Town's station worst for train delays, TVCA hears
LDRSAbout two in five trains were recorded as arriving late to the Tees Valley's worst railway station for delayed services.
Yarm had the highest percentage of delayed trains in the area, according to documents presented to the transport committee of the Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA) on Tuesday.
A report showed only 58% of trains calling at Yarm in January arrived within three minutes of the scheduled time. Over the rest of 2025, the proportion of timely trains fluctuated between 61% and 69%.
The committee heard the station was served by Transpennine Express as part of a long-distance line running through Leeds and Manchester, which could bring "significant performance risk".
However, the station was also recorded as regularly having the lowest rate of cancelled services - between 0.1% and 5.2% over the months of 2025.
Operator Grand Central, which runs services stopping at Hartlepool and Eaglescliffe, saw just 61.1% of services within the Tees Valley arriving on time or within three minutes of schedule.
The Middlesbrough to Saltburn route was described as being the best performing in the area.
'Tough target'
Alan Weston, head of transport at the TVCA, said timetable changes planned for December would see train frequency increase, but added services needed to be more reliable.
He said the performance target measured, which requires trains to arrive within three minutes of schedule, was "challenging".
"It could be that the vast majority [of delayed services] were in that four to 10 minute category, so not ideal, but again, not kind of half an hour," he said.
The meeting also heard the number of people using the Teesflex service had dropped, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
Teesflex is an on-demand bus service, run by Stagecoach and subsidised by TVCA, where customers can request a trip from an app and journeys can be shared with other passengers making similar trips.
Figures showed the numbers of trips completed had peaked at about 8,000 in early 2023, but a downward trend saw a steady dip to fewer than 4,500 trips in summer 2025.
Redcar and Cleveland Labour councillor Carl Quartermain asked what the reason for the trend was.
Mr Weston said it was "difficult to attribute" and suggested details of the number of services requested should be checked against the number of completed trips.
The service is due to expire in March and discussions about its future are set to take place soon.
