Under-fire train operator TransPennine Express faced a grilling from councillors at a transport committee meeting today - with one claiming there was 'no confidence' in the company or its plans ahead of the introduction on Sunday of the new nationwide rail timetable.
The mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham, meanwhile, confirmed in a message sent to the meeting that he would be asking for the company's 'contract to be terminated when it expires in May' unless there's a major reduction in cancellations by February.
He called the current performance by rail operators serving Greater Manchester 'unacceptable and worse than the May 2018 timetable fiasco'. "People are losing faith in rail travel and have been forced into using their cars or not travelling at all," he said in his message to the Greater Manchester Transport Committee, which was read out.
READ MORE: Avanti West Coast staff 'have no confidence train operator can improve', union says
Mr Burnham said TransPennine Express (TPE) was 'still failing to provide frequency and reliability for passengers' and an 'urgent agreement on rest day working was required in the short term'.
He also referenced Avanti West Coast, which has been placed on notice until April next year, and its vow to reintroduce three trains an hour between Manchester Piccadilly and London Euston by the end of this month.
"We are approaching a critical period with the new rail timetable coming in on Sunday, so it is time to set a clear test for the train companies," he said. "On Avanti, unless they restore three trains an hour by the end of December, I will be calling for the cancellation of their franchise and for the Government to bring in an Operator of Last Resort.
"Customers cannot wait until April to see the drastic improvements needed. On TransPennine Express, we need the Government to issue the same explicit warning to the operator by putting them on notice with clear, measurable expectations for how they must perform.
"Unless there has been a major reduction in cancellations by February, I will also be asking for their contract to be terminated when it expires in May."
George Thomas, business development director at TPE, attended Friday's meeting in person and apologised as he admitted the start of the new timetable from Sunday would be 'challenging'.
It comes as at least 47 TransPennine Express train services have either been fully cancelled or amended today - Friday. The train operator confirmed on Thursday night 29 services would be fully cancelled. A further 18 will be amended, with further short-notice cancellations and amendments to services likely throughout the day.
Mr Thomas told councillors on the committee: "We definitely recognise that the impact that the current performance situation is having on our customers and the communities we serve, it's clearly not where we want to be. There is a huge amount of hard work going on right now and over the coming weeks to try and put this in a better position."
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He pointed to a training backlog, sickness, mental heath and a larger number of people leaving the business than they expected.
"From the new timetable, we will be taking some additional measures to provide a more resilient service," he added, saying the new timetable would 'start with 507 drivers, rising to 528 by the end of February'.
He was asked by Rochdale councillor Phil Burke how confident TPE was in delivering its new timetable - and whether the public should have faith in its services. "It's disgraceful how you have been treating the public and the public deserves better," coun Burke said. "It's clear from this meeting that members have no confidence in TPE and the new timetable."
Mr Thomas admitted 'the start of the timetable is going to be challenging'. "It's not going to immediately get better, so we do recognise that," he said. "We are working extremely hard to put that right."
He was quizzed on what exactly the sicknesses were and why staff were leaving. "It just isn't good enough that people are being treated in this way, and I just don't understand why it isn't being dealt with," said another councillor.
Mr Thomas said a lot of the sickness issues were people with 'long term challenges' and said TPE was looking to speed up care with private appointments. Recruitment and training of drivers also takes a 'considerable amount of time', he added.
He said 'short-formed' trains were down to issues on the day and so-called 'P-coded' trains - cancelled the day or night before - arose from issues identified the day before.
Stockport councillor David Mellor said: "It's plain as day now isn't it that your ability to deliver the December timetable has disappeared? I think that's as clear as day.
"My fear is that if you struggle to provide the services we are going to have a knock-on effect elsewhere on the network. If you are going to be struggling, what is going to be the wider impact on the whole railway network within Greater Manchester?" I fear if TPE can't, the whole thing is going to collapse."
Mr Thomas said TPE had been working on its new timetable for 'a long period of time' and lessons had been learnt. Resilience, he said, should be much improved. "We have also gone through a detailed contingency planning exercise," he added. "We are in a much stronger position than maybe we have been on other occasions."
Stockport councillor Angie Clark said in terms of mental health, it wasn't healthy for staff to be working in an 'atmosphere where they don't know if the train that they are scheduled to work on is going to be running'. "They are the ones that have to deal with the angry passengers," she said. "It's no wonder their mental health is impacted.
"Even when you are on the train, even when you think it is going to where you think it is going to take you, it often does not. It seems that we have reason after reason after reason why you are not running a decent service."
Oldham councillor Howard Sykes said the situation was 'having a massive impact on terms of our economy'. He said other rail operators were invited to attend today's meeting, but didn't turn up.
Mr Thomas said the new timetable would be 'challenging at the outset, but it is the right structure'. "We are working extremely hard in the background and we do have a robust plan there to get things back on track," he said.
TPE said the planned changes would see the introduction of a small number of additional services per day across the network.
Key to this, it added, would be the return of several services on the West Coast Mainline between Manchester (including the airport) and Scotland, as well as the extension of the Cleethorpes services to Liverpool Lime Street via Warrington.
A spokesperson said: "Prior to December 2021 TransPennine Express (TPE) had posted its best ever performance results, and was subsequently recognised as “Train Operator of the Year” at the Rail Business Awards.
"Since then, prolonged disruption affecting our services has been caused by a range of issues including ongoing high levels of train crew sickness, a persisting training backlog as a direct result of Covid, and infrastructure issues outside of TPE’s control. Combined, these factors have seen a number of on-the-day or 'evening before' cancellations being made. In normal circumstances, we have enough people to fully operate our scheduled timetable – and have more drivers now than ever before – however the combination of factors has put unprecedented pressure on our ability to effectively operate our services.
"Our customers want, and deserve, reliable and punctual train services, and we are sorry have not been able to consistently provide that due to the ongoing issues. TPE’s team continues to work flat-out to deliver higher levels of service delivery and to tackle the issues that are being experienced by customers."
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