Commuters planning to travel to Yorkshire over the Easter Weekend have been warned they face disruption.
TransPennine Express (TPE) has advised people to “plan ahead” because of its reduced service.
TPE employers will be striking Easter Saturday (16th) and Easter Sunday (17th).
This will lead to significant disruption to TPE services which will predominantly affect the following Manchester routes:
The Manchester to Edinburgh line which goes through Leeds, Hull, York, Scarborough, Middlesbrough and Newcastle.
As well as the Manchester to Cleethorpes line which goes through Doncaster, Scunthorpe, Grimsby and Sheffield.
The strike action planned by the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union will leave TPE running very restricted services over the Easter period.
Customers are being urged not to travel on either of these two days, and instead, travel either side of these.
Tickets which have already been booked for the Easter Weekend will be valid for days around it.
Or if you choose not to travel, then you will be entitled to a full refund on the ticket which was affected by the strike.
Strikes are also planned if the issues surrounding conductors pay doesn’t get resolved.
This will include, Saturday April 30th, Sunday 1st May, Saturday June 4th and Sunday 5th June.
Therefore, they have advised that customers who are making essential journeys should allow plenty of extra time to travel and plan and check carefully via the TPE website or National Rail.
However, if it is essential to travel over the weekend then TPE has arranged for external train operators to accept your ticket on strike days.
For further information please follow the link here:
Additionally, if commuters have been delayed for more than 15 minutes then you can appeal to Delay Repay compensation which can be applied for here:
tpexpress.co.uk/help/delay-repay-compensation
It arises after pay disputes from conductors who are employed by TPE
Conducters are requesting an increase in pay after working on their days off and on Sunday.
This call follows on from the Covid pandemic and how conductors worked through the pandemic with a two year pay freeze enforced on them.
They are now asking for the pay gap between them and other TPE employees to be reduced due to most of them not working during the pandemic.
The union has said it’s: “The last course of action but the company has left us with no option.”
Kathryn O’Brien, Customer Experience Director for TransPennine Express said: “We are saddened that strike action by RMT is set to cause further disruption to trains over the Easter weekend, at a time when people will be relying on our services to allow them to catch up with friends or family.
“Unfortunately, we are instead urging customers to avoid travelling on both Easter Saturday and Easter, and instead make their journeys either side of the strike dates.”
More information on the strikes can be found online at:
//tpexpress.co.uk/travel-updates/strike
Featured Image: Jonny Walton
