Chaos as new rail timetable begins
THE launch of a new rail timetable descended into chaos yesterday as commuters returned to work after the weekend.
Crew shortages, strikes, signal failures and a landslip caused disruption.
The new timetable, which was launched on Sunday, has added 1,000 extra services a week.
But on its first working day the worst-hit service, according to website trains.im, was TransPennine Express which operates across the north of England and into Scotland.
At 9am, 47 per cent of the firm’s services were either cancelled or at least half an hour late.
Worse
Twitter user @leylandski fumed: “Every day you get worse. Now you’ve cancelled both my train to and from work until Jan? Why? They were during peak time, this is totally unacceptable.”
TPE has a temporary reduced timetable on some routes as a maintenance backlog and infrastructure problems have delayed staff training on new trains.
The problems recalled last year’s timetable launch which caused meltdown particularly on Northern Rail and Govia Thameslink routes into London, with an inquiry by the Office of Rail and Road saying the whole industry had made mistakes.
Yesterday an early morning shortage of drivers
forced Northern to cancel some services.
More than half of strikehit South Western trains were more than five minutes late by 9am, while a landslip blocked the line between Epsom, Surrey, and Motspur Park, south-west London.
Great Western Railway (GWR) had cancellations and delays between
Reading and London Paddington due to a signalling fault at Maidenhead.
GWR and Transport for Wales reported a slew of cancellations and delays when the new timetables were launched on Sunday.
Anthony Smith, of watchdog Transport Focus, said: “Passengers don’t care what causes the disruption – they
just want things running again and plenty of visible staff to help them.”
Industry body the Rail Delivery Group said day-today problems rather than timetables were to blame.
Director Robert Nisbet said: “More services are running than before.”
WINTER is never kind to the rail system. But the new timetable yesterday got off to a dismal start with many delays and cancellations.
We understand that running the rail network is a huge logistical challenge. Illness causes staff shortages and poor weather leads to problems – including those notorious “leaves on the line” announcements.
But it’s not an auspicious start, and particularly poor that the Transpennine Express had the worst disruption, with 47 per cent of services affected, emphasising the new Government’s desire to upgrade northern infrastructure.
With expensive trains, byzantine ticketing and an excess of engineering works and replacement buses, rail passengers have long suffered. Our economy is dependent on our trains, and we also need people to go by rail as part of our carbon reduction plans. The Government should raise the rail game as a matter of priority.