Labour has said it would take rail operations under state control as contracts expired if it were in government. The DfT said the decision to bring TPE under operator of last resort was a temporary move and the government intended for it to return to the private sector. Ministers have been keen to retain the involvement of FirstGroup, a British company that owns four big train operating companies including Avanti West Coast and Great Western Railway and is considered a linchpin of the privatised railway system in the UK. Mark Harper – who is not a stupid man – knows full well that the fault lies not with this trade union, but at the door of the company and its desperately poor managers.” Whelan said: “The company … has got exactly what it deserves today. Mick Whelan, the general secretary of Aslef, welcomed the decision not to renew the TPE contract but hit out at the transport secretary for his comments. However, the department said some of the problems were out of TPE’s control – particularly a backlog of recruitment and training of drivers, and the dispute over rest-day working. Despite slight improvements, the DfT said that to achieve the “performance levels passengers” deserved and that the northern economy needed, both the contract and the underlying relationships “must be reset”. The DfT said it had taken steps to improve services, with the operator having launched a recovery plan in February. “This is not a silver bullet and will not instantaneously fix a number of challenges being faced, including Aslef’s actions which are preventing TransPennine Express from being able to run a full service – once again highlighting why it’s so important that the railways move to a seven-day working week.” “In my time as transport secretary, I have been clear that passenger experience must always come first,” he said. Harper said the move would not fix the TPE service overnight and blamed the train drivers’ union Aslef for some of the issues. Passengers and politicians across the north had called for change, with jobs and lives blighted by trains that failed to run.Īlmost one in four passenger journeys across Britain will now be on state-operated trains, including in Wales and Scotland, with the Department for Transport’s operator of last resort already running LNER, Northern and Southeastern services. The contract for TransPennine (TPE), which is owned by FirstGroup and runs trains across the north of England and into southern Scotland, will expire on 28 May.
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