Stirling trains go amid punctuality concerns
The new operator of east coast rail services is to cancel the early morning service which links Stirling to London.
London North Eastern Railway (LNER) took over the service from Virgin Trains at the end of June.
However, it emerged this week that the 5.26am Stirling leg linking with the 6.26am departure from Edinburgh Waverley, which gets into London Kings Cross at 10.52am, is to be cut.
The 3pm London to Stirling service will also no longer operate between Edinburgh and Stirling from Monday August 27.
LNER has described the decision as ‘proactive service cancellations for a limited period’ to ‘improve punctuality and reliability in the short term.’
But Stirling MP Stephen Kerr, in a letter responding to LNER chairman Robin Gisby, described the move as unacceptable and asked him to reconsider the decision to cancel the services.
Mr Kerr told Mr Gisby: ‘When the 5.26am service from Stirling was launched it was hailed as a great step forward in transport in Scotland. It is a service I have used myself and always found the numbers to be respectable for the service, especially considering it is the start of the route.
“Surely some changes could be made to the timetabling to allow Stirling passengers to arrive in London at the beginning of the business day.
“I would also like some reassurance of the timescale for the reinstatement of the two services. The train acquisition you speak about in your letter does not indicate a timescale and I would like some assurance about when you expect this to happen.’
Stirling MSP Bruce Crawford added: “The affected services are mainly used by people for business and are therefore an important link. I will be writing to LNER to find out more about how long they anticipate these services to be out of operation to and from Stirling.”
In his letter explaining the decision to Mr Kerr, dated August 13, Mr Gisby said LNER had to take steps to improve ‘operational resilience’ while waiting for the arrival of new trains and improvements in infrastructure.
He also insisted that the Stirling cancellations were temporary.
Mr Gisby pointed out: ‘Our on-time performance has been slipping to very low levels and we inherited a level of cancellations that is far too high.
‘The core performance problems on the East Coast are well known – infrastructure failures and the reliability of the ageing fleet.
‘We still have one locomotive under repair from damage caused by the “Beast from the East.”
‘The hot weather has increased the level of failures of both track and train, including major incidents such as the loss of all signalling around York and Leeds on July 27.
‘The disruption caused by the timetable change for other operators at key locations such as Kings Cross and Leeds has made it difficult for us to arrive on time.
‘We have seen a significant increase in delays to LNER by other operators resulting in a decline in our punctuality towards the end of the journey.
‘That makes it harder to prepare the train for its next journey and leave on time.
‘We are working hard on contingency plans to offset the impact of such disruption on our customers.’