TRANSPENNINE EXPRESS services should be nationalised if bosses cannot fix their “abject failure” to recruit enough drivers to run trains, Aslef demanded today.

The train drivers’ union’s general secretary Mick Whelan wrote to MPs to criticise the widely condemned company for cancelling thousands of services in recent months.

Bosses paid “handsomely” by the taxpayer are denying the firm is suffering from a driver shortage and instead blaming Aslef members for the worsening situation, the union leader charged.