Tories rap Boxing Day rail services

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Earlier this week, it was revealed that 34 MPs had tabled a Commons motion lamenting the 58-hour shutdown of most rail services over Christmas.

On Thursday, shadow transport minister Stephen Hammond said that the scarcity of services on Boxing Day meant thousands of sports fans would have to take to their cars instead.

He said: "Boxing Day is a traditional sporting fixture across the country for many sports, not just football. Huge numbers of fans will be heading to games, enjoying the day out with their families. From just the Premiership and Championship (the top two football divisions) there are an expected 45,000 away fans travelling to games.

"While engineering work should be carried out in quiet periods for travel, Boxing Day can hardly be seen as a quiet period.

"Families and football fans will be given no choice but to get into their cars, pump more CO2 into the atmosphere and put up with potentially eye-watering levels of congestion because the railways remain shut."

The Tories cited the case of the Arsenal v Aston Villa match in north London on Thursday, to which 2,800 Villa fans were expected to travel. With the West Coast Main Line and the London Midland line offering no services, the Birmingham-based away supporters will have to go by car.

Some train companies are known to be keen to run more Boxing Day services.

But the Association of Train Operating Companies has said that to greatly increase the level of train services on Boxing Day would require a comprehensive, industry-wide review.

It added that this review would not only train involve operators but would need a major change of practice by the Department for Transport and Network Rail which usually carried out engineering work at this time.