UK: Christmas rail chaos expected

[John Ashworth]

Rail passengers face Christmas travel chaos over engineering work

Network Rail starts west coast line project on 23 December, meaning no direct services between London and Glasgow

Gwyn Topham, transport correspondent
The Guardian, Thursday 20 September 2012 21.13 BST

Up to 100,000 people are facing the prospect of severe delays during the Christmas getaway, as Network Rail embarks on a huge engineering project on the west coast mainline on 23 December.

For the two days leading up to Christmas there will be no direct services between London and some of the country's biggest cities – Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool or Glasgow. As well as causing misery for passengers, the plans will be an unwelcome gift to FirstGroup, which is due to take over the running of the line from Richard Branson's Virgin Group just two weeks earlier.

Traditionally the line's busiest time of the year, with 100,000 travelling on 24 December alone, every passenger heading to Milton Keynes and beyond from London Euston will compete to board a slow, hourly service to Nuneaton to wait for onward trains – a station with no shops or cash machine and only a single place to buy food.

There will be long delays with Network Rail forecasting at least 45 minutes to one hour and 20 minutes extra on journey times while they carry out work at Bletchley junction. Although the upgrade of the west coast line was officially completed at the end of 2008 at a cost of £9bn, rail insiders say the scaled-back programme of works failed to address old signalling and cables that now require substantial work four years on.

The line closes completely over Christmas with limited direct services resuming on 27 December as engineering work continues up until the new year. Full services only resume in January.

A Network Rail spokesman said the investment would mean more capacity, increased reliability and faster speeds on the tracks around Milton Keynes, benefiting all the passengers who travel on the west coast line. He added: "We understand the impact this work will have on passengers and have worked hard to keep the most disruptive parts of this £125m project to an absolute minimum."

The disruption will occur a fortnight after FirstGroup is due to take over the running of the line from Virgin, although the current legal dispute makes that date look difficult to achieve.

Virgin's franchise expires on 9 December, and Branson has offered to continue running the trains on a non-profit basis while the legal issue is resolved.

The Department for Transport issued papers to the high court acknowledging the lawsuit brought by Virgin before the contract for FirstGroup to run the franchise until 2026 could be signed. Virgin alleges that the franchising process did not adequately safeguard against perceived risk in the winning bid. The DfT has requested a hearing as soon as possible, as a judge is yet to be appointed and the DfT will have to submit evidence before any court date – meaning the legal tussle will likely drag on into autumn, preventing a timely signoff of the handover to FirstGroup.

The DfT is still hoping that FirstGroup will be able to take over in December but are making contingency plans for Directly Operated Railways (Dor), the state company currently running the east coast main line, to step in.

The 3,200 staff currently working for Virgin Trains will be transferred to a new company under employment protection legislation, but the RMT union has warned that this process is too complex to happen in a short space of time. The handover will also require physical changes including repainting trains and issuing new staff uniforms, to financial and ticketing handovers and the signing of hundreds of new contracts with suppliers.

The union is now in parallel discussions with both FirstGroup and Dor. A spokesman said the DfT was taking a "cavalier and totally inappropriate approach", adding: "We want the line taken over by Dor as a matter of urgency and for the long term – there's no point in going through this charade again in the next few months."

Tickets bought in advance by passengers from Virgin or other suppliers will remain valid whoever is running the service in December.