‘Rail chaos and royal weddings. There are still some things we British do better than anyone else’

TRAIN bosses have been forced to put on hundreds of extra services to prop up a timetable overhaul, after commuters faced delays of over an hour and overcrowded platforms.

Every train run by the UK’S busiest franchise, Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) – which consists of Southern, Thameslink, Great Northern and Gatwick Express – has been rescheduled in a move described as the biggest timetable change in a generation.

The overhaul is intended to boost capacity and improve reliability, but on Sunday – the first day of the new timetable – dozens of trains were cancelled, and yesterday commuters experienced major disruption. Some faced waits of over an hour. Others were forced to cram into crowded trains after waiting on busy platforms.

Cancellations were also rife, with 38 per cent of services either running over half an hour late or scrapped on some lines. Some commuters’ trains were cancelled while they were on board, forcing them to get out and wait for the next. At least one train to Gatwick terminated at St Pancras International instead.

GTR chiefs have warned that they expect “issues” to continue while the new timetable beds in.

They said that to minimise disruption for the rest of this week, 350 extra services had now been timetabled.

A spokesperson said: “We apologise to passengers for any difficulties with their journey. We expect some ongoing issues and in the meantime we have already introduced more than 350 extra timetabled services this week.”

As commuters aired their frustration on social media yesterday, the train operators said the disruption was due to a “short-term planning amendment”. This meant that “we have a lot of staff and stock in the wrong places”.