TransPennine Express awaits contract decision amid poor service record
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
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