FURIOUS passengers have hit out over the repeated cancellations of York trains while TransPennine Express teaches drivers and conductors how to operate a new fleet.

The firm has apologised for the "pain" caused to customers by high numbers of cancelled services, which it says are being caused by an accelerated training programme for crews as it rolls out new Nova trains, and also by a number of infrastructure problems.

Passengers have taken to Twitter to vent their anger over the firm’s failure to run reliable services on routes such as Malton to York, and Thirsk to York.

One passenger tweeted: “Two services from Thirsk to York cancelled! Your so called ‘service’ is an absolute joke,” while another tweeted: “Usual carnage on @TPExpressTrains from Malton/Scarborough today. Even the first train at 06.24 cancelled. @yorkbus mercifully got me to York, then train on to Leeds. Almost 3 hour journey.”

A third complained: “More abysmal service from this wretched company,” while a fourth said: “You’ve not managed to get me to work on time one single day this week.”

Paul Hepworth told The Press he sometimes travelled from York to Malton for meetings and was at risk of being late or not attending due to current levels of cancellation.

He said that when he complained to TPE, he was told it was because the firm was currently experiencing train crew availability issues, as drivers and conductors were being rostered to train on new Nova trains.

Press reporter Ed Horner, who travels daily from Leeds to York, said: “Most days the trains are delayed and some have been cancelled, which is really inconvenient.”

TransPennine Express said it was currently running a temporary accelerated training programme for its drivers and conductors as it rolled out a new fleets of trains.

“This coupled with a number of infrastructure issues that we have been experiencing has led to a high number of cancellations,” said a spokesman.

“We acknowledge the pain that this is causing our customers and we really do apologise.

“In the coming weeks we will be increasing the number of new Nova trains that we have on our network, including on our Liverpool to Scarborough route, where we will operate up to four new trains a day, meaning that there are more seats for our customers.”

He added that problems yesterday on the Liverpool to Scarborough route had been due to a line fatality between Liverpool and Manchester and a signal fault at Malton.