TransPennine Express cancelled more than one in eight trains over the summer, according to figures that show much of Britain’s railway is “still not delivering reliable journeys”.
Nationally, fewer than seven in 10 trains ran on time and 3.5% of trains were cancelled on the day between 1 July and 30 September, which was slightly better than the same period last year, figures from the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) showed.
The misery for rail passengers in the north of England, in particular, where drivers’ strikes will halt most services on Friday, was underlined by the ORR figures. Avanti remained the least punctual of all the big train operators, with TPE only marginally better.
There were signs of improvement – Avanti performed significantly better than in the summer of 2022 in terms of punctuality and cancellations. Along with TPE and Northern, Avanti attempted to run about 15% more trains than last year.
Among the main train operators, CrossCountry had the worst cancellations score of 7.5% on the basic measure, followed by Northern, the Elizabeth Line and TPE.
However, the ORR figures showed a far higher number of “P-coded” cancellations – where services are removed from the operators’ timetables before 10pm the previous evening – on north of England services. Northern Trains’ cancellations increased from 5.6% to 8.2% adjusted for P-coded cancellations, but TPE’s rose from 5% to 13.2%.
Open access operators including Grand Central, Lumo and Hull trains also fared poorly, but only run about 10 to 20 trains a day on a single route.
The cancellation figures exclude strikes. The ORR said most cancellations were train operator related but infrastructure issues were also to blame, although Network Rail’s performance was getting better.
Feras Alshaker, the director of planning and performance at the ORR, said the data “bears out the reality that passengers in some areas are still experiencing trains not consistently arriving on time, and high levels of cancellations. However, we are beginning to see signs of improvement in Network Rail’s contribution.
“While these improvements are promising, they aren’t consistent [and] the company can do much more to ensure that Britain’s railway provides a reliable and punctual service for all its users.”
The RMT union, however, said cuts at Network Rail were affecting performance and could have safety consequences. A survey by the union found that more than 90% of Network Rail workers thought an incident was likely to happen in the next two years because of budget cuts.
Staff said they were seeing ever more broken rails, and 77% believed the railway was less safe than two years ago, according to the union. Its general secretary, Mick Lynch, said the survey showed “the real fears of our members on the frontline, as the reality of funding cuts to rail becomes clear”.
A Network Rail spokesperson said it would “have to spend wisely as there are challenges ahead”, adding: “We obviously have work to do to give [our people] the reassurances they need, but our focus on delivering the safest and best railway we can remains steadfast.”
Strikes by the train drivers’ union, Aslef, will stop all CrossCountry services on Thursday, with a very limited service running on Great Western Railway. Heathrow Express services will also be reduced.
No trains will run on Northern and TPE on Friday, the last day of the rolling strikes, which wiped out most commuter services in the south of England on Wednesday.
Services have been severely affected in some places across the country all week because of an overtime ban, which continues until the end of Saturday.
