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Summer timetable of rail chaos and delays
Dick Murray, Transport Editor2 Apr 2008
Millions of rail passengers were warned today of summer chaos on the West Coast Main Line between Euston and the North.
Network Rail plans to close a huge section of the 400-mile line every weekend during June, July and August.
There is also a planned two-week closure from Saturday 23August until Sunday 7 September in the Trent Valley area, which will lead to diversions, fewer trains and longer journeys.
The closures are in addition to further weekend shutdowns, a l ready announced, throughout the year and during the two May and August bank holidays. There will be no main West Coast Main Line services running south of Coventry.
Network Rail will shut the line for 13 weekends from 31 May.
It will close between noon on Saturday until noon on Sunday - but the company said these times could be extended.
The idea, said a spokesman, was to enable travellers to depart on a Saturday morning and return on the Sunday afternoon or evening.
The move has infuriated Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Trains, which has lodged a formal objection with Chris Bolt, the Rail Regulator.
Virgin spokesman Jim Rowe said: "The closures will cause massive inconvenienceto our passengers." Network Rail wants the extra closures to complete its £8.6billion upgrade of the line by December. This is to allow more and faster journeys between London and Scotland.
Massive engineering work is scheduled to take place at Rugby, Nuneaton, Milton Keynes and Northampton.
Mr Rowe said: "The engineering work will also affect our driver training. When Network Rail changes the track layout on a temporary basis for the work to be done, our drivers have to be retrained.
"Our drivers will be in the classroom when they should be driving. This is going to mean some weekday train cancellations because we won't have enough staff."
Virgin wants the December deadline extended to May next year. "We recognise and want the upgrade work to be done but extending the deadline will ease the concentration of work and enable it to be carried out over a more sensible timeframe," Mr Rowe said.
Network Rail said a five-month deadline extension would mean further major closures of the line next Christmas and New Year and during the two May 2009 bank holidays. The company, which owns and operates Britain's rail infrastructure, was fined a record £14million by the Rail Regulator largely because Christmas and New Year engineering work on the West Coast Mail Line at Rugby went badly wrong. The line was four days late reopening - ruining the travel plans of thousands of people returning from holidays or going back to work.
Network Rail spokesman Kevin Groves said two options had been offered to the eight train operators and four freight companies that used the line.
He said seven train operators and three of the freight carriers favoured getting the work done by December.
Mr Groves advised passengers to use the East Coast Main Line, Chiltern Railways or London Midland during the closures. Local services out of Euston will not be affected.
Anthony Smith, chief executive of watchdog Passenger Focus, said: "We have pushed for Network Rail to make certain engineering works on the West Coast Main Line are completed on time instead of dragging out disruptions over to next year.
"To meet the Christmas deadline, there will be additional disruption on the line. However, if works are planned and executed efficiently, this would be the best solution."
A spokesman for the Office of Rail Regulation said the closure plans would be studied by the board but the view was to maintain the December deadline.
Reader views (2)
I think this is disgusting as it is bad enough accessing London at weekends when it is normal travel!
People like Ken Livingstone encourage us to use public transport, how are we suppose to use it when it is shut most of the time!
- Virgin Train User, Wigan, 03/04/2008 00:12
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Unbelievable. Most of my family are in the Midlands, and I have had to stop using Virgin services as a means of visiting them as the line is either closed at weekends or, even when it's open, their much vaunted "cheap" fares aren't available. Although to be fair it isn't the TOC's fault when Network Rail is responsible for the closure.
- Blue Baby, London, 02/04/2008 15:50
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