Second UK train operator to cut services amid staff shortages

A second major UK train operating company has been forced to cut its services because of staff shortages, a move that will intensify pressure on the railway industry and disruption faced by passengers.

Transpennine Express, which runs regional services in the north-west of England and Scotland, said on Monday that it would cut almost one in four of its trains to some destinations from September 12.

The cuts will pile fresh pressure on the rail industry, which has suffered a summer of widespread disruption following the biggest strikes in a generation and the near-collapse of services on Avanti West Coast, one of the UK’s busiest intercity rail lines, because of driver shortages.

TPE will cut nine of its 40 daily services that use the West Coast mainline, including some trains between Manchester and Glasgow, Liverpool and Preston and Manchester airport and Lancaster, according to an email sent to industry stakeholders and seen by the Financial Times.

The company blamed “sustained high levels of sickness”, a training backlog and reduced staff flexibility after failing to agree overtime arrangements with drivers. It added that the new timetable would help inject reliability into its operations following a series of last-minute cancellations.

“In normal circumstances, we have enough people to fully operate our scheduled timetable, however the combination of factors has put unprecedented pressure on our ability to operate a consistent service,” Jerry Farquharson, service planning and performance director at TPE, said in a statement.

The new disruption comes after Avanti, which runs services from London to cities in the north of England and Scotland, last month sharply reduced its timetable after fewer drivers signed up to work on their rest days. Services between Manchester and London were cut from three to one an hour.

TPE’s changes mean services in and out of Manchester will be hit from several directions at once. Henri Murison, chief executive of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership lobby group, drew parallels with May 2018, when a new timetable sent the northern rail network into meltdown and caused “huge economic damage to the north of England”.

“This is a repeat,” he said, adding that the current situation was “cutting off Manchester by rail. For hotels and restaurants, as well as the wider leisure economy, it is another blow.”

Avanti’s managing director Phil Whittingham resigned last week following a month of chaos on the busy intercity lines, but the company has not set out a plan to restore its services.

The Labour party has called on ministers to consider stripping Avanti’s owners of their management contract to run services, but industry executives expect the contract to be renewed next month after the train operator worked closely with the Department for Transport to introduce the service changes.

TPE said customers with booked tickets would be contacted directly and be able to access a full refund.

TPE is owned by UK-listed First Group, which is also the largest shareholder in Avanti. First Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The DfT did not immediately reply either to a request for a response.