One in four trains late each day on troubled South Western Railway
MORE than a quarter of South Western Railway trains were late every day last month, official figures reveal.
Just 73.9 per cent of services ran on time during between October 14 to November 10, which is 10 per cent worse than the same period last year.
Only yesterday SWR passengers endured huge disruption due to over-running engineering work by Network Rail.
There were more problems today with a signal fault between Reading and Woking, leading to cancellations, delays and diversions. Passengers were warned disruption would last all day. Great Western Railway was also affected.
The performance figures, published by Network Rail, are among the worst for SWR, the largest franchise in the UK which serves many of the busiest routes into London.
They show nearly 450 SWR trains were late a day, or 26 per cent of the franchise’s 1,700 daily services. The deterioration comes despite hundreds of millions being spent on improving Waterloo and main lines to the west.
Yesterday a “twisted” rail found before the start of morning service resulted in a huge knock-on effect. Some lines were closed — including those serving Waterloo — leaving trains trapped in the Wimbledon depot.
Disruption lasted all day and many commuters gave up trying to get to work. Others spent hours travelling into London and hours getting home again. Network Rail has launched an investigation into the cause of the faulty rail. The latest statistics show that NR is responsible for the majority of delays, with 43.9 per cent caused by infrastructure problems within its control.
During the same period, SWR was responsible for 20 per cent of delays within its control, such as train breakdowns.
Waterloo was closed during August last year as part of an £800 million redevelopment of the station and major routes to and from the West.
Since then, however, there have been almost daily delays. NR has been under fire for track and signal problems and how long it takes to restore services back to normal.
Graham Richards, director of railway planning and performance at the Office of Rail and Road, said: “Passengers using SWR have faced unacceptable disruption in recent months. When things go wrong it is essential that NR works efficiently to get back to normal service as quickly as possible.
“Our investigation found that NR has not updated its processes to keep pace with the changes on the route. We will be looking closely to ensure it addresses our findings.”
NR says record spending of more than £2 billion over the next five years will improve services.