Whole rail industry to blame for train timetables shambles, report claims

A DAMNING official report today blames the whole rail industry for the train timetables chaos in May.

The Office of Rail and Road says train operators, Network Rail, the Department for Transport and even ORR itself were all responsible for the biggest timetable change in a generation turning to disaster. Prof Stephen Glaister, inquiry chairman, said: “The timetable was meant to offer more services and reliability, but led to major disruption for passengers.

“When problems arose, timetable planners were stretched and operators illequipped to help passengers.

“Staff worked in very difficult circumstances to do as good a job as possible.” REVIEW Chris Grayling MP Putting engineering and planning ahead of passengers invited trouble. This was made worse by train firms providing poor information during disruption. More than a third of Thameslink trains and nearly a third of Great Northern were delayed at least five minutes from May 27 to June 23. Transport Secretary Chris Grayling is to hold a review into rail.