owned by London-listed First Group – the only remaining British transport firm operating passenger trains on the UK’s privatised railway - will be given another chance to turn operations around, with a short extension of six to 12 months when its contract expires on 28 May.
But train failures are a potent political issue in the north. The announcement was withheld until after the local elections and the results of last week’s vote – and the potential for further backlash in “red wall” seats – have given ministers further pause before renewing First’s contract, according to a source close to the process.
MPs and mayors across the north have urged the government to “get a grip” after the operator’s abysmal record of delayed, disrupted and cancelled services – whose true extent was only officially confirmed after the regulator warned firms against concealing last-minute schedule changes.
Among regular users, a recurrent description is the grim “lottery” or “roulette” of hoping to catch trains. In January, TPE cancelled one in four trains, and despite recent improvement, its cancellation rate remains worse than all other UK operators.
Even the wary and weary regulars, used to checking timetables at 11pm the night before travel for ghost cancellations and reconfirming before risking the station, recount trains that still did not materialise, arrived short-formed and overcrowded, or simply failed further down the line.
From passengers who recounted their experiences to the Guardian, horror stories abound of crammed carriages without functioning toilets, of missed appointments, football matches or family gatherings; of jobs made unworkable. Many report simply having given up on using the railway – some pushed onto coaches, buses, even Ubers for intercity trips, but many abandoning the commute or leisure trips they might have made.
Jonathan Carr, 30, an engineering consultant, has depended on TPE for his commute to Leeds since moving to Yorkshire six years ago: “Every year the service has got less frequent, slower, less reliable and more expensive.”
Of late, every day in the office has brought “a significant risk whether I’d miss meetings, and whether I’d be able to get home in less than three hours.”
He moved from Thirsk to Northallerton for what looked like a better service: “Then they halved the frequency, leaving only one train that would get me in to work at 7am, and that was still cancelled half of the time.”
He can no longer get to Manchester airport for a morning flight, and he adds: “My partner and I used to take the train to York, Leeds or Newcastle for an evening out at the cinema and restaurants. Not anymore – we don’t trust that we’ll be able to get home.”
Like many, he is adamant that TPE should be ousted. Ministers have been tight-lipped about the decision but are reluctant to bring another train service under the state-owned Operator of Last Resort, which already runs LNER, Northern and Southeastern.
In a Commons debate in March, Mark Harper, the transport secretary, rejected Labour calls for nationalisation, saying: “If we don’t resolve the issues with the trade unions, then just doing that won’t actually improve the services for passengers at all.”
Many cancellations have been down to a lack of drivers, with high rates of sickness across train crew. TPE relies on rest day working, or voluntary overtime, to operate its full timetable while training up new recruits. With good will lost between staff and managers, few have volunteered.
The drivers union Aslef agreed a rate for rest day working in late April, but immediately since called action short of a strike, which barred members for signing on for the shifts again. General secretary Mick Whelan said industrial action was due to “smashed agreements” regarding rostering and notice given to staff.
“The management should fall on their sword and hand back the keys tomorrow,” Whelan said. However, he expected the FirstGroup-owned operator to get a further contract: “We’d rather they didn’t. But this government is desperate to keep these people in the industry.”
A similar reprieve was given to TPE’s sister firm in First Group, Avanti West Coast, last autumn and again this spring, after a year in which it was forced to abandon its timetable due to the extent of cancellations and delays brought on by staff shortages.
A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “Ministers have been previously clear that the recent level of service provided by TransPennine Express is unacceptable and that all options remain on the table.”
A spokesperson for TPE said it was sorry for poor service due to a “combination of ongoing issues”, adding: “We introduced a recovery plan at the beginning of February to reduce cancellations and provide greater reliability and stability for our customers.
“As a direct result of this plan we have seen a 45% reduction in cancellations, and will continue to work to bring these numbers down in the coming weeks and months.”
