TransPennine Express to be brought back under government control due to litany of failures

The government announced on 11 May that it’s taking TransPennine Express under its control. It’s blaming persistent delays and cancellations on its lines.

The Department for Transport (DfT) will take over the running of services, which link the east and west halves of Northern England, from May 28.

TransPennine Express: last resort

Tory transport secretary Mark Harper said:

After months of commuters and northern businesses bearing the brunt of TransPennine Express continuous cancellations, I’ve made the decision to bring TransPennine Express into Operator of Last Resort.

An Operator of Last Resort is a business that runs a railway franchise on behalf of the government when the operating company is no longer able to do so. The government has stated that it plans to return the franchise to the private sector at a later date.

The DfT stated that:

While some improvements have been made over the past few months, it has been decided that to achieve the performance levels passengers deserve, and that the northern economy needs, both the contract and the underlying relationships must be reset.

And went on to say:

The decision to bring TransPennine Express into the control of the Operator of Last Resort is temporary and it is the government’s full intention that it will return to the private sector.

Blaming the strikes

TransPennine Express said it had been badly affected by recent strikes over pay in the rail sector. Harper joined in the complaint, pointing the finger at the ASLEF (Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen) union.

Labour’s Ashley Dalton was quick to remind everyone that it’s not the union’s responsibility to make up for poor management:

Glad to see action finally being taken on TransPennine Express, but Transport minister Mark Harper blaming @ASLEFunion is appalling. ASLEF’s responsibility is to represent members not accommodate the chronic underfunding and mismanagement of services. https://t.co/Jz9wL7PyQJ

— Ashley Dalton MP (@AshleyDaltonWL) May 11, 2023

Of course, the strikes alone can’t account for all of TransPennine’s failures. Around one in six of its services were cancelled according to recent figures. This was even higher in January and February, rising to one in four. Many of these were cancelled the night before they were due to run because of a lack of staff.

One ASLEF member highlighted this chronic understaffing and reliance on overtime:

Mark Harpers brief is wrong

TPE simply didn’t employ enough drivers, they relied on overtime which TPE opted not to renew as they didn’t want to pay the extra

TPE drivers are already working 7 days a week including Sundays inside the working week, an ASLEF aspiration for others https://t.co/GeFKSlbuw3

— Top Train Driver (@toptraindriver) May 11, 2023

Andy Hourigan, ASLEF’s TransPennine lead officer, previously spoke about the company’s dire attitude toward the union:

We have problems every day because this is a company which doesn’t know how to behave properly, manage well, or how to run a railway.

Nationalisation celebrations

Meanwhile, on social media, posters were quick to celebrate the demise of the failing TransPennine Express. Nationalisation campaign group We Own It declared victory on one of its longstanding objectives:

Victory! After pressure from campaigners up and down the country, the govt has caved and decided not to renew TransPennine Express’ contract

We’ve kept the pressure up since February, with more than 13,000 signatures on the #KickFirstOut petition to @Mark_J_Harper MP. 🧵 (1/3) pic.twitter.com/1morBaE04v

— We Own It (@We_OwnIt) May 11, 2023

Northern mayors toasted the fact that it would be easier to travel to and from their cities:

As Mayors, we have spoken up consistently for long-suffering rail passengers in the North.

I am glad the Government has listened.

We will now work with them to restore trust in train services and build a railway people can rely on. https://t.co/5WSy1hfnj9

— Andy Burnham (@AndyBurnhamGM) May 11, 2023

It’s absolutely right that this is the end of the line for Transpennine Express.

We’ve urged government to act for almost a year, as delays and cancellations damaged our economy and caused misery for commuters.

As the voice of passengers, I will continue to speak up for them.

— Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire (@MayorOfWY) May 11, 2023

Finally, people pointed to the benefits of nationalising public services like train operators – and called for more of the same:

TransPennine Express is to be nationalised after customer complaints of poor service & cancelled trains.

A good time to mention that the East Coast line in public ownership for 6 years made £1bn for the Treasury & had customer satisfaction rates of 94%.

Nationalised rail works.

— Howard Beckett (@BeckettUnite) May 11, 2023

The failed experiment of rail privatisation is falling apart for all to see.

It's time we brought the whole rail network under public ownership and control.https://t.co/DEChA6xegk

— Kim Johnson (@KimJohnsonMP) May 11, 2023

And lamented the fact that it took this long:

After months of needless damage, the Tories have finally accepted they can no longer defend the indefensible.

But this endless cycle of shambolic private operators failing passengers shows the Conservative's rail system is fundamentally broken.https://t.co/XYBWlT1xLE

— Louise Haigh (@LouHaigh) May 11, 2023

Nationalise it all

It’s striking that even the Conservatives – the party of privatisation – can recognise that public services are better off under government control. Sure, they posture about problems with nationalisation:

The idea that British Rail was inferior to privatised rail operators like TransPennine Express is a rightwing myth. Punctuality was roughly the same, trains were more frequent, overcrowding was rare, and you could actually afford the fares.

— David__Osland (@David__Osland) May 11, 2023

But, when push comes to shove – as it did with TransPennine Express – the Tories have to admit that nationalisation is the answer.

These are services we all rely on. Northern England and Scotland are meant to be connected by reliable transport. People should be able to get around without being hampered by constant cancellations brought about by dodgy, penny-pinching private operators.

Although the threat of re-privatisation still hangs over the TransPennine services, we at the Canary hope that day is never to come.

Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse.

Featured image via Wikimedia Commons/Rodhullandemu, CC BY-SA 4.0 & GFDL, resized to 1910*1000.