TransPennine Express Reviews 1,239

I travel 1st class now and have always had a good experience. 13.09 Glasgow to Manchester Airport today 23 January 26, experience elevated by Norma, our on board host, she was so friendly and kind and kept up a constant flow of drinks and snacks. An asset to your company.

I dont even know where to begin - Recently my Girlfriend was coming through to mine regularly due to unforseen circumstances. I drive so i usually go down, she does not, and living over an horu away, we thought that her getting the train would be the best option. Spoiler - it was not.

Monday - We wake up to see her train has been cancelled, so she had to get the later one which as a result meant she was late to work. That night, her return train was delayed by 15 minutes which meant she had 2 minutes to run to another platform to make her transfer as if she didnt, she wouldve had to wait 45 minutes in a freezing cold train station.

Tuesday - The train there was fine, her return however was delayed by over 30 minutes, meaning not only was she sat on a train that was not moving for 30 minutes of her day. She also missed her layover. This meant she missed her transfer, and had to wait 30 minutes for the next train - bear in mind this is early January in the north of England, it was freezing.

Wednesday - First train delayed by 10 minutes. And then her return was delayed again! for the third day in a row. It was delayed by over 20 minutes and thank god the transfer was delayed by 2 mins because it meant she could run to catch it. Otherwise she wouldve been left waiting again for the next transfer.

She finishes at 5:30, gets the train at 6, its an hour journey and some days she was not getting home until 8 because of these delays.

I dont physically understand how a train provider, a compnay who literally provides train services every day, pretty much 365 days a year, are making consistent mess ups 3 days on the trot.

Its quite frankly ridiculous - safe to say we will not be bothering with the trains again, i would rather do the pretty much 3 hour round trip to get her than let her get on the train.

I booked a first class ticket, as I am in a moonboot with a torn Achilles so can't stand for too long. 1st class was overbook so I had to stand for the duration of my journey as nobody gave up their seat for me. I also received no benefit of first class e.g water, snacks, quiet. I have requested a refund for the difference between first class and standard as was offered £6... awful customer service, awful train journey which has delayed the recovery of my Achilles. Disgusted!!! Never use transpennine if you can avoid it!

Following on from my complaint I received a reply that if I get in touch with the social media team they will look into it. TPE have all the information as this was sent as an email complaint and also through their complaints page on the website with all receipts attached. If TPE are genuine about wanting to sort out the problem (rather than make it look like they're responding to problems on TrustPilot) they would look into the information they already have and resolve it by issuing my refund that they are holding onto

Our train was delayed due to a signally problem which I appreciate was outside of Trans Pennine’s control and we missed our connecting train.

A lovely young lady called Chelsea who works for Trans Pennine trains was very helpful directing us to the next available train and reassured me about the tickets we had. She was kind, polite and professional, a real credit to Trans Pennine.

What an absolutely shambolic service.
Booked 4 first class tickets as a gift for my disabled parents.
They removed carriages so when we went to sit at our pre booked seats they didn’t exist!!
We had to stand for nearly 2 hours.
They were in agony the rest of the day.
The lady on train said she could not help as train was to full and they would not even check tickets?!
On return they didn’t have enough staff so we could not even buy water let alone glance at a menu.
I had saved up for months for these tickets to have a nice experience and it was absolutely appalling. We were all really upset.
I am so upset at this awful company.

Travel a lot with trains and public transport, never again will I use this company pathetic, train was absolutely freezing on a 4 hours journey home asked staff if there was heating to be told that’s how it is basically me and my partner was shivering the whole journey home! 4 hours! Staff didn’t care.no hot drinks available, and toilets out of order had to walk to next carriage. Toilets were absolutely filthy,Still waiting to hear back almost 3 months later AVOID

1 star is for heating, 2nd star is for the helpful staff onboard.
The service between Manchester and Liverpool in my experience the past 6 months and more endures regular delays and cancellations - especially regular cancellations of mid point stops which general means an additional 45 minutes added to my journey.
Thank you for your reply, I do claim delay repay however it is my time that is more valuable.

Returned from Glasgow to Liverpool on 1st class James was great , he looked after us and made our journey enjoyable he was very attentive and professional ensuring we were well looked after.
He is an absolute credit to your company and will definitely use this service again.
Thank you James

The worst train company in Britain. Operating dangerously overcrowded trains where booking a seat is a joke as you can’t get to them for standing people. Their reviews are appalling, if you use this train company expect the worst. The government should shut them down. Other countries trains are something to be proud of. This train company is a national embarrassment.

A low life company who have little or no regard for customers and running a functioning transport system.
I can’t believe a business that is so unreliable in operating procedures can actually survive in business.
I hope the government isn’t subsiding this awful company, if it is, then action needs to be taken.
Ps- Staff always nice and helpful.

On 6.09 from Sheffield to Manchester Piccadilly on 22/12/25. Tables dirty. Absolutely freezing cold. Don't they have heating?

I never usually write bad reviews because I don’t really see the point, but I’m doing this partly just to vent.

This is about an experience I had travelling from Liverpool to Manchester Airport.

I booked an early train with plenty of time to catch my flight. The journey involved one change at Manchester Victoria, with an 11-minute connection, which should have been more than enough. However, when we arrived near Manchester Victoria, the train was held outside the station waiting for a signal — for 15 minutes.

I assumed it would make sense to hold the connecting train, especially as it was the same company and there were multiple passengers making the same connection. Instead, we were told “sorry” and given two options: wait 50 minutes for the next train or take the tram, which takes 56 minutes. I had no choice but to take the tram and pay for it myself.

I can only claim back 25% of my journey, which barely covers anything — but that’s not even the worst part. If I had missed my flight because of this delay, they wouldn’t be liable at all. There’s absolutely no consideration for passengers. They won’t delay another train to avoid extra claims, but they’re perfectly fine with people missing flights because “it’s not their fault”.

Another thing that really annoyed me happened before the journey even started. Due to a cancellation, they announced that passengers must make sure they get on the correct train and that switching trains would not be allowed. Despite the disruption, they still wouldn’t allow passengers to transfer — another example of pure greed.

I’d honestly recommend paying extra for a direct train with Northern Rail if you can. Trust me, you don’t want to have to create a separate account just to claim compensation, fill out forms, upload PDFs, and then retype all the information from the PDFs into a text box anyway.

I don’t feel any better after writing this, but I’m still going to post it.

Train yesterday morning from Darlington to York was absolutely shocking. Every single seat full, and people (including me and my girlfriend) having to stand in the aisle. Couldn't even get to my reserved seat to ask the person sat there to move because of the aisles being full. Why sell so many tickets for your trains if you know they aren't all going to be able to fit. Completely ruins your company image and just makes you look like a total moneyhungry company. Totally unacceptable.

Staff member in 1st class on the 13.21 from Manchester Piccadilly was Ben. He was such a lovely, attentive, friendly, well mannered member of staff. Made our journey so much more enjoyable because of him.

It took me 20 minutes to submit a compensation claim because the website kept refreshing and removing form entries. I eventually gave up. They intentionally made a bad website so people give up on their claims.

Late again missed connection weak in weak out absolutely shocking. No option to get refund

First class food services are ridiculous. Our recent trip saw no hot drinks (morning train) on either leg of the journey. The food in the morning was bearable but the return leg was ridiculous. It was an empty carriage bar my family of 4 and 2 other adults. There was so little food except for cheeseboards (great for daily intolerant folks!) which is crazy when we prebooked the seats so TPE were aware that we would be on board! Would not recommend and will do everything within my remit to never book again! It was in no way worth the hefty price tag..

Train from Redcar to Manchester Airport ,Thursday 4th Dec.
It was Cancelled about 15 mins before Train was due.
It said only going as far as York.
A few weeks before it was cancelled and we were going to York...had to get 2 other trains instead.
Although the money was returned for the Manchester Train,we had to drive instead.
Luckily weren't relying on this Train to catch a flight.
Not reliable at all.
When they do arrive they become very overcrowded .
Come on Transpenine...you used to be better that this.

Travel to Leeds on 30/11 but train stopped at York and after approx 35 mins told service cancelled all off train, make your own way to Leeds. Impossible to speak with customer service, claim for refund rejected as ticket used(partly) now told to put in delay repay and claim any additional costs separately. Why is system so complicated, no wonder people don’t claim. First time I’ve tried to claim even though had many delays in the past with Transpennine.