[A-List] UK infrastructure crisis: railways fiasco

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

New rail plan to improve punctuality - cut the number of trains

Andrew Clark, transport correspondent
Thursday January 16, 2003
The Guardian

Hundreds of train services connecting cities across Britain are to be axed
each week in a controversial drive to improve punctuality which is likely to
provoke an outcry from passengers.

The government's strategic rail authority has concluded that the network is
struggling to cope because there are too many trains on the timetable.

Richard Bowker, the SRA's chairman, will announce today that he is culling
106 trains each day, with Virgin's troubled Cross Country network bearing
the brunt of the cuts.

Poole, Portsmouth, Swansea and Blackpool will lose Cross Country services
entirely as routes are truncated. Travellers will be left to rely on local
connections.

There will also be reductions to frequencies on Thames Trains, Central
Trains and South Central services.

The decision is part of a clampdown on congestion "pinchpoints" which Mr
Bowker believes are dragging down the network. An SRA spokesman last night
confirmed that the "tactical reduction" will take effect in May. He said
that while there would be "pain" in the cuts, there would also be some
"pretty big wins" in improving the reliability of remaining trains.

The cull is the first widescale cut in services since privatisation in 1996.
Since the network was sold off, the number of daily trains has risen by 20%.

The most contentious cuts will be the scaling back of Virgin's Cross Country
network, which recorded punctuality of just 61.4% in the four weeks to
January 4. The crisis is largely due to Virgin's new Voyager trains, which
have fewer carriages than older rolling stock but run a more frequent
service.

The increased frequency, and perks such as on-board entertainment systems,
have encouraged more people to use the Cross Country network for local
trips.

This has caused serious overcrowding, with some drivers refusing to leave
stations until passengers get off. Now fewer Cross Country trains will stop
at Cardiff, Wolverhampton, Stafford, Lancaster, Bolton, Oxenholme and
Penrith.

Other cuts include Thames Trains stopping services between Oxford and
Bristol, reduced by 18 trains a day; closure of a Central Trains route from
Manchester Airport to Crewe, and cuts in services between Derby and
Birmingham by 18 a day; and South Central's "semi-fast" services between
Southampton and Bournemouth, cut by 30 a day.

Caroline Jones of the Rail Passengers' Council described the cutbacks as
"fairly drastic".

She said: "While it's good to see them getting to grips with the problems
they've had since the introduction of new trains, it's bitterly
disappointing for passengers, particularly those at the edges of the Cross
Country network."

An SRA spokesman pointed out that the reductions were a tiny proportion of
Britain's 17,000 daily train services: "Nobody's going to give the
impression that this is a panacea but it should provide us with a few quick
wins in May's timetable."

Industry experts predict more reductions in the autumn, when the SRA
concludes a study intended to make Britain's railways more efficient.