Transpennine Express called 'absolutely appalling' for 'placing cancellation blame on children'

TransPennine Express has been blasted as 'absolutely appalling' accusing it for blaming train cancellations on schoolchildren and holidays.

The train operator has been under fire after it was recently revealed it cancelled almost a quarter of all its trains in a month including more than 1,000 the night before they were due to run.

It also ranked the highest of all train operating companies in terms of cancellations by some distance in figures published by the rail regulator.

Now furious councillors on an influential transport committee in Greater Manchester have slammed the company, with one telling a senior TransPennine Express (TPE) director he did not want "these ridiculous excuses anymore".

The director, Darren Higgins, appeared at Friday 17 February’s meeting of the committee to give an update on their performance.

He told them a detailed 'recovery plan' has now been submitted to the Department of Transport containing 53 points and is awaiting ministerial approval.

Mr Higgins said a backlog of training as a main issue, but also referenced half-term and the Easter and summer holidays as 'high leave periods'.

Stockport councillor David Meller replied: "First it's Covid, then it's the big bad unions and now it's kids that are meaning we can't run services.

"What do you suggest? Do we do away with half-term holidays now in order to deliver services?

"I have had enough of this chair. It is absolutely appalling this, absolutely appalling.

"You're effectively blaming kids and kids being on holiday for you not running services. Absolutely unbelievable.

"You need to get your house in order.

"I am not taking these ridiculous excuses anymore. You need to get your house in order.

"Blaming schoolchildren for effectively not running services on time and not running them properly - I have heard it all now."

Salford councillor Damian Bailey added: "It beggars belief. It seems like at every opportunity it is someone else to blame, it is half-term, it's the unions.

"Is there not going to be any recognition that you are simply not fit to run the service?"

Other councillors pointed out school holidays are planned and publicised well in advance.

In January, Northern mayors united to call for the company to be stripped of its franchise and brought under public control.

The Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, has already confirmed he would be asking for the company’s contract to be terminated when it expires in May unless there is a major reduction in cancellations by the end of February. 

Mr Burnham, speaking at the meeting, repeated that vow and called TPE's operation 'not a service'. 

He said: "It is quite frankly appalling, the level of service. It's had a devastating effect.

"TransPennine is the outlier here. It is absolutely scandalous failure in my view. The time has come to remove the franchise from TransPennine Express.

"They were poor before the pandemic. I do not believe we can see a renewal of that contract in May."

In January, the operator reported 93 full cancellations in place by 9am, with the total figure of cancellations and disrupted trains standing at 120.

Mr Higgins, commercial director of TPE, said the point he was making with school holidays was they are peak leave seasons for drivers.

"We expect to have more drivers on leave. I am not blaming kids or schools," he told members.

He said: "We have submitted a recovery plan to Rail North Partnership and the Department for Transport.

"That recovery plan sets out how we will work to return service levels for communities and customers back to the levels that they expect and deserve."

But he said the plan was 'an acknowledgement that since the December 2022 timetable, performance has not been acceptable to customers and stakeholders'.

"Many of the actions within the plan are in hand and are aimed at reducing the levels of cancellations.

“The plan does contain a recovery trajectory. There will be a period by period reduction in driver-related cancellations through the spring and into the summer.

"There are also some high leave periods to be mindful of. For example, this week and next week are half-term holidays. We have obviously got the Easter holidays coming up and then we go into summer."

On the continuing strike action, Mr Higgins said: "Clearly there is still a lot of work to do to earn back the trust and confidence of our customers and stakeholders.”

The latest  figures released cover a 28-day period between January 8 and February 4. They show TPE cancelled 1,048 trains - an average of around 37 every day - using P-codes (pre-planned cancellations) during that period and there were also 312 'part-cancelled' trains, services which don't arrive at their pre-scheduled destinations.