Elizabeth line boss apologises to commuters caught up in rush-hour meltdown
Commuters relying on the Elizabeth line suffered a miserable morning rush hour on Monday as a broken train caused massive disruption to Britain's busiest rail service.
TFL initially said there was no service between Abbey Wood and Paddington because of a faulty train at Farringdon, although trains were running by early afternoon but with severe delays.
One train was reportedly stuck in a tunnel for an hour with commuters bound for Paddington complaining their trains only made it to Liverpool Street before terminating.
One passenger, Charlie Tottenham, wrote on social media: ”Every bloody day there’s problems on the Elizabeth Line. It’s beyond a joke at this point.”
Every bloody day there's problems on the Elizabeth Line. It's beyond a joke at this point. pic.twitter.com/BSDyz3BES8
— Carlie Tottman (@CarlieTotts) January 22, 2024
Another commuter, Susan Taylor, asked: “Is there ever going to be a whole day (let alone a week!) where the #elizabethline actually runs a normal service without line failure/broken trains? It’s constantly poor”.
A third X user, @MyLondon, wrote that one train had been stuck in a tunnel for an hour. "Time to shove out @sadiqkhan and replace him with someone competent," they wrote.
Feel so sorry for these folks on this train. The 9Y58 has been stuck in the tunnel for the past hour!
Time to shove out @sadiqkhan and replace him with someone competent #ElizabethLine #Crossrail #TFL @TFL pic.twitter.com/UEKvG6udjn— My Woolwich (@MyWoolwich) January 22, 2024
The service was back up and running by 3pm.
Howard Smith, director of the Elizabeth line for TfL, said: “We apologise to customers who were delayed on the Elizabeth line this morning due to a significant train fault at Farringdon station.
"All trains were gradually brought into station platforms, and I would like to thank customers for their patience while we removed the faulty train.”
It comes after Mayor Sadiq Khan apologised for the high levels of disruption on the service.
Speaking in October, he said it was “not good enough” and commuters were not getting “a first class service”.
In December, the head of Network Rail apologised for the industry “letting down” thousands of passengers who were trapped on trains in west London - as he revealed he was on board one of the stricken services.
Andrew Haines said the incident, that followed damage to overhead electric cables that sparked chaos across the network, was “not one of our finest moments” and the rail system had “failed” while admitting “we have gone backwards on customer service”.
Thousands of passengers were trapped for about four hours in west London with seven trains — four Elizabeth line, two Heathrow Express and a Great Western Railway intercity service — stranded when the GWR train crashed into broken power lines near Ladbroke Grove.
It later emerged the train was being driven by a manager replacing a striking driver.Passengers on the packed Elizabeth line trains, including families heading into central London for Christmas shows, travellers who had landed at Heathrow and TV presenter Rachel Riley, were eventually led along the tracks to safety at about 10.30pm.
Figures showed that last summer one in six trains were either delayed or cancelled.
Data from the Office for Rail and Road (ORR) shows that in the four weeks to August 19 last year the Elizabeth Line has the most cancellations of any rail service in the country at 9.1%.