TransPennine Express boss promises four fast trains an hour between Manchester and Leeds WILL return in December

The boss of TransPennine Express has promised to restore its four fast trains an hour between Manchester and Leeds, a year after the service was scaled back to tackle its chronic reliability issues.

Services taken out of the state-run rail operator's timetable eight months ago are set to be reinstated this December, promises Managing Director Chris Jackson, after successful work to reduce its massive backlog of driver training.

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TransPennine Express (TPE) was taken into public ownership by the Government just over a year ago amid fury from passengers and Northern leaders over its regular cancellations and delays.

Speaking on The Northern Agenda podcast Mr Jackson says the firm was cancelling 25% of its trains each day because of a lack of drivers trained on all its routes and a breakdown of relations with unions which meant drivers refused to work on their days off.

The rest day working agreement was finally reinstated last June and runs until next March, something he said "really helped to stabilise performance and reduce cancellations to much more acceptable industry average levels".

Listen to the full interview with Chris Jackson on The Northern Agenda podcast here:

But the scale of the training backlog meant that last October TPE announced it would cut back its timetable from 320 services a day to 300 across the network, meaning only three fast trains an hour would run on its core route across the Pennines.

Mr Jackson said the four fast trains an hour - running on the hour and then every 15 minutes - would return this December, along with services from Scarborough and York into Manchester and a new service between York and Manchester