Grayling blasts rail firms for shambles over new timetable

The rail industry has ‘failed the passengers it serves’, the Transport Secretary said yesterday.

Chris Grayling said there has been ‘wholly unsatisfactory levels of disruption’ on Northern and Govia Thameslink Railway services following the bungled introduction of a new timetable on May 20.

With more than 1,000 services cancelled in a single week on Northern rail alone, Mr Grayling said the scale of the disruption has been far greater than expected.s

In two letters to MPs, he said he was ‘frustrated’ that what should have been a ‘ good news story’ has had ‘ such a poor start’.

Commuters are suffering their second week of chaos with the new timetable, which is meant to provide passengers with a more regular and reliable service.

On Tuesday, 14 per cent of Northern services were cancelled, with a further 25 per cent at least five minutes late – and yesterday, 104 trains were cancelled by around 4pm. GTR saw 10 per cent of trains cancelled and 14 per cent delayed.

The latest update to rail times has seven times more changes than normal.

Mr Grayling wrote: ‘We were aware that there might be some disruption in the early days of any new timetable change of this size, but the scale of the problem has far outstripped any expectation.’

The new times were finalised ‘much too late’ for adequate planning due to delayed Network Rail infrastructure works, Mr Grayling said.

he said the way Network Rail creates timetables is ‘ simply unacceptable’. he has ordered the transport company, along with Northern and GTR, to use ‘whatever resources they need’ to resolve the situation.

A Network Rail spokesman said: ‘Late timetables have certainly not helped the recent events but there are many other factors across the industry involved and we are looking at understanding the root cause.’

Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, has renewed his plea to have rail operator Arriva stripped of the Northern Franchise if the service continues to deteriorate. ‘ Last week we were told Northern were implementing an improvement plan,’ he said. ‘We now know that a week on, rather than getting better, services are actually getting worse.’