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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
National
Helen Pidd North of England editor

UK rail firms ordered to stop abusing train cancellations loophole

ORR TPE TransPennine Express
A Transpennine Express train prepares for departure in Edinburgh
A Transpennine Express train prepares for departure in Edinburgh. The company cancelled 45% of the 333 trains it was timetabled to run on Wednesday. Photograph: Ken Jack/Getty Images

The rail regulator has ordered train companies to stop abusing a loophole which means that any train they cancel the night before does not count in their official cancellation statistics.

The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) said train cancellations were at “record levels”, far worse than official figures suggest, driven by an increased number of unrecorded “pre-cancellations”, known as “p-coding”.

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