THE troubled TransPennine Express (TPE) contract transferred to government control on May 28, after the decision was made not to extend FirstGroup’s contract.
In a statement on May 11, the Department for Transport (DfT) said that the decision was made following months of significant disruption and regular cancellations on the TPE network. A recovery plan had been put in place in February and the DfT said that while there had been some improvements in the past few months it was felt that to achieve the levels passengers deserve, both the contract and underlying relationships required resetting. FirstGroup said cancellations had fallen by approximately 40%.
The DfT claimed that the decision to put TPE
