for many rail commuters, like these in marston in west yorkshire, getting around has become an ordeal and notjust on strike days. trains are always cancelled, you can t rely on them. i go to work to manchester, i only go one day a week but it s still a nightmare. i would probably go in a bit more to work if i could get the trains, it s absolutely shocking at the moment. i don t feel like it s train service at all. it s just incredibly dire and stressful for commuters. train cancellations in britain have reached record levels. the industry blames covid delaying the training of drivers, staff sickness, and factors like winter weather, plus the knock on impact of strikes. transpennine express, which runs services around the north of england and into scotland, has been making dozens of cancellations each day for months. the northern powerhouse partnership, campaigning business group, claims today that the operator s problems are costing the economy in west yorkshire £2 million a
there are growing calls for the train company transpennine express to have its contract revoked after more than 40% of planned trains were cancelled this week. the operator, which runs trains in the north of england and into scotland, has apologised and said high levels of sickness and a training backlog caused the issues. spencer stokes has been on board to see what commuters have been making of the disruption. 7.20 in the morning and the manchester bound platform at leeds is deserted. passengers appear to be staying away as a result of back to back train cancellations. the next fast train to manchester won t leave for an hour. crossing the pennines involves getting an overcrowded, stopping train. how long will this 43 mile journey take? on board, we meet heather, heading to work in huddersfield. i have just let my boss know i will be late, there was nothing we can do about it, they are understanding but it is a consistent issue and getting worse. i never had to do this be
theirjourneys being told not to travel unless their journeys are being told not to travel unless theirjourneys are essential and there are no trains at all running out of london s king s cross. across europe, the heatwave has brought deadly wildfires in france, spain, portugal and greece, with thousands forced to flee their homes. and we ll be answering your questions about how to keep cool and safe in these record temperatures. also this lunchtime. pay rises are about to be announced for more than two million public sector workers, including doctors, nurses and teachers. conservative mps are voting now in the party leadership race, whittling the current four contenders down to three. and laura muir wins the first medalfor great britain at the world athletics championships. and coming up on the bbc news channel, ben stokes plays his final one day international for england later in their series opener against south africa at the cricket grounds where it all began. good afterno
response to the robb elementary mass shooting. and we re looking closer at the state of president biden s agenda amid more dismal polling with the midterms less than four months away. we ll discuss with senator lujan. we are going to begin with the major new developments in the investigation into the january 6 attack. nbc news has now confirmed the names of the two star witnesses who are expected to testify during thursday s primetime committee hearing according to a source familiar with the plans. they are sarah matthews and matthew pottinger who is a former member of the national security council. both worked in the trump white house and both resigned in the wake of the attack on the capitol. thursday will be the first time either will have spoken publicly to the committee. committee chairman bennie thompson is also revealing more of the panel s future plans which include likely releasing a scaled back report of its findings followed by a final report. each potentially in