Train delays: Passengers react to 'badly treated' report

20 September 2018

Passengers were badly treated by rail companies during an ambitious timetable change earlier this year, a report by an industry regulator has found. The Office of Rail and Road said "no-one took charge" during the transition, which mainly affected Northern Trains in north-west England and Govia Thameslink (GTR) routes into London.

It said track manager Network Rail, the two train operators and the Department for Transport "had all made mistakes". BBC News asked commuters for their reactions to the disruption and the report.

St Albans

Will Tucker: "We haven't been listened to"

Will Tucker, 33, commutes to and from London three or four times a week.

"The report today shows that Govia Thameslink and Network Rail weren't ready to implement the timetable change - but they went ahead ahead regardless," he said.

"The thousands of St Albans commuters who were delivered a terrible service have no faith in another timetable change which is due in December.

"From the very beginning - we haven't been listened to."

Brighton

Alex Dowd: "I just think it's ridiculous"

Alex Dowd, 25, is a modelling agent who commutes from Brighton to London.

"I've been late numerous times, nearly everyday sometimes up to about an hour. I usually get into work for 9am but on one occasion I didn't get in until 11am, so it has been quite detrimental to my daily schedule.

"There was no announcement, there was no nothing, it was just you turn up on the day and absolutely nothing would be available, or delays without any sort of warning or anything.

"I just think it's ridiculous. I don't understand why nobody could have made it smoother, or given us an idea of how bad it actually was going to be, otherwise I would have taken action to get to work. For some people they ended up losing jobs over it."

Alex Fisher: "There's not been the right sort of management"

Alex Fisher, a 23-year-old kitchen porter, commutes from London to Brighton.

"It's an everyday matter that's pretty much something that we have come to accept.

"It's often the case of Thameslink trains being delayed. Since the new timetable came out in May, there's often been delays or cancellations.

"I think they've got the idea of what they are trying to achieve for us, but there's quite a few flaws that need correcting."

Poulton le Fylde, Lancashire

Steve Malone: "Disastrous commutes"

Steve Malone, 53, from Poulton-le-Fylde, near Blackpool, was a victim of a succession of cancellations when he was commuting to Wolverhampton, where he works at the university.

He said his employer was understanding, but he had also experienced "disastrous" commutes to Manchester and the airport in particular.

When he was going on holiday his train was cancelled five minutes before it was due.

"The most galling for me is that the National Rail live train times app says the train is on time when I'm on the station platform - then it gets cancelled," he said.

"I have ended up driving to Preston, which defeats the object of 'letting the train take the strain'."

Windermere

John Marchant: "Tourists avoided the area"

Taxi driver John Marchant says trains at Windermere railway station had been "chaotic on and off for a couple of years now".

The stoppage on the Lakes Line over the summer had led to a marked reduction in his income.

"You don't know if one is going to turn up or not," he said.

"I think a lot of tourists decided they weren't coming to the area because there were no connections.

"They've either been coming in their own cars or not at all. Tourists coming from abroad usually come into Manchester or London airports and then come here by train, so they faced disruptions.

"There were last minute cancellations of trains".

Liz Chegwin, from Mountain Goat Tours, which also runs the Tourist Information Centre in the town, described the situation as "chaotic".

"We've had lots of customers coming in wanting to know information, and we're not sure what to tell them, where the trains are etc.

"Customers, especially internationals, coming up from London to the Lake District are worried about the timeframe. They might have a limited time here so they want to make the most of it."