UK: TransPennine Express has confirmed that it expects to begin reinstating services to meet commitments it made when it announced temporary timetable reductions in December 2023.
Good progress has been made with crew training which will allow the operator to begin to restore services from June 2. June is the new mid-year timing for national timetable changes, replacing the traditional May slot. Further services will be reinstated with the December 2024 timetable change.
Confident that the company can begin to ‘build back’, Managing Director Chris Jackson told stakeholders at two meetings in January that as well as increasing frequency of West Coast Main Line services from 34 to 40 trains per day, the Manchester to York via Wakefield service will be increased to six trains per day and additional York – Scarborough services will run at weekends from June to September.
Other routes will see a small number of additional trains.
From December 2024, the Leeds to Huddersfield stopping service will transfer to Northern, and many services withdrawn in December 2023 will be reinstated. On the South Transpennine route, additional calls will be made at Althorpe, Crowle and Thorne South every alternate hour. There will be an hourly Manchester to York service via Wakefield, and the Edinburgh to Berwick-upon-Tweed/Newcastle service will be amended to see all trains operating between Edinburgh and Newcastle on a two-hourly basis to provide eight trains per day.
TPE has also confirmed that the stopping service between Manchester and Huddersfield is expected to transfer to Northern before the end of the decade as the Transpennine Route Upgrade project is completed. The Northern franchise ran these trains prior to 2016.
