More rail chaos fears after worst delays in 10 years
RAIL chiefs issued a formal apology yesterday for presiding over the worst delays in more than a decade.
Official figures showed that one in seven trains was “late” in the 12 months to September – and that was according to the generous definition laid down by the industry.
This classes a commuter train as “on time” if it is up to five minutes late. Long distance services are given 10 minutes’ grace.
Figures released by the regulator, the Office Of Rail And Road, showed 86 per cent of trains met the industry’s punctuality target.
That was down 2.5 per cent on the previous 12 months and is the worst performance since December 2005.
Details emerged as the industry prepares to launch its December timetable on Sunday, amid fears of renewed chaos.
Adding to the discontent is a 3.1 per cent fare hike to be introduced next month.
Over the past year rail services have been hit by severe winter weather during the Beast From The East in February and March, melting tracks in the long hot summer and strikes.
And when the industry introduced a new timetable in May, large parts of the network went into meltdown, causing misery for thousands of passengers.
The Rail Delivery Group, which represents train firms and Network Rail, said it was trying to learn from the experience.
Robert Nisbet, the group’s regional director, said: “Every minute counts for our customers.
“We apologise to them for the unacceptable disruption over the summer.
“We have one of the most congested railways in Europe.
“This summer it has been stretched by an unprecedented heatwave and – in some parts of the country – the introduction of the May timetable.
“To ease pressure so customers get the railway they want, we’re delivering record investment in infrastructure. But this can’t come at the cost of today’s punctuality. That is why we’re working hard to learn the lessons from May, starting with the introduction of the December timetable.”
Shadow Transport Secretary Andy McDonald called for fare increases to be based on the lower retail price index measure of inflation, not the consumer price index currently used.
He said: “The travelling public have already suffered a miserable year of delays and cancellations, so it’s outrageous that rail users will be hit with another above inflation fare rise in January.
“At the very least, fares should rise no higher than the consumer price index and be frozen altogether on routes impacted by the timetable chaos.”
This week one of the firms worst affected by the timetable chaos, Govia Thameslink Railway which includes Southern, was ordered by the Government to pay £15million towards service improvements and banned from making a profit this year.
But Transport Secretary Chris Grayling controversially allowed it to retain its contracts.
On Tuesday the Transport Committee slammed Mr Grayling and the entire industry for the timetable failings and called for a season ticket fares freeze for the worst affected. It said Mr Grayling should have taken a “more proactive approach”.
He admitted his department did not ask enough “tough” questions of the industry before the introduction of the timetable.
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