Rail travellers across the North West of England and Scotland are set to experience an amended temporary timetable for TransPennine Express across the West Coast Mainline route, as the operator aims to provide services with greater stability and certainty.
This revised timetable will be temporary whilst the operators combat the recent disruptions to services caused by a range of issues such as the sustained high levels of sickness and a training backlog as a direct result of Covid. Due to these collective issues, the operator has seen a number of on-the-day or ‘evening before’ cancellations being made across its services, inconveniencing passengers routinely. Service cancellations such as these are expected to be significantly reduced under this temporary amended timetable.
The revised plan, which is being brought in from Monday 12 September, will mean a number of changes for those using TPE’s services on the route between Manchester/Liverpool, Preston, Lancaster, and Edinburgh/Glasgow.
Jerry Farquharson, Service Planning & Performance Director at TransPennine Express, said:
“Our customers want reliable and punctual train services, and we are sorry that we have not been able to provide that due to the ongoing issues.
“In normal circumstances, we have enough people to fully operate our scheduled timetable, however the combination of factors has put unprecedented pressure on our ability to operate a consistent service.
“This temporary amended timetable for our services between the North West of England and Scotland will help us provide more stability and certainty for customers travelling on this route.
“We have put in place measures to communicate this revised timetable to any affected customers and believe that by bringing this timetable in, we will help customers have more confidence and certainty in the delivery of our services.”
Due to these temporary timetable changes, rail travellers are being advised to plan journeys ahead of time to ensure their journeys face as little disruption as possible. Customers can access the new timetable and plan their journeys via the information provided on the TPE website.
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