Covid and ‘industrial relations issues’ force rail operator to cut services

Rail operator TransPennine Express (TPE) is advising customers across the North to check their journeys and allow extra time to travel as it brings in a reduced timetable as a result of Covid-19.

The revised timetable will be implemented from Monday 10 January 2022, with TPE stating it is due to disruption being caused by increased levels of sickness and the ongoing impact of Covid and the Omicron variant, “as well as some industrial relations issues.”

TransPennine Express will be operating the following services as part of their amended timetable:

North TransPennine route:

Newcastle – Liverpool Lime Street, a service every hour in each direction
Redcar Central – Manchester Airport, a service every hour in each direction
Hull – Manchester Piccadilly, a service every hour in each direction
Scarborough – Manchester Victoria/Liverpool Lime Street hourly services will be replaced with a Scarborough – York hourly service, with additional peak time extensions to/from Leeds
Leeds – Huddersfield and Huddersfield – Manchester stopper services will continue to operate hourly

South TransPennine route:

Cleethorpes/Sheffield – Manchester Piccadilly/Airport will operate hourly in the AM and PM peaks and every two hours in the off-peak period
To enable rolling stock maintenance and stabling, the last service of the day between Sheffield – Cleethorpes will operate as a rail replacement bus service

Matthew Golton, managing director for TransPennine Express, said: “While we are disappointed to be making these changes and reducing services, our priority is keeping people moving and providing a greater level of certainty for our customers.

“We are sorry for any disruption this may cause to journeys and call on our customers to allow additional time for travel and to check carefully –for any changes to train times.

“We will continue to regularly review these changes in line with the current situation.”

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