Friends of the Rail Forum

Services on two of the country's busiest railways are facing severe disruption after cracks were spotted on some high-speed trains. Most Great Western Main Line trains to and from London Paddington have been cancelled. London North Eastern Railways is asking passengers not to travel on the East Coast Main Line today. Hitachi has apologised after hairline cracks were found in the suspension units of some of its 800 series trains. Some of the trains have been taken out of service as a "precautionary measure to allow for thorough investigations", the company said, adding it was working to resolve the issue as quickly and safely as possible...

Operators are now coming together to keep passengers moving whilst trains are out of service:

- Operators are working to bring affected trains back in service
- LNER is bringing back two Intercity 225 trains early and will be in service this week.
- CrossCountry is operating shuttle services between Swindon and Bristol TempleMeads
- Great Northern is running 12 carriage trains, instead of 8, at peak times between London, Peterborough and Stevenage.
- Transport for Wales and South Western Railway have also strengthened services where possible...

LNER is expecting to bring two recently-withdrawn IC225 sets back into service later this week, but some services are already running again between London and Edinburgh. The problems are worse on GWR, where through services are being replaced by a series of shuttles and passengers are being advised not to try to travel today...

Britain's rail network can start to return to normal as many trains made by Japan's Hitachi which were withdrawn five days ago can re-enter service following safety tests, the government said on Thursday. But some disruption to services would continue due to the need for a long-term repair plan for the fleet, it warned...