TransPennine Express cancelled almost a quarter of all trains in a month, including 1,048 the night before

TransPennine Express cancelled almost a quarter of all its trains in a month, including more than 1,000 the night before they were due to run, new data has revealed.

Under-fire TPE, which has now revealed a lengthy 'recovery plan' has been submitted to the Government, ranked the highest of all train operating companies in terms of cancellations by some distance in the figures published by the rail regulator.

Pre-planned service cancellations, known as P-coded trains, are removed from systems by 10pm the evening before, but crucially do not count towards official performance figures - an industry loophole which led rail bosses in Greater Manchester to claim reliability statistics from TPE were being 'masked'.

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They were designed to be used as an emergency measure but have become commonplace, to the fury of passengers who can wake up in the morning to find their planned train has been wiped from a timetable overnight.

The figures released cover a 28-day period between January 8 and February 4, the latest statistics available. They show TPE cancelled 1,048 trains - an average of around 37 every day - using P-codes during that period and there were also 312 'part-cancelled' trains, services which don't arrive at their pre-scheduled destinations.

Regulator the Office of Rail and Road said: "TransPennine Express recorded the largest difference between its official and adjusted cancellations scores for 8 January to 4 February, 2023. Its adjusted cancellations figure was more than 14 percentage points higher."

By contrast, Northern cancelled 182 trains with P-codes, with other operators in double or single figures.

The Office of Rail and Road said official cancellations data is sourced from Network Rail. The data on