Christmas chaos looms for rail passengers
Families visiting relatives while restrictions are eased face engineering delays, Transport Secretary warns
THE Christmas getaway is on course for chaos because major engineering is poised to go ahead, Grant Shapps has warned, after rail sources said the pandemic had caused delays to works.
The Transport Secretary said some long-standing upgrade programmes that had been planned before the pandemic would be difficult to pause.
He warned people to “consider not travelling” over Christmas due to concerns over the “limitations” of the train network to manage a glut of Christmas passengers.
As well as engineering disruptions, some lines are only allowing smaller numbers of pre-booked passengers on to trains in an effort to maintain social distancing.
The combined restrictions and rail works could spell huge disruption for people looking to travel to see relatives over Christmas while the restrictions are eased.
The concerns prompted a transport watchdog to call on train operators to “maximise” the number of trains and seats available to cater for the expected surge in passengers.
Ministers have announced a relaxation of Covid rules for five days starting from Dec 23 so families can see each other over the holiday period. However, major works, such as the upgrade to the East Coast Main Line and engineering to routes in and out of London Waterloo are set to cause closures and reduced services from Christmas Day through to New Year’s Day.
The Daily Telegraph understands the Government and rail industry are looking at potentially moving or delaying some smaller works so they do not clash with the festive travel window.
Asked yesterday about suspending major works, Mr Shapps told BBC Breakfast: “Traditionally, over Christmas a lot of engineering work takes place.
“I will do what I can to minimise that, but some of those works have been in works for 18 months or two years, well before anyone would have known about coronavirus.” He later added:
“We have got to understand there are limitations to the (train) network caused by, for example, things like the need on some trains to pre-book tickets at this time, in order to prevent overcrowding.
“So we are going to be appealing to people to look very carefully at the transport route they take and, of course, even making a choice about whether they travel at all.”
Rail sources told The Daily Telegraph that some of the larger ongoing engineering projects had also been hit by delays earlier in the year as work had to stop in the first months of the pandemic for safety reasons.
Meanwhile, the Government is due to release its guidelines for festive travel today, which will shed more light on how the train services will run during the Christmas break.
One area being looked at to manage potential crowding is only allowing passengers to travel with pre-booked tickets, a policy a number of operators such as London North Eastern Railway (LNER) have had in place since May to maintain social distancing.
LNER’S policy, which it says is likely to be in place over Christmas, allows passengers to book a ticket up to five minutes before a train leaves but they must have a seat booked to board the service.
The Telegraph understands it is likely to be left to individual train operators to decide whether they allow walk-on passengers during the Christmas break.
Anthony Smith, chief exceutive of the watchdog Transport Focus, called on train companies to ensure they have enough services running for people travelling to see friends and relatives at Christmas.
He said: “The rail network is a relatively fixed beast and it is difficult to ramp up and down the capacity, but I think it is proper that the industry looks very hard at where it can strengthen capacity on key routes just in case.
“I think it is incumbent on the industry to maximise the number of trains that are running during that period.”
We are used to the railways not running over Christmas. Engineering works are as traditional during the festive season as plum pudding and mistletoe. But this year, with rail travel all but decimated, it might have been thought those repairs and upgrades could have been carried out while the country was in lockdown. Instead, with people to be allowed to travel for a few days over Christmas, many trains will not be running. Services are non-existent on Christmas Day and sporadic on Boxing Day. There was a time when public transport continued to run on these two days but no longer, not even buses.
Network Rail’s website tells the gloomy story. “A considerable amount of engineering work will be taking place during the holiday period. Network Rail carry out essential improvement and engineering work across the rail network during this time as fewer people will be travelling. Many train companies will also be making changes to their timetable, and to some train times, to match services to the number of customers travelling.”
In fact more people, not fewer, will be travelling because hitherto they have not been allowed to. Passenger numbers in the first lockdown were the lowest on the railways since the mid-19th century and have picked up only marginally since the schools went back. Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, said people should plan carefully for travel over Christmas and warned of “very longplanned engineering works” on busy routes. Since the Government owns Network Rail, why were these works not brought forward to avoid the disruption that will occur at the very moment people are allowed to exercise a modicum of the yuletide freedom granted them by the state?