“Alistair Gordon, UK chief executive of Keolis, which operates the TransPennine Express with First Group, said the line connecting Newcastle with Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool is so busy that he recently saw a woman faint on board. “Try getting on a train . . . and some days you just can’t,” he told the Financial Times. The problem, he said, is a chronic shortage of trains.

The company cannot find extra carriages for its diesel services. “There is not enough diesel rolling stock in the country.”  Furthermore, from April TransPennine will lose nine of its 70 trains to Chiltern Railways in Oxfordshire, after Chiltern struck a deal with the train leasing company that owns them. The three car sets each seat around 200 passengers. Government figures show the franchise has become one of the most overcrowded in the country, after doubling passenger numbers in a decade to 26m a year. Financial Times 13th October (behind paywall)