Are Transpenine Express slowly but surely…improving?!

[johntea]

Today I had to go to Manchester from Leeds and back for work and had a flexible ticket on expenses so decided to put my trust in Transpenine Express for the first time in months

Outward suffered a 10 minute or so delay arriving/departing Leeds but arrived in Manchester less than 5 minutes down (or as the friendly scouse guard put it ‘we’ll just crack on and hopefully make up some time!’)

The return was smack bang on time and may have even (shock horror) arrived in Leeds a couple of minutes early!

Both services also pleasingly a double up 6 carriage set of 185s so plenty of free seats even at peak time (my previous experience was although this was meant to happen it very rarely did!)

There are still some cancellations due to ‘last minute timetable changes’ but in the whole they seem to be improving finally unless I just caught a lucky day…

 

[skyhigh]

There are still some cancellations due to ‘last minute timetable changes’ but in the whole they seem to be improving finally unless I just caught a lucky day…

They've stopped training on 68+Mk5s and have a RDW agreement now, so you'd expect to see an improvement.

 

[KevinTurvey]

Yes - My experience is that they are better now than 6 months ago on TP North, but they were dire then. Lets hope the improvement continues and more passengers return.

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

They've stopped training on 68+Mk5s and have a RDW agreement now, so you'd expect to see an improvement.

yet they are taking the red pen to the service in a few weeks though and you watch those services wont come back they will hide behind a more reliable operation.

 

[darloscott]

Had my first trip in the last few months today as I entrusted them to get me to Liverpool. Travelled from Redcar, changed in Leeds and dropped onto the one behind. All went perfectly, few minor delays due to a late running freight meant we crawled into Leeds which then knocked onto the ones behind, my Hull to Liverpool got to about 9 late but in the end clawed it all back.
The only thing that worried me somewhat was both were only 3 cars and I had an empty seat next to me the entire journey on both services. It’s going to take a while to get everyone back after such a terrible time…!

 

[hux385]

I would say that Transpenine are still very unreliable up towards Scotland, although in fairness, the issues near Morpeth aren't their fault.

 

[Blindtraveler]

It is certainly positive to hear of a couple of good journeys and heaven forbid some possible improvement but I'm one of those customers that is unlikely to return unless there is absolutely no alternative, I'm already hard wired to avoid them on the Anglo Scottish services unless traveling at a silly time or requiring Lockerbie, the latter is still possible that the former far less so now that I have relocated to Kent, and for other journey scenarios such as journeys too and from West Yorkshire, why pay the inflated fairs for a probably crowded service especially after the December TT change when I could get a five quid advanced on the day with northern, even if this does mean the general unpleasantness of riding in a 195

 

[Iskra]

It sounds like they’re sorting the core out, but my last journey over the Hope Valley heading to the airport still had cancelled services, my train was delayed by 30mins and then my TP connection was cancelled along with some Northern services so 3 decent-sized trains worth of people had to try fit on a 2-car TFW to the airport which was as fun as it sounds.

Now, the disruption wasn’t TP’s fault, but the Castlefied corridor is totally unreliable and TPE South has less back-up options than the core route, so it’s still not a reliable enough service to rely on and isn’t helping TP’s already poor reputation.

I also have serious concerns about the Core, are these 4tph going to be run at maximum possible length? If so, it may well work, if not 3-car 185’s on that route will be like the worst days 10 years ago.

 

[danbarjon]

Had my first trip in the last few months today as I entrusted them to get me to Liverpool. Travelled from Redcar, changed in Leeds and dropped onto the one behind. All went perfectly, few minor delays due to a late running freight meant we crawled into Leeds which then knocked onto the ones behind, my Hull to Liverpool got to about 9 late but in the end clawed it all back.
The only thing that worried me somewhat was both were only 3 cars and I had an empty seat next to me the entire journey on both services. It’s going to take a while to get everyone back after such a terrible time…!

I think I was reading in their plan for the future that they want to launch a sale of ticket to get people back on the trains. I recently tried getting back on their trains telling myself they where better but my train NCL-LIV was cancelled at York so they are improving just slowly I guess..

 

[Willie Bee]

So .. would folk here happily book a trip on TPE to Edinburgh from Newcastle for January 2024 ?

I have our return journey booked (10th Jan) with LNER but no outward tickets (Sunday 7th) are available yet with LNER. Tickets are available though with TPE and at a very decent price too, £15.90 (for 2 adults with railcards) and even as low as £10.20 if we leave at about midday.

 

[Bletchleyite]

So .. would folk here happily book a trip on TPE to Edinburgh from Newcastle for January 2024 ?

I have our return journey booked (10th Jan) with LNER but no outward tickets (Sunday 7th) are available yet with LNER. Tickets are available though with TPE and at a very decent price too, £15.90 (for 2 adults with railcards) and even as low as £10.20 if we leave at about midday.

I would very much stick with LNER for that journey.

 

[Willie Bee]

I would very much stick with LNER for that journey.

Funny, that's what my wife says too ..my wallet is thinking .. that's pretty cheap

To be fair, the lunchtime trip is a bit late, so it would be the £15.90 ticket we would get .. I'll just wait and see what LNER will cost. I had set an alert on their website and got notification a couple of weeks ago about the homeward leg, but still nothing available for the outbound (Sunday) trip

 

[Bletchleyite]

Funny, that's what my wife says too ..my wallet is thinking .. that's pretty cheap

To be fair, the lunchtime trip is a bit late, so it would be the £15.90 ticket we would get .. I'll just wait and see what LNER will cost. I had set an alert on their website and got notification a couple of weeks ago about the homeward leg, but still nothing available for the outbound (Sunday) trip

Most it can be is £33.80 (Off Peak Single) but in practice there are almost certain to be Advances far cheaper than that.

 

[Gaelan]

Most it can be is £33.80 (Off Peak Single) but in practice there are almost certain to be Advances far cheaper than that.

The fares @Willie Bee quoted are for two people with railcards, so the maximum price for their journey would be £44.60 total.

So .. would folk here happily book a trip on TPE to Edinburgh from Newcastle for January 2024 ?

I have our return journey booked (10th Jan) with LNER but no outward tickets (Sunday 7th) are available yet with LNER. Tickets are available though with TPE and at a very decent price too, £15.90 (for 2 adults with railcards) and even as low as £10.20 if we leave at about midday.

From a quick look at Recent Train Times, the Sunday 09:19 TPE Newcastle-Edinburgh has not been cancelled or had a significant (> 10 min) delay since at least May 1. For the other three Sunday TPE departures, about 10% of them have been cancelled.

I'd feel reasonably comfortable booking, though I'm curious as to @Bletchleyite's reasoning for thinking otherwise.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I'd feel reasonably comfortable booking, though I'm curious as to @Bletchleyite's reasoning for thinking otherwise.

Because TPE is unreliable, and I'll believe that being sorted when I see it.

 

[DarloRich]

Yes - but train capacity remains an issue.
at least n the core (Darlington) York > Manchester section that I tend to use them on

 

[Willie Bee]

From a quick look at Recent Train Times, the Sunday 09:19 TPE Newcastle-Edinburgh has not been cancelled or had a significant (> 10 min) delay since at least May 1. For the other three Sunday TPE departures, about 10% of them have been cancelled.

I'd feel reasonably comfortable booking, though I'm curious as to @Bletchleyite's reasoning for thinking otherwise.

That's good news.
I've just taken a look on the RailUk Tickets website for the previous week (Sunday 31 Dec) and there's only a 10p difference between the TPE and LNER fares. I'll maybe wait a few more days, perhaps after this Sunday then see what's what .. and make a booking

 

[route101]

I used to take a service around 7pm from Manchester up to Glasgow, would be nice if that came back.