'Summer of chaos' for train passengers, says mayor

South Yorkshire's mayor has said passengers are "facing a summer of chaos" after East Midlands Railway (EMR) reduced its services for the foreseeable future.

Oliver Coppard said he was "sick to death" after the train operator gave short notice of temporary cuts to services between London and Sheffield, starting today.

He said: "People are facing delays and inconvenience. We have thousands of people coming up to South Yorkshire this weekend for Tramlines, the biggest urban music festival in Europe, trying to work out how to get here."

EMR said there were "service reliability issues" with a new fleet of trains and the reduced timetable would remain in place while it works with the manufacturer.

Coppard said he had only been informed of the reduced services on Friday afternoon and EMR "had to communicate more effectively and treat people like humans".

"We still have very little detail but we are losing services and they will also be reducing the number of carriages. My officers met with the EMR stakeholder team last week and nothing was mentioned.

"Apparently this is a temporary measure but we have no idea for how long. There is never a good reason to treat passengers with so much contempt as to communicate that information so late and so poorly. We're now facing a summer of chaos on the railways."

Coppard and Henri Murison, chief executive of Northern Powerhouse Partnership, have both raised the issue with the Department for Transport.

Murison said the situation had "spiralled entirely out of control" in a letter to the rail minister Lord Henry.

"Services towards London via the East Midlands have been of significant concern to business leaders in Sheffield, Rotherham and the wider north of England.

"On too many days almost all trains have been cancelled or only run part of their journey between Sheffield and London.

"The announcement of a temporary timetable with fewer trains and fewer seats on some of the remaining services started with such limited notice. We need to see the maintenance and fleet issues resolved urgently."

EMR said issues were due to Hitachi Rail's new Class 810 fleet and their maintenance of the existing Class 222 fleet.

"We understand that these temporary timetable changes on our Intercity route may cause inconvenience, and we have worked hard to minimise the impact on customers wherever possible," said an EMR spokesperson.

"These changes have become necessary following a three-year delay in the first Class 810 trains coming into service, together with ongoing service reliability and maintenance issues across both the 810 and 222 fleets.

"These factors have impacted our ability to consistently deliver the reliable Intercity service our customers rightly expect."

EMR said it had avoided consecutive cancellations and spread service reductions as evenly as possible across Sheffield, London and Nottingham routes. The temporary timetable will be kept under regular review.

Hitachi Rail said the new fleet had been in passenger service with EMR since December 2025 and more than a third of the fleet has now been delivered.

It said: "We continue to work closely with all industry partners, implementing improvements and supporting the transition from the existing fleet to new trains.

"We remain focused on delivering the remainder of the fleet and supporting EMR as more new trains enter passenger service."

The DFT said it had asked EMR "to do everything possible" to minimise disruption and give passengers a more reliable service.

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