Prime Minister's warning to rail company - get the trains sorted or you risk losing your franchise!

                                                       

What's the point of a railway station if trains don't run?

AILING train operator Transpennine has been given until May to rectify its underforming rail service.

Unless the company bring an end to the cancellations and delays, its existing contract - which terminates in that month - is most unlikely to be renewed.

This was the message from Rishi Sunak, when the matter was raised at today's Prime Minister's Questions session in the Commons.

The company seems never to have recovered since covid lockdown, and its poor service has caused months of frustration  for numerous travellers in the Grimsby area and the many other areas which its trains (supposedly) serve.

Cleethorpes MP Martin Vickers is among those who, out of despair, has called for Transpennine, which is part of First Group, to be stripped of its franchise.

An improvement plan has reportedly been drawn up, but, if so, there is scant sign yet of its having been implemented.