Regulator: TransPennine still fails to deliver reliable journeys

TransPennine Express (TPE) cancelled more than one in eight trains over the summer, according to figures that show much of Britain's railway is "still not delivering reliable journeys".

- Gwyn Topham

Nationally, fewer than seven in 10 trains ran on time and 3.5% of trains were cancelled on the day of service between 1 July and 30 September, which was slightly better than in the same period last year, figures from the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) showed.

The misery for rail passengers in the north of England, in particular, where drivers' strikes will halt most services today, was underlined by the ORR figures. Avanti remained the least punctual of all the big train operators, with TPE only marginally better.

There were signs of improvement Avanti performed significantly better than in the summer of 2022 in terms of punctuality and cancellations.

Along with TPE and Northern, Avanti attempted to run about 15% more trains than last year.

Among the main train operators, Cross Country had the worst cancellations score of 7.5% on the basic measure, followed by Northern, the Elizabeth line and TPE.