TransPennine Express has been cancelling more trains than any other operator.

The company cancelled the equivalent of 16.9% of services in the four weeks to the end of March, according to analysis of Office of Rail and Road (ORR) figures by the PA news agency.

That was ahead of Grand Central (13.8%), Transport for Wales (11.9%) and Heathrow Express (7.1%).

The best performances were by Greater Anglia (1.0%) and Hull Trains (1.2%), while the average across all operators was 3.7%.

Transport Secretary Mark Harper said his decision to take TransPennine Express services under Government control was not a “silver bullet” that will immediately solve its problems.

The ORR data backs that up as three of the five operators with the worst reliability after TransPennine Express are already nationalised.

In addition to Transport for Wales, they are London North Eastern Railway (5.4%) and Northern (4.4%).

The figures are cancellations scores, showing the percentage of services that are either fully or part-cancelled, with part-cancellations counted as half a full cancellation.

They are adjusted to include pre-cancellations due to train crew shortages made through a controversial process known as p-coding, which can happen as late as 10pm on the previous night.

Cancellation scores have traditionally not taken into account services removed from timetables in this way, but adjusted figures have been published since February to boost transparency.

– These are the six train operators with the worst cancellations scores in the most recent adjusted ORR data:

1. TransPennine Express (16.9%)
2. Grand Central (13.8%)
3. Transport for Wales (11.9%)
4. Heathrow Express (7.1%)
5. London North Eastern Railway (5.4%)
6. Northern (4.4%)