Derailed... passenger pain as cancellations hit record
CANCELLED trains are at a record high on Britain’s rail network, figures revealed yesterday.
Some of the worst services failed to run more than half their trains, and nearly 80,000 were cancelled between October and December last year, causing havoc for commuters.
The Office of Rail and Road, the rail regulator, said the figures were the highest since 2014-15, when it first started to compile data.
Further research by ontimetrains.co.uk found that the 7.13am Northern service from Harrogate to Leeds was the most cancelled train in Britain.
One of the worst-performing operators was the TransPennine Express, which runs services to Durham, Newcastle and Morpeth in Northumberland.
It cancelled 12.7 per cent of services in the final three months of 2019.
Northern axed more than 5,700 services, the most of any operator, between December 15 and February 22, when a new timetable came in. Research also revealed that 49 rail services failed to run more than 50 per cent of the time. Some services were hit by winter flooding while other cancellations were blamed on lack of train crews, track flaws and faulty trains. The beleaguered company was taken into
Government control after disgruntled passengers dubbed it “Northern Fail”.
Passengers were forced to sit in toilet cubicles on packed trains, and complained investment was centred on services to London.
After it was taken over on March 1, Ellen Lees, of campaign group We Own It, said privatisation had been “disastrous” for Britain’s railways.
She said: “It’s vital that Northern stays public now, to avoid further disruption to passengers. Franchises are collapsing up and down the country. It’s time to face reality – we’ll only fix our broken railway by bringing it all into public ownership.” The 8.12pm Trans Pennine Express from Liverpool Lime Street to Preston was cancelled 19 out of 47 times, according to findings published yesterday. The 7.48am Greater Anglia service from Lowestoft to Norwich was lost 15 out of 30 times. And the 5pm South Western train from London Waterloo to Portsmouth Harbour did not run 13 out of 42 times. Official figures show 79,027 trains were cancelled in the last three months of 2019, representing 4.1 per cent of services. TransPennine Express said: “We are working very hard to get our performance back to the level that it should be.”
Greater Anglia added that in 2019 it had months of “record-breaking” punctuality and was working hard to get its service “back on track”.