Calls for rail strikes to end as TransPennine Express taken into government control

There are calls for the new Managing Director of TransPennine Express to spend his first few days in the post coming to an agreement with train drivers to end the strikes.

It comes as the Government Operator of Last Resort (OLR) officially took over yesterday (Sunday 28 May) after TransPennine Express lost its contract earlier this month.

The government announced on 11 May that TransPennine Express would not be getting its contract renewed after months of significant disruption and cancellations.

TransPennine Express, which was previously owned by FirstGroup, covers northern England and some of Scotland.

It has been badly affected by drivers who are members of the ASLEF union no longer volunteering to work paid overtime shifts.

Henri Murrison from the Northern Powerhouse Partnership says the priority now is for an agreement to be made with the union so that services can start to improve.

Mr Murrison said: "I'm really clear that I expect the new manager, who is responsible for this business and his bosses at the operator of last resort, the people who own the franchise on behalf of the government,  to get their act together and get an agreement implemented."

Mr Murrison did acknowledge that more drivers are needed to help the line see a significant improvement, but that industrial action has meant new staff members had not been able to be trained up.

Whilst there is an industry shortage of train drivers, the issue is thought to have particularly affected TransPennine Express due to the extension of services and routes to places such as Saltburn.

Mr Murrison is calling on the government, not only as the TransPennine OLR, to sort the pay issues facing those in the rail industry in order to improve services across the board.

He added: "All the ongoing dispute to TransPennine is costing us millions a week to the Northern economy. Every day of additional strike action costs our businesses significant amounts of lost income, that just isn't good enough.

"What I want to see is this dispute to be brought to a conclusion and then we can start to make sure these local issues, the actions short of strike on TransPennine, and the national dispute which affects TransPennine and Northern with both the RMT and ASLEF can be dealt with."

More train strikes are expected this week on Wednesday 31 May and Saturday 3 June.

In response a spokesperson for the Department for Transport said: "The Transport Secretary and Rail Minister have facilitated talks and there continues to be a fair and reasonable offer on the table, yet the RMT leadership’s refusal to allow their members a vote on this offer is needlessly prolonging this dispute.

“It’s extremely disappointing that for the second time in a month, the RMT has decided to call strikes on the same weekend as ASLEF, going out of their way to make travelling by train to the FA Cup final, Epsom Derby and a number of music concerts more difficult for thousands of people.”

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