Thameslink timetable chaos
This was one of those fortnights where I could have written on half a dozen subjects, given the huge amount of news coming out of the railways - most of it, unfortunately, bad. The one that really mystifies me, however, is the Thameslink chaos over the new timetable.
This is the third of eight stages of the new timetable being introduced. But despite years of preparation, performance has been appalling to such an extent that on the last Friday in May, cancellations reached 18%.
I appeared on TV on the second day and tried to be positive, arguing that it was a terribly difficult operation given that thousands of trains had to be retimed, not just on Thameslink but on other services feeding into London.
“It was always going to be difficult,” I said. “You can test it in a computer until you are blue in the face, but it is bound to be different when put into practice.”
Perhaps, though, I was being too kind. The level of chaos does seem unforgiveable and, as ever, it seems the boring basics of running a railway have been forgotten. Drivers being in the wrong place, or rostered for trains that they cannot drive because they do not have the route planning, and trains scheduled for conflicting movements are among the avoidable explanations that have been given to me. Moreover, as Sir Michael Holden (him again) tweeted, the company has been putting out incomprehensible guff which even he could not fathom.
I have spent the past few months writing a book on Crossrail. Sensibly, the introduction of the full service is being phased in so that each change, with the tunnels due to open this December, can bed in.
Crossrail is the most fantastic addition to the railway since Victorian times, and it will be desperately sad if its launch is marred by similar chaos. From what I have seen of the meticulous planning, it should be much better, but (as with Thameslink) it is a matter of funnelling trains from several branches on the existing network through a tunnel across London - and that will never be easy.