Why TransPennine Express ‘change’ is admission Leo Goodwin failed passengers
From: Henri Murison, Director, Northern Powerhouse Partnership.
THE changes made by First Group, with Leo Goodwin leaving his position as managing director of TransPennine Express, is a welcome signal that the reckless shambles of the last December timetable change and previous errors in leadership, such as resisting legitimate Press and wider scrutiny, have been rightly put at his door (The Yorkshire Post, March 5).
He was warned by elected leaders in West Yorkshire, he was warned by experienced operational leaders in the rail industry; yet he still started running a timetable without necessary workforce agreements or enough trained drivers for instance.
The wider First Rail business have an otherwise much better reputation on other parts of the rail network.
It is right to assume that as they are getting a grip that improvements for their long suffering customers here in the North can’t be far behind, with engineering work linked to Trans Pennine Route Upgrade in the coming years requiring a customer-focused business working in close partnership with Network Rail.