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A stark regional divide has been exposed in rail reliability across Britain, showing that 20% of TransPennine Express (TPE) trains were canceled in November, compared with 2.3% on a commuter line in and out of London and 4.5% in London. Overground.
Exclusive figures obtained by the Guardian show the true level of disruption suffered by passengers as they include pre-sequence cancellations made up to 10pm the night before, which are not counted in government figures.
Shadow Transport Secretary Louise Hay has called on the Government to close the loophole and withdraw contracts from failed operators.
TPE, which operates trains in the north of England and Scotland, has the highest cancellation rate of any British train operating company at 19%-30% per week. It routinely cancels up to 60 services the night before, blaming high levels of staff illness and a driver training program. These so-called “P-code” cancellations, which must occur 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.
P-codes were designed to be used in circumstances beyond the operator’s control – for example, overrunning engineering work or a landslide blocking a line. But some rail companies – with TPE the worst offender – use the code when they don’t have enough staff, misleading customers about the true reliability of their services.
Greater Anglia, which runs services from London to Essex and the east of England, canceled 2.3% of trains in November. It also operates the Stansted Express, which has canceled 3.7%. Neither has a P-coded cancellation.
C2C, which holds the franchise for the London to Essex line, canceled 285 trains in the same period, equivalent to 3.54%.
All three companies said they did not use P-codes for cancellations, which was their mistake. East Midland Railway, which canceled 2.9% of trains in November, said it had only five P-coded cancellations due to short-term train crew illness.
London Overground canceled 4.5% of trains in November. A handful of cancellations were made that day instead of using a P-code.
Train companies serving the north of England have canceled the most trains in recent weeks, the Guardian has learned. TPE canceled one in five trains (19%) in November. Most of them (13.8%) were P-code cancellations. TPE has canceled 30% of all trains during the half-term week starting October 23.
A TPE spokesperson said the company was “deeply sorry” for a service that “fell short of the expectations and demands of our customers and our stakeholders”. It blamed “longer-than-normal sickness levels and the combined effect of an unprecedented driver training burden – due to the additional requirements placed on us by Covid and the December 2022 timetable changes and TransPennine route upgrade”.
Grand Central, which operates between Bradford and London, canceled 15.7% of trains including P-codes in November. It said its figures were distorted by strikes in the first half of the month.
CrossCountry, which runs trains from Aberdeen to Cornwall, canceled 14% of all services – 972 – in November, saying it was not a P-code for train crew shortages. “CrossCountry does not support P-coding for business-as-usual, as it causes the train to ‘disappear’ from retail systems, confusing the customer,” a spokesperson said.
In March 2020, the government-run Northern Rail said it had canceled 7% of its total services between October 16 and November 12. Its on-the-day cancellation rate was 4.8% (2,418 services out of about 50,000). A further 1,252 services were removed or modified as part of planned cancellations or service improvements due to the “absence of fully trained train crews”, the spokesman said.
David Sidebottom, director of passenger watchdog Transport Focus, called for more transparency into performance data.
He said: “We are keenly aware of the impact of cancellations on passengers – particularly if they are at short notice. We are concerned that trains can be removed from the timetable up to 10pm the day before they are due to run and then not counted as cancellations in the reliability data.
“We are pushing for more transparency here, as well as for train companies to focus on running trains on time and not cancelling.”
Avanti West Coast canceled 7.7% of services in the four weeks to October 16 based on a heavily reduced timetable implemented in August. It does not use any P-codes.
Hei said the government should close a loophole that means P-coded cancellations are not reflected in official figures.
The Labor MP said: “This loophole allows operators to hide the true scale of the rail crisis across the North – that must change. It would be scandalous if performance payments were awarded on the back of this false data.
“Enough is enough – passengers have been taken for a ride for far too long. It is high time the government held these failed operators to account and started withdrawing contracts, without immediate reforms.
A Department for Transport spokesman said: “The Government is investing billions in Northern Transport and is working with train operators to rapidly recruit new drivers and put long-term solutions in place so passengers can travel confidently without disruption. The transport secretary met with the northern mayor on Wednesday to discuss the current challenges.
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