Easter travel misery as works cripple railway
TRAIN passengers across Britain face Easter mayhem from more than 400 engineering projects, rail bosses revealed yesterday.
Services in Bristol and Scotland will be affected by the £118million programme, with travellers forced to use buses on parts of the West Coast Main Line.
Five London hubs – Euston, Liverpool Street, London Bridge, Waterloo and Paddington – will also be hit.
Network Rail chief executive Mark Carne promised “business as usual” for most of the network but admitted: “Some routes are heavily affected and so we strongly advise passengers to plan ahead this Easter.”
Disruption
The industry uses major public holidays for maintenance and upgrades because there are fewer commuters.
But tens of thousands will now have to rethink their travel plans over the Easter Bank Holiday weekend, beginning with Good Friday on March 30.
In December, independent watchdog Transport Focus warned the industry was failing to give ample notice of Christmas disruption.
It found passengers were being allowed to buy tickets for non-running or disrupted services.
Chief executive Anthony Smith said: “Investment in maintenance and improvement is necessary and passengers understand that.
“But our research is clear: passengers want to be kept on the train wherever possible. They want to know before buying a ticket if part of the journey will be by bus, and they want plenty of staff on hand to help.”
The Easter programme includes shutting Euston station on Easter Sunday April 1, with disruption on Saturday March 31 and Easter Monday April 2.
Services to and from Paddington between Good Friday and Easter Monday will be affected by Crossrail work, which will also disrupt services between Liverpool Street and Norwich.
Upgrades
Buses will replace trains between London Bridge and West Croydon on Easter Saturday and Sunday and from Saturday to Monday between Streatham and Epsom and West Croydon and Sutton/ Epsom Downs.
Services from Waterloo to Windsor and Reading will be diverted between Good Friday and Easter Monday.
Passengers in the Southwest have been warned there will be no train services between Bristol Parkway, Bristol Temple Meads and Yatton/Bath Spa for five days from Good Friday.
Work between Glasgow and Edinburgh will see replacement buses between Carlisle and Glasgow from Easter Saturday to Monday.
Virgin Trains East Coast and CrossCountry services will start or terminate in Edinburgh.
Mr Carne said thousands of staff would be “working round the clock” to deliver “crucial” upgrades to the rail network”.
WHAT would the run-up to Easter be without the traditional threat of rail chaos? A £118million programme of some 400 engineering projects will affect five major London stations with services in Scotland and Bristol badly affected.
Bank Holidays such as Easter and Christmas are targeted because there are fewer commuters using the railways. But people plan special family outings and weekends at these times and are inconvenienced year after year. Many may have already bought tickets in advance for services that will not be running.
Maintenance and improvements to the line are essential – we all want to travel safely. But it is wrong to create this disruption so regularly knowing that people with older relatives and those with young children will be forced to put up with replacement bus services, delays and cancellations.
Another irritation for those travelling during holiday periods or indeed as regular commuters is the lack of information from rail staff when things go wrong or when changes occur to the schedule. Passengers given adequate and reliable information would be far less stressed and angry. But all too often requests for updates are met with a shrug or a shake of the head.
It won’t do for our train operators to be so complacent when they embark on these engineering projects. Fares are sky high and trains are often unreliable or packed. Customers might be more forgiving of Easter or Christmas disruption if there was a better service during the rest of the year.