Under-fire train operator TransPennine Express cancelled the equivalent of one in six services across most of March, new figures showed today.
The statistics follow renewed calls from Greater Manchester and the north for TPE to be stripped of its contract when it expires at the end of May.
The Manchester Evening News revealed in February that the train operator cancelled almost a quarter of all its trains in a month, including more than 1,000 the night before they were due to run.
READ MORE: Join the FREE Manchester Evening News WhatsApp community
Now new Office of Rail and Road (ORR) data has been published, which reveals the company's cancellation score from March 5-31 was 17.0 per cent when adjusted to include pre-cancellations due to train crew shortages.
TPE passengers have suffered from widespread delays and cancellations over the past year. The FirstGroup-owned operator, which covers an area across northern England and into Scotland, has been badly affected by drivers no longer volunteering to work paid overtime shifts.
The Department for Transport is examining a recovery plan produced by TPE, whose current contract expires on May 28.
Cancellation scores show the percentage of services that are either fully or part-cancelled, with part-cancellations counted as half a full cancellation. They have traditionally not included services removed from timetables as late as 10pm on the previous night through a controversial process known as p-coding.
In an effort to boost transparency, in February the ORR began publishing adjusted figures taking into account p-coding due to a lack of resources.
For the four weeks to March 31, TPE fully pre-cancelled 388 services for this reason. This was far more than any other operator, ahead of Transport for Wales (52), LNER (22) and ScotRail (21).
On January 20, the ORR ordered operators to change how they record pre-cancellations, but no plan has been implemented.
Labour’s shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh said: "The chaos caused by TransPennine Express is failing passengers and damaging the economy. It is absurd that people cannot rely on the train to get to work across huge areas of the north.
"This failing operator has had enough chances to turn its services around.
"Ministers must step in, put passengers first and strip TransPennine Express of its contract."
Transport Secretary Mark Harper told the Commons’ Transport Select Committee on Wednesday that he has not decided what action to take in relation to TPE’s contract extension, but 'no option is off the table'.
TransPennine Express said it submitted its recovery plan in February, which included a 'remodelled and measurable training programme'. It said currently, almost 600 drivers are employed, sickness rates have fallen and since the recovery plan was submitted, all cancellations have reduced by 44 per cent on a four-week moving average basis and on the day cancellations have fallen by more than half.
Read more of today's top stories here
READ NEXT:
- 'My son's vomiting was put down to a hangover - the next day he was dead'
- Tragedy of fit and healthy young man, 29, who died suddenly just months before his wedding
- Sticky floors, Ben Sherman shirts, Lynx Africa and cig burns - the 'cheesy' 90s night club people would love back
- Drunk teenager tried to swap seats after crashing Ford Fiesta on way home from pub
- CCTV appeal after robber with handgun threatens Post Office staff for cash
