Andy Burnham hails Transpennine Express contract axe a ‘victory …
Andy Burnham[1] has hailed the government decision to strip Transpennine Express[2] of its contract a 'victory' as he vowed to reshape railways in the north of England.
The Greater Manchester Mayor told Sky's Sophy Ridge on Sunday he was pleased that the Transport Secretary, Mark Harper, had 'listened' to his request to bring the train operator under public control.
It comes after months of misery for rail passengers in Greater Manchester[3] and other northern towns and cities, following continuous delays and cancellations at the hands of Transpennine.
The Transport Secretary announced on Thursday last week[5] (11 May) that train services run by TPE would be nationalised as operator Northern was in 2020. The Department for Transport (DfT) said TPE services would be brought under its Operator of Last Resort from May 28.
Mr Burnham said the decision by the government will now allow his office to 'reshape railways in the north and make them work much better for the public.'
"We have been on with a major reform of public transport," he told Sophy Ridge. "Next month I will put out a London-style integrated fair structure that will make public transport cheaper in Greater Manchester.
(Image: PA)
"And in time we can bring the trains into that integrated system. It was a bit of a victory for the mayor I have to say last week when the Transport Secretary agreed to our request to bring Transpennine Express under public control.
"That gives us a real opportunity to now to reshape the railways in the north and make them work much better for the public."
Graham Sutherland, chief executive of TransPennine Express' owners, FirstGroup, insisted the company has 'worked extremely hard to improve services', but Labour's shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh said ministers had 'finally accepted they can no longer defend the indefensible'.
An independent watchdog for transport users, meanwhile, said simply passengers had 'endured an unacceptable service for too long'. More than 20 trains were cancelled by TPE on Thursday - a fraction compared to the chaos of months gone by.
Office of Rail and Road data showed that in March TPE cancelled the equivalent of one in six services across the month,[6] after the Manchester Evening News revealed in February the operator cancelled almost a quarter of all its trains in a month, including more than 1,000 the night before they were due to run via the controversial use of so-called 'P-coding' system.
Pre-planned service cancellations, known as P-coded trains, are removed from systems by 10pm the evening before, but the system was designed to be used in the event of exceptional circumstances like a derailment as a short-term stop-gap
It led to transport bosses in Manchester claiming P-codes were being used every day, with TPE 'pulling between 50 to 80 trains a day on some days'.[7]
The Department for Transport said passengers can claim compensation for delays from TPE until May 28 but after that date, compensation claims should be made to TransPennine Trains Ltd - the new Government-owned company set up to take over the service.
The DfT says there will be no changes to ticket prices as a result of nationalisation, with prices set using the same process as before.
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