Train travel at Christmas will see worst ever delays
‘Passengers have had enough’
RAIL passengers travelling home for Christmas face the ‘worst ever’ festive delays as engineering works are set to cripple Britain’s railways.
Around 20 million journeys are expected to be affected – including those on the West Coast cross-Border service – as five of the UK’s seven mainline routes shut down during 11 days of work.
The London-Glasgow West Coast main line will be severed as the 20-mile stretch between Preston and Lancaster is shut on Christmas Eve and December 27.
Scots holidaymakers using London airports also face potential travel woe with the Gatwick Express and Heathrow Express both axed.
Network Rail, responsible for operating and maintaining Britain’s rail network, has acknowledged this will be the biggest programme of engineering works to take place over the Christmas period.
Ian Baldry of IBPTS travel consultants said: ‘Works taking place this Christmas are even worse than last Christmas, which was the previous biggest ever Christmas works schedule. Passengers face chaos.
‘Network Rail don’t realise the impact their works have on people trying to get home for Christmas.
‘Travellers are sick of works – and then, after Christmas, there are January fare increases. Passengers have had enough.’
The criticism came as travellers were warned they face paying up to twice as much for their Christmas getaway if they wait until December to book their ticket.
The cheapest fares for rail travel on Saturday December 23 are expected to increase sharply over the next six weeks, figures pubGlasgow lished by ticket retailer Trainline demonstrate.
A forecast of price rises among the ten most popular festive journeys in 2016 show, for example, that Advance singles from London to Edinburgh Waverley could rise from £68 now to £81 by the start of December. The latest round of engineering works will be particularly widespread.
In Scotland, most lines from Central are due to shut on December 24 and 27.
There will be no services between Glasgow and Motherwell on those days and replacement buses will be used between Glasgow Central and Pollokshields West, Crossmyloof, Newton via Cambuslang, and Kings Park via Cathcart.
A ScotRail spokesman admitted that he did not yet know if there will be other closures as the operator had yet to receive final details of all planned engineering works from Network Rail.
Network Rail said it is delivering ‘transformational projects which will deliver a bigger and better railway for passengers’.
A spokesman for the body said: ‘The railway is open for business this Christmas and the vast majority of the network will be unaffected by engineering work. We are making another significant investment to improve and grow the railway, getting it ready for fleets of new trains and thousands of new services in 2018.’