Under-fire TransPennine Express should be stripped of its contract now, says top Labour MP

Leaving Doncaster Works in South Yorkshire in February 1923 and entering service exactly 100 years ago today (February 24), Flying Scotsman is synonymous with the golden age of rail travel and renowned as a feat of design and engineering.

Its achievements include hauling the inaugural non-stop London to Edinburgh train service in 1928, and becoming the UK’s first locomotive to reach 100mph six years later.

A century later, it's hard to imagine Sir Nigel Gresley, the designer of the iconic steam locomotive, being impressed with the unreliable train services passengers are forced to endure on a daily basis in Manchester and across the North.

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Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, who's written a poem as part of efforts to mark the centenary, said Flying Scotsman was “an emblem of when we could have pride” about the railways, adding: “My railway at the moment through Huddersfield is absolutely shameful and shambolic.”

What to do about TransPennine Express (TPE), the under-fire rail operator that runs trains from Huddersfield to Manchester, Leeds, York and the North East, was one of the big topics for political and business leaders at the Northern Transport Summit yesterday in Liverpool.

Just in the four weeks to February 4, TPE axed 1,048 services due to a shortage of train crew, far more than any operator. The firm blamed high sickness levels, a driver training programme and a lack of a 'rest day working' agreement where crews work on their days off to cover roster gaps.

But Labour's Shadow Transport Secretary Louise Haigh is unimpressed by TPE's explanations and says the issues it faces "are no different than any other operator across the