New year nightmare goes on for rail commuters

PASSENGERS yesterday suffered yet more disruption on the west coast main line and in Scotland as faults continued to plague the rail network.

Cross-Border travellers faced difficulties for a fifth day, due to problems with overhead lines. The latest trouble on the Glasgow-London line, at Atherstone in Warwickshire, delayed trains by 50 minutes.

Meanwhile, a points failure at Queen Street station in Glasgow hit services on lines to Cumbernauld and Edinburgh.

The continuing new year nightmare follows major engineering work that severely disrupted post-Christmas rail services in some areas. Glasgow Central – Scotland's busiest station – was closed for four days.

The misery for commuters has been made worse as this is the second year in a row they have faced such problems. It has also coincided with a 6 per cent fares increase, and a rise of 4 per cent in the Glasgow area, where prices had already risen in the summer.

Last January, engineering overruns on the west coast line and between Glasgow and Paisley landed Network Rail with a record £14 million fine from the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR), which described the work as "a shambles".

The return to work after this year's festive break has been little better for passengers, with trains affected by faults to do with overhead power lines at five points on the southern half of the west coast route.

In Scotland, problems with an £85 million project to switch Glasgow area signalling to a new centre at Cowlairs, north of the city centre, caused four days of difficulties, with major disruption on some lines on Monday.

This was followed by a signal failure at Aberdour in Fife on Tuesday and points failures on the Glasgow-Paisley Canal line on Wednesday and at Queen Street yesterday. Network Rail said they were not related.

Experts said the west coast problems did not appear to be related to recent upgrading work, which has cut journey times and increased services.

Nigel Harris, the managing editor of Rail magazine, said: "The incidents seem to be disconnected but horribly coincidental. It looks like Network Rail has been very unlucky."

Anthony Smith, the chief executive of Passenger Focus, the official watchdog, said: "The last few days have seen completely unacceptable performance.

"Passengers will want urgent assurances that this series of problems can be quickly fixed."

Virgin Trains, which runs Glasgow-London services, said it had received a "very considerable volume" of complaints.

The ORR has yet to decide whether to launch an investigation. Michael Lee, its director of access planning and performance, said: " Network Rail is carrying out an investigation and we are closely monitoring what it is doing to get things working again."


Finding the train too much strain

COMMUTER John Rooney has seen fuel prices come down only to find the cost of his rail season ticket has now risen.

Mr Rooney, who works as a team leader at an insurance firm, said he thought he might now save money by driving to work in Glasgow rather than commuting by train from Whifflet in Lanarkshire.

Mr Rooney, 39, said he had already been forced to take the car on one day since the festive break, when his train was cancelled.

He also said he had noticed an increase in cancellations on the line to Glasgow Central over the past three months.

Mr Rooney said his monthly season ticket had risen from about £60 to £68.80 last week.

In a further blow, fare rises for west of Scotland passengers have been brought forward from May to January as part of a new move to integrate different parts of the Scottish network.

The father-of-two said: "I am not happy about the rise.

"Diesel has come down in price but they have had the cheek to put fares up again.

"Problems on the route also appear to have increased – it seems that if there is bad weather, the number of cancellations goes up."


'There are times when you wonder if it is worth it'

DR ALAIN Kohl, a researcher, has not had a good start to his commuting year.

He pays £2,500 for his annual season ticket between Croy in Lanarkshire and Edinburgh, but has suffered problems on both days since going back to work on Wednesday.

He had to stand all the way on the first day because his train was only three carriages long, rather than the normal six.

That was followed by delays to his journey from home yesterday.

Dr Kohl, 36, said taking the train was the best environmental option and he preferred it to travelling by car, but it remained far from perfect.

He said: "There can be periods of seemingly endless problems. I would be quite happy to pay more for a good and reliable service, but there are periods of the year when you wonder whether it is worth it.

"The problems usually seem to be points failures or not enough carriages. They do keep you informed, but it doesn't help that much if you are standing on a freezing platform."

Dr Kohl, who has been using the line for two years, added: "The train is a good option and I hope the fares' increase will help First ScotRail make the service more reliable."