4m hours lost in worst year for rail delays

PASSENGERS lost an estimated four million hours as a result of significantly delayed trains in 2018, the worst year since records began.

About 80 trains a day were held up by at least 29 minutes, according to a report by the Which? consumer group. More than eight million passenger journeys were affected.

The network was also riddled with cancellations, an average of 660 a day, the most since records began in 2011.

Robert Nisbet of the Rail Delivery Group (RDG), which represents the rail companies, said services were “working together to improve punctuality and tackle delays”.

The report, based on analysis of data from the Office of Rail and Road, coincided with the introduction of new summer timetables yesterday, which add 1,000 services a week.

Passengers on London Northwestern and Great Northern used Twitter yesterday to complain that some trains were overcrowded, delayed or cancelled due to staffing shortages.

The RDG said the timetable would “prioritise” reliability and punctuality for passengers after chaotic changes last May caused weeks of disruption on large parts of the network.

Passenger groups have called for the industry to avoid a repeat of the breakdown. Darren Shirley, chief executive of the Campaign for Better Transport, said: “The railway has a long way to go to win back passenger confidence.”

The RDG said it had “learned the lessons” from the disruption, and that new services were being introduced where there was “high confidence” in infrastructure and staffing.

Following last May’s timetable changes, Northern cancelled up to 470 trains a day and Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) cancelled up to 310. London North Eastern Railway and its predecessor Virgin Trains East Coast had the highest rate of significantly delayed trains in 2018 at 5 per cent.

The train companies, governmentowned infrastructure company Network Rail and Chris Grayling, the transport secretary, were blamed for the chaos, which was made worse by extreme weather, strikes and signalling failures.

Neena Bhati, the Which? head of campaigns, said: “Passengers have faced a torrid time since the beginning of last year. The rail industry has fundamentally failed on punctuality and reliability.” Rail companies could start to restore faith “by introducing automatic compensation for delays and cancellations”, she added.

Research has found that 36 per cent of passengers do not claim when they are eligible.

However, the RDG said compensation claims had increased by 80 per cent in two years, to £81 million a year. Mr Nisbet said: “Half of the franchises managed by the department for transport pay compensation after 15 minutes and some operators have introduced automatic refunds.”