Today in Parliament, I had the opportunity, along with some of my colleagues, to grill rail bosses on the frankly appalling service that they have been providing in our constituencies. I got to question Graham Meiklejohn from TransPennine Express on why, despite this being brought to their attention, cancellations remain unacceptably high. Graham accepted the service was unacceptable and personally apologised.
We had another in-depth discussion about the current situation with Rest Day Working and ASLEF. My understanding is the offer made by TPE in November hasn’t yet been put to ASLEF members. I also understand that the RDW agreement is entirely separate from the ongoing national discussions over pay led by the Rail Delivery Group.
TPE has said that ASLEF accepting this would make the biggest improvement to services. However, I did express my concern that they do not seem to have much of a plan in place as of yet should this be rejected.
We’ve had an awful service here in Scunthorpe for too long and it’s about time TPE got this sorted or risk losing the franchise.