Fewer direct trains to Leeds

From December 9, the ‘stopping service’ between Leeds and Manchester Piccadilly will be divided into two separate trains, one between Manchester and Huddersfield and the other between Huddersfield and Leeds.

It means passengers from Leeds will not be able to reach Greenfield, Marsden and Slaithwaite stations without changing at Huddersfield for the majority of the day, and Manchester passengers to Deighton, Mirfield, Ravensthorpe, Batley, Morley and Cottingley will also have to change.

TransPennine will continue to operate fast trains between Leeds and Manchester Victoria, which stop at Dewsbury and Huddersfield.

According to the operator, the changes to the stopping service mean it will go back to what was in place before it took it over from Northern.

According to the firm, “splitting the service in this way will mean there is greater reliability overall and will enable trains to overtake one another during times of disruption”.

But the change comes amid criticism of TransPennine due to the high number of cancellations of trains which were due to stop at smaller stations like Marsden and Slaithwaite.

Its performance has also deteriorated dramatically since the chaos of the botched introduction of timetables by rival operator Northern in May.

Leo Goodwin, managing director for TransPennine Express said: “This December, our changes will be largely be a rollover of our existing timetable as our priority is running a train service our customers can rely on.”