Stark north-south divide in railway reliability

[Adlington]

The Guardian never misses an opportunity to remind its readers that it's grim up north:

The stark regional divide in railway reliability across Britain has been laid bare, with figures showing 20% of TransPennine Express (TPE) trains were cancelled in November, compared with 2.3% on one commuter line in and out of London and 4.5% on the London Overground.

TPE has the highest cancellation rate of any British train operating company, at 19%-30% each week. It routinely cancels up to 60 services the night before, blaming high levels of staff sickness and a driver training programme. These so-called “P-code” cancellations, which must be made by 10pm the night before, disappear from the timetable and are not recorded by the Office of Rail and Road, which compiles railway performance data.

TPE cancelled one in five trains (19%) in November. Most of those (13.8%) were P-code cancellations. During the half-term week beginning 23 October TPE cancelled 30% of all trains.

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

The Guardian never misses an opportunity to remind its readers that it's grim up north:

TPE have been a dogs breakfast since pre covid they should have been stripped of the franchise then and merged with Northern and put under OLR. Avanti have been roasted but TPE just get away with it despite have millions lavished on newest fleet of any operator but most of it sits in sidings rusting. Where are the red wall Torys calling this out in parliament.

 

[al78]

“It’s utter chaos” - why are UK trains running so badly in the north?​

 

[josh-j]

TPE have been a dogs breakfast since pre covid they should have been stripped of the franchise then and merged with Northern and put under OLR. Avanti have been roasted but TPE just get away with it despite have millions lavished on newest fleet of any operator but most of it sits in sidings rusting. Where are the red wall Torys calling this out in parliament.

Is it not the case that the government is preventing resolution of the various issues though?

TPE is a figurehead, it's the DFT who decides what they can and can't do. Perhaps that's why red wall Tory MPs don't call it out in Parliament.

 

[jackot]

I like they way it quotes that:

Figures showing 20% of TransPennine Express (TPE) trains were cancelled in November, compared with 2.3% on one commuter line in and out of London

And goes on to say...

Greater Anglia, which runs services from London to Essex and the east of England, cancelled 2.3% of trains in November. It also operates the Stansted Express, which recorded 3.7% cancellations. Neither made any P-coded cancellations.
C2C, which has the franchise for the London to Essex line, cancelled 285 trains in the same period, equating to 3.54%.

The fact they choose to compare the worst operator in the North to the most reliable examples in the South is very questionable. I appreciate that TPE have an awful record at the moment, but what about SWR, GWR or GTR? I'm sure their numbers are pretty bad too. It does really highlight just how bad TPEs reliability has got recently though.

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

I like they way it quotes that:

And goes on to say...

The fact they choose to compare the worst operator in the North to the most reliable examples in the South is very questionable. I appreciate that TPE have an awful record at the moment, but what about SWR, GWR or GTR? I'm sure their numbers are pretty bad too. It does really highlight just how bad TPEs reliability has got recently though.

GTR has its bad days but often driven by NR operational incidents or events out of control of the industry rather than own goal failures which is endemic at TPE.

 

[A0]

The Guardian never misses an opportunity to remind its readers that it's grim up north:

This would be the same Guardian which decamped from Manchester in the 1960s to London and for whom most of its writers don't know there's life outside the M25.