The Department for Transport noted ministers have said for years “rail services have been failing” – and the latest research into cancellations and delays supports this view
Thousands of train services are cancelled every weekend – including some because of bizarre reasons like “severe weather” – leaving passengers’ plans in ruins.
The strange reasons rail services are scrapped or run late have been laid bare following comprehensive research. It looked at weekend services, believed to be the worst-performing ones, across the country and it paints a picture of chaos on the railways.
Operators – including government-run Northern – blamed cancellations on wartime bombs found near lines, “overcrowding because of a sporting event”, “ice preventing trains getting electricity from the third rail”, “a boat colliding with a bridge”, a supermarket trolley on the tracks, cattle on the lines and even “overcrowding” because there were too few carriages in the period sampled.
A shortage of train crew is by far the most common reason for last-minute cancellations, especially at the weekends, according to the analysis of data from On Time Trains, a tracking website. On average about 200 trains are cancelled each weekend because of crew shortages. Dozens more are cancelled because of a lack of signal or station staff.
Operators also routinely blame a “short-notice change to the timetable” for late cancellations. Such changes are often made in response to staff shortages. “Severe weather” is the fourth most cited reason for late cancellations, followed by train faults, signal faults and damage to overhead cables.
The Times carried out the analysis, which highlighted, on average, 554 trains have been cancelled every Sunday since August last year, equating to more than 4 per cent of the timetable axed on the day. The figure is 672 trains on Saturdays, when more services are scheduled. This is equivalent to 3.39 per cent of scheduled trains.
The figures do not include changes made for planned engineering works, when trains are removed from the schedule altogether in advance.
Northern is the worst performing at weekends. Of the 112,751 weekend trains scheduled to run it cancelled 11,407 services – 10.1 per cent. Avanti West Coast was the second-worst, calling off 730 of its 11,744 (6.2 per cent) scheduled services. Great Western Railway (GWR), which runs services between London and the southwest of England and south Wales, cancelled 4,280 of 73,661 (5.8 per cent).
Northern and GWR both have a chronic lack of staff and said that services had also been affected by infrastructure failures. Despite the dismal performance, most fares rise by 4.6 per cent from Sunday.
The Department for Transport told the publication: “Ministers have been clear, rail services have been failing passengers. We need to improve them and deliver better value for money for the taxpayer.
“That’s why we are delivering the biggest overhaul to our railways in a generation, creating a publicly owned Great British Railways. As part of these plans, we’re determined to end the overreliance on rest-day working and work with operators to ensure robust delivery of services throughout the whole week, giving passengers the certainty and reliability they deserve.”
