Christmas rail passengers facing perfect storm of delays and disruption

Christmas travellers are facing delays and disruption on the rail network with a perfect storm of new timetables, strikes and engineering works.

Passengers have been warned that there will be “significant changes” to normal services from line upgrades and the unions have been accused of “holding the most precious time of the year to ransom” as they plan walk outs for the busiest shopping days.

Rail carriers across the country including London North Eastern Railway, Hull Trains, Grand Central, South Eastern and Virgin Trains West Coast could also see a disruption after a new timetable came into force on Sunday.

The last timetable change, in May, caused chaos with almost half of all passenger services affected by delays and cancellations and leading to a damning report from the Transport Select Committee.

Huw Merriman, the Conservative MP for Bexhill and Battle who sits on the committee, said; “It’s welcome that the two train operators responsible for the botched timetable changes in May are not part of December’s planned changes. To make this work, the other train operators and, in particular, Network Rail, must have learned the lessons which our committee’s report starkly highlighted. 

“With the inevitable Christmas shut-down for engineering works, and with the unions yet again holding the most precious time of the year to ransom, these timetable changes need to work to enable long-suffering passengers to get back home for Christmas.”

Delays and cancellations will hit some of the country’s most crowded rail routes when RMT members on South Western Railway launch fresh strike action on December 22 in the long running dispute over the role of train guards.

It is the final Saturday before Christmas and traditionally sees city centres flooded with shoppers making a last dash for presents.

Members of the union on Northern Rail are striking for 24 hours on every Saturday for the rest of the year in the same dispute.

Tim Farron, MP for South Lake District, has said that they service the operator Arriva is providing is “simply not acceptable”.

The strikes come alongside engineering work which will see severe disruption on several lines, including out London Paddington, London Victoria and Manchester Victoria, some of the busiest stations in the country.

Network Rail is warning that some routes will have "significant changes to normal services" and urged people to plan their journeys as early as possible.

Bruce Williamson, of campaign group Railfuture, said that he was hopeful that the latest timetable changes would not be too disruptive as they are fairly modest, but he noted: “There is always a risk. The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.”

He said; “Undoubtedly rail users have had a difficult year. The strikes are regrettable as this is still a dispute about guards and this is an issue that has been resolved on other franchises. Why is it persisting in these regions? There is clearly a solution. This is frustrating, annoying and inconvenient for passengers.”