The MP for Corby says his constituents are being 'stranded and left out of pocket' by cancelled services on East Midlands Railway, which he says should be renationalised as soon as possible.

The operator, which is owned by Transport UK Group, was originally run by Abellio, but it withdrew from the UK market.

Labour MP Lee Barron has written to the transport secretary, urging her to end EMR's contract, saying that EMR is 'failing'.

The operator has been struggling with problems on its new Class 810 Aurora fleet, and the RMT has called industrial action in protest, saying that on-board safety systems are prone to failures, cutting communication links between drivers, despatchers and other control staff, and that three such failures were logged in the third week of July alone. Railnews understands that resetting safety systems on the 810s takes about 20 minutes, and during this time the systems involved are isolated.

EMR has said any suggestion that the Class 810 fleet did not meet the required safety standards was ‘incorrect’. It added that it was continuing ‘to engage in discussions with RMT regarding this dispute’.

Meanwhile, EMR reduced its timetables so that they could reflect the actual situation more closely, although some axed services were restored at the end of August.

EMR said: 'We recognise that recent performance has fallen below the standard we, and our customers, expect.

'A combination of factors has affected services in recent periods, including instances of extreme hot weather and a number of infrastructure issues across the wider rail network.

'We are committed to improving the experience for customers on the route and are investing £30 million to transform our EMR Connect fleet. We recognise the frustration that disruption causes and are working closely with our industry partners to improve reliability and minimise the impact on customers.'

The Department for Transport said it had asked EMR to do everything it can to 'resolve the issues as quickly as possible to minimise the impact and give passengers a more reliable service'.

No date has yet been announced for EMR to be renationalised.

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