Travellers hit by fourth day of rail misery

RAIL COMMUTERS are still being hit with more delays and cancellations after the introduction of new timetables earlier this week.

Four out of 10 TransPennine Express services up to 10am yesterday were cancelled or at least half an hour late, figures published by rail data website Trains. im showed.

It was the fourth day of disruption on the network – which runs across the North of England and into Scotland – since the new timetables were launched on Sunday.

TransPennine said the cancellations were due to train faults and a shortage of crew.

Among the stations on affected routes were York, Manchester Airport, Newcastle and Edinburgh.

The firm is currently running a pre-planned temporarily reduced timetable on some routes.

The temporary timetable is due to a maintenance backlog and infrastructure problems that delayed staff training on new trains.

A spokesman said: “Unfortunately some services were subject to delay and cancellation owing to a number of different incidents including a broken-down train at Huddersfield and a points failure between Dore and Totley and Sheffield.

“Additionally, due to a number of issues with crew training caused by the late delivery of some of our new trains, a maintenance backlog and some infrastructure issues we have had to implement a temporary timetable, cancelling a number of journeys.

“This has unfortunately made a number of other services a lot busier.

“We’re very sorry for the inconvenience this is causing our customers and we are working really hard to sort this out. As we introduce more new trains we should see an improvement to people’s journeys.”

Passengers attempting to travel with operator Northern also faced a struggle to complete their journeys yesterday.

As of 10am yesterday, only two out of every three services arrived at their destination within five minutes of the scheduled time.

Earlier this week, Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham urged the Government to show it is “serious about supporting the North” by stripping Northern of its franchise, adding that TransPennine Express should face the same action if its performance does not improve.

Industry body the Rail Delivery Group has denied the disruption affecting Britain’s railways this week is related to the new timetables.

Train timetables are changed twice a year, in May and December.