Passengers denied cheap Christmas rail tickets
Terror, then relief as New York bomb attack fails
RAIL passengers are being denied the chance to buy cheap tickets for the Christmas break by train companies that routinely “mislead” travellers, the official watchdog has said.
Six rail firms had still failed to offer a full range of advance purchase fares 11 weeks before Christmas, according to a report by Transport Focus, forcing passengers to buy more expensive tickets.
Passengers are also being sold tickets without any warning that their journeys will be disrupted by engineering work. Transport Focus found 14,806 errors in the database passengers used to book tickets ahead of Christmas.
Train operating firms blamed the problem on Network Rail failing to finalise its schedule of engineering work over the festive break, but the report said the errors were creating a “sense of distrust in the railway”.
MPS described the report as “very worrying” and questioned why rail firms were unable to offer advanced fares when engineering work is planned “well ahead” of time.
It comes as passengers brace themselves for an above-inflation 3.4 per cent average rise in the price of rail tickets in the new year.
Advanced fares are normally offered 12 weeks before travel, but Transport Focus found that six companies failed to offer a full range of discounted tickets 11 weeks before Christmas: Greater Anglia; Great Western; London Midland; South Western; Southern and Virgin Trains.
Transport Focus said it was “particularly concerned” by the fact that 2,648 incorrect journeys were being offered for sale in Christmas week, when countless passengers rely on the rail network to visit friends and family.
The watchdog called for a review of timetables to ensure Network Rail and train operators publish reliable sched- ules 12 weeks in advance. It also demanded that clear warnings were added to websites well in advance of any engineering work taking place.
Steve Double, a Conservative member of the House of Commons transport select committee, said: “This report is very worrying and raises a number of concerns. Network Rail clearly plan their maintenance and improvement works well ahead so surely it must be possible to coordinate this to ensure passengers have all the information they need before planning their Christmas travel.”
Mr Double said the news made the case for the Government to ensure that train operators also had control of the track so they could ensure minimum disruption.
Network Rail will carry out £160 million-worth of work over the Christmas holiday, with services around London, Manchester and on the west coast mainline at Preston being particularly hard hit. Transport Focus said the errors in ticketing databases meant that travellers were being “misled into buying something they would not otherwise have purchased”.
The report cited an example of Great Western Railway tickets being on sale in early October for direct London Paddington to Cardiff services running on December 27, when Paddington will be shut.
In another case, National Rail Enquiries was still selling tickets for an Arriva Trains Wales service via Crewe in late October, failing to mention it would be a replacement bus service.
A spokesman for the Rail Delivery Group, which represents the rail industry, said: “Rail companies are working together with a long-term plan to improve services and in some places this is causing disruption.
“But the industry needs to give passengers proper notice when services are changing and that is why we will be studying where problems are occurring and how we can improve the customer experience.” By Rozina Sabur
and Harriet Alexander in New York
AN ATTACKER with a pipe bomb strapped to his body set off an explosion at one of New York’s busiest commuter hubs, leaving five people injured in an Isil-inspired attack.
Akayed Ullah, a 27-year-old Bangladeshi national who has been a US resident since 2011, triggered a stampede during the morning rush hour as his homemade bomb detonated in a busy underpass. He was pictured moments after the apparent attempted suicide attack crumpled in a heap with severe burns and lacerations to his torso and was later taken to hospital under arrest.
CCTV footage showed the bomber walking down a tunnel armed with a five-inch metal pipe bomb and battery pack strapped to his body before a flash of smoke fills the walkway. The bomb, described by authorities as a low-tech device, exploded inside a passageway leading to the subway near the Port Authority Bus Terminal, the busiest bus station in the United States, which is close to Times Square.
“There was a stampede up the stairs to get out,” said Diego Fernandez, a commuter at Port Authority. “Everybody was scared and running and shouting.”
Alicja Wlodkowski, a Pennsylvania resident in New York for the day, was sitting in a restaurant in the bus terminal building. “Suddenly, I saw a group of people, like six people, running,” she said. “A woman fell. No one even went to stop and help her because the panic was so scary.”
Last night the US president said the explosion showed the need for immigration reform, including ending what is known as “chain migration” within families. Donald Trump’s administra- tion has called for a “merit-based” immigration system that would limit family-based green cards to spouses and minor children.
“America must fix its lax immigration system, which allows far too many dangerous, inadequately vetted people
‘Network Rail clearly plan their maintenance works well ahead so surely it must be possible to ensure passengers have all the information they need’
to access our country,” he said. “Today’s terror suspect entered our country through extended-family chain migration, which is incompatible with national security.”
Sources said Ullah first arrived in the country from Bangladesh on an F-4 visa, available to those with family in the US, around seven years ago.
Bangladesh is not one of the countries covered in Mr Trump’s travel ban of six predominantly Muslim countries.
With Ullah striking at rush hour two weeks before Christmas, it seemed that commuters and shoppers’ worst fears had been confirmed. But as reports revealed that the device had prematurely exploded in the bomber’s jacket, it was clear a far greater tragedy had been narrowly avoided.
The city’s response was pragmatic. “Let’s go back to work,” Andrew Cuomo, the state governor told New Yorkers. “We’re not going to allow them to disrupt us. When you hear about a bomb in the subway station, which is in many ways one of our worst nightmares, the reality turns out better than the initial expectation and fear.”
The only serious injuries were to the attacker himself but four other people suffered minor wounds.
The suspect, who was photographed lying face down, with tattered clothes and burns on his torso, was said to be cooperating with police while being treated at New York’s Bellevue Hospital. Ullah reportedly told investigators that he was avenging attacks on Isil and chose the location by its Christmas posters. The 27-year-old recalled a Christmas attack in Europe in 2016 and said he was also retaliating for US airstrikes on IS in Syria, law enforcement officials told the New York Times. Ullah had attached the pipe bomb to himself with a “combination of Velcro and zip ties,” said James P. O’neill, the commissioner of the New York Police Department.
A statement on behalf of the family sent by the New York Chapter of the Council on American-islamic Relations said they were “deeply saddened” by the attack but also “outraged by the way we have been targeted by law enforcement, including a teenage relative of the suspect who was pulled from class and questioned in his school without a parent guardian or attorney.”