Rail chaos as new timetable causes meltdown (again)
COMMUTERS endured fresh misery yesterday as faulty trains and staff shortages led to chaos on the first full day of a new rail timetable.
Hundreds of passengers were left stranded on platforms in the bitter cold, while others were stuffed on to overcrowded carriages. Some were forced to give up entirely due to sweeping cancellations.
Rail bosses stressed that issues stemmed from day-to-day operational hitches rather than timetable teething problems.
But fed-up passengers said the fiasco proves that major improvements to the punctuality and frequency of rail services are impossible given the haphazard state of Britain’s railways.
Nick Kingsley, managing editor of Railway Gazette magazine, wrote on Twitter: ‘Yet again, pressure to “fix the trains now” has led the operator to hurtle headlong into a timetable change it can’t actually deliver.’
On Transpennine Express, which provides services across the North and into Scotland, almost half of the pre-9am trains were cancelled or running at least half an hour late.
Services to Manchester Airport,
Edinburgh, Newcastle, Liverpool and Scarborough were among those affected. The operator blamed the delays on crew shortages and train faults.
Northern Rail was also forced to cancel or delay 10 per cent of its trains due to a shortage of drivers. One train heading for Blackpool North was cancelled ‘due to a train stopping in the wrong position’. Other affected routes included links between Blackpool North and Manchester Airport, Leeds to York and Sheffield, and Darlington to Saltburn.
The beleaguered operator has already suffered a torrid two years following the botched introduction of a new timetable in May 2018 and controversy over its use of old-fashioned 1980s ‘pacer’ trains.
The delays will pile pressure on the new Government, which has vowed to dramatically improve rail services in the North.
Elsewhere, a fault with a signalling system in Maidenhead, Berkshire, caused problems on Great Western Railway (GWR).
The operator had been hoping to debut hundreds of new services, including fast non- stop trains between London and Bristol, Cardiff, Devon and Cornwall.
One direct Bristol to Paddington service had to be cancelled and passengers were warned to expect cancellations and delays. GWR
‘Half of trains running late’
passenger Ruth Starling wrote on Twitter: ‘New timetable working well. Half the trains from Swindon running late and standing room only from Reading.’
South Western Railway (SWR) said 52 per cent of its pre-9am services failed to arrive at their destination within five minutes of the advertised time.
The disruption was partly caused by a landslip between Epsom in Surrey and Motspur Park in south-west London. The operator is already in the grip of a 27-day strike by members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers union over the role of guards on driver-only trains, due to last until New Year’s Day.
The Rail Delivery Group, which represents the industry, said that years of work had been put into drafting, consulting and planning for the timetable changes.
Robert Nisbet, its regional director, said: ‘While the vast majority of services are running as planned, we are keeping people moving and we are sorry for the inconvenience caused. More services are running than before the timetable change and passengers will benefit from 1,000 more services a week.’