The true extent of cancellations by the Transpennine Express rail concession has been revealed in figures released by the rail regulator.
Over a four-week period, the company canceled 1,048 trains before 10pm the day before they were scheduled to operate, and part of the route on a further 312.
Since the announcements were not made on that day, these cancellations were not included in the official statistics.
Transpennine said such decisions “were not taken lightly”.
Usually these pre-planned cancellations – also called P-coding pre-cancellations – are used when an emergency schedule is needed due to bad weather or damage to the rail infrastructure.
In any case, however, the Transpennine trains running through northern England and into Scotland have been canceled due to a lack of available train crew.
The number of cancellations made in this way was far higher than any other rail operator in the four weeks to February. For example, state-owned company Northern had 182 complete cancellations, Transport for Wales 30 and LNER 17 – all due to staff shortages.
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The regulator Office of Road and Rail (ORR) released the figures and said the Transpennine cancellation rate jumped from the official 8.9% to 23.7% for the period when P-coding is factored in.
Transpennine has previously said it has only resorted to pre-planned cancellations “when resources are not available to cover advertised services in order to maximize advance notice of service changes to customers”.
It blamed the “combined effects of a persistent, above-average level of sick leave, the extensive driver training program to facilitate the delivery of the Transpennine line upgrade and a concerted lack of an overtime agreement for drivers”.
“[This has] meant that trains had to be taken out of the timetable every day due to planned cancellations.”
However, the practice has come under fire from the ORR, which first released those figures on Friday.
In January, the regulator said cancellations were at “record levels” and its investigation had “confirmed another gap between cancellation statistics and passenger experience.”
This is “due to an increased number of unrecorded ‘advance cancellations'”.
“For a passenger, this could mean that a train that they were expecting when they went to bed disappears from the timetable when they head to the station, unaware that the train has been cancelled.”
Labor and some Conservative MPs have called for the withdrawal of the Transpennine Treaty, which expires on May 28th.
Last month, Louise Haigh, Labor’s shadow transport secretary, said the service had “never been worse”.
Anthony Smith, chief executive of independent watchdog Transport Focus, said passengers were “confused and frustrated” when a train they were expected to catch was canceled the day before their scheduled journey and may well be surprised to learn that this is not the case are not considered a cancellation.
“Something like that leaves a sour taste in the mouth – and damages trust in the railways. The extent of this so-called ‘P-coding’ by some operators in recent months has highlighted the problem. We’re excited to contribute to the passenger.” Join industry discussions on how to address the regulator’s concerns.”
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