Transpennine Express: Over 40% of firm's trains cancelled this week

More than 40% of Transpennine Express trains were cancelled this week, figures show.

Statistics released by the company show that of 1,308 services scheduled from Monday to Thursday, 552 did not run.

The cancellations come as Labour called for the operator, which runs trains in the North of England and into Scotland, to be stripped of its contract.

A Transpennine spokesperson apologised and said it was caused by "high levels of sickness and a training backlog".

Labour's shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh said Transpennine's service had "never been worse".

On Thursday she asked for the franchise to be taken over by the Department for Transport when the train company's contract was up for renewal in May.

Rail Minister Huw Merriman said if the service "can't be turned round then decisions will be made".

On a good day, it's a journey that should take no more than 50 minutes.

But the good days are few and far between on the Leeds to Manchester railway line.

Between Monday and Thursday, Transpennine Express cancelled 552 services of the 1,308 trains it runs across a three-route network

I travelled from Leeds to Manchester and arrived at Leeds to find a deserted platform, passengers shunning trains as a result of back-to-back cancellations.

A staff member advised me there were no direct services to Manchester for another hour and 10 minutes, suggesting I take the stopping train to Huddersfield and change there.

The three-carriage service slowly made its way across West Yorkshire, predictably crowded with a mixture of students heading to college and longer distance travellers attempting to reach Manchester, Manchester Airport, Warrington and Liverpool.

One passenger, Heather, told me her four previous services had been cancelled so she had to text her boss explaining she would be late into work again.

At Huddersfield, we all got off at the station - where the platform clock is not working and the automatic machines are out of order.

Another passenger, Richard Smith, explained he had been using this route for 33 years and this is the worst he's ever seen it.

Sitting on a platform bench, cup of coffee in hand, he'd spent the last hour and a half waiting for a train to take him to work in Leeds.

Eventually a new "Nova" train heading to Manchester turned up, worryingly quiet.

It passed under the snow covered Pennines and arrived at Victoria a few minutes late at 09:35 GMT - a Leeds to Manchester journey time of just over two hours to cover 43 miles (69km).

On the wall at the exit from the station is a huge tiled map showing the routes of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company.

It was merged with bigger rivals in 1923. but you can't help wondering if getting between two of the North's biggest cities a century ago was this difficult.

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