TransPennine Express issues ‘do not travel’ alert due to 'significant rostering system issue'

Train operator TransPennine Express has issued a "do not travel" alert as a "significant rostering system issue" causes major disruption to services.

The company, which runs trains across northern England and into Scotland, told passengers many services had been cancelled and urged them not to travel on their network.

TransPennine (TPE) says it expects to cancel around a third of the 325 services planned for Wednesday, 21 December.

The issue was caused by an overnight fault affecting rostering software designed to ensure workers and trains are in the correct location at the right time to run services.

TPE said it did not know when the problem will be resolved, and disruption is expected to continue for the rest of the week.

The FirstGroup-owned company has previously blamed a combination of problems, such as high levels of train crew sickness and a training backlog.

It has also been hit by workers not volunteering to do paid overtime on rest days, and infrastructure faults.

TransPennine Express customer service and operations director Kathryn O’Brien said: “Due to a significant rostering system issue, today we are experiencing a high level of unplanned cancellations and disruption across our network.

“We know this will have a significant impact on customers travelling with us today and sincerely apologise for any disruption caused.

“We are working hard internally and with our system provider to resolve the situation as soon as possible.

“We are doing all we can to keep customers on the move but while problems persist, we advise customers not to travel and to seek alternative means of transport.”

The cancellations come after a recent wave of strike action caused major disruption across the rail network.

The next planned RMT union strike action affecting TransPennine Express is scheduled for the first week of January, but the operator says services on Christmas Eve will finish early due to strike action affecting Network Rail, and is advising passengers to only travel if essential.

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