It More misery is expected for commuters who return to work in the week ahead as a result of chaos on rail services.
Nearly one out of ten railway workers is suffering from Covid related sickness. As such, the current staff shortages which caused nearly a third to be cancelled in recent days are likely to continue.
Train operator Southern has announced that no services will run into or from London Victoria – Britain’s second busiest station – until January 10 due to high levels of ‘coronavirus isolation and sickness’ among staff.
Nearly one out of ten railway workers is suffering from Covid related sickness. As such, the staff shortages which forced cancellations of close to a third in recent days are likely to continue.
Network Rail is completing 370 engineering work over Christmas and New year, which will cause further disruption.
The upgrades include flood-protection enhancement work along the West Coast Mainline from Milton Keynes to Rugby.
James Dean, Network Rail’s West Coast South route director, confirmed the works would mean fewer services, more tightly packed carriages and longer journey times.
Analysis by ontimetrains.co.uk found passengers at Manchester Airport have been among the worst hit, where 30 per cent of scheduled services were axed on New Year’s Day.
On New Year’s Eve 30 per cent were also cancelled and 26 per cent on 30 December.
Pictured are people at London Euston Station on December 23rd. Train operator Southern has announced that no services will run into or from London Victoria – Britain’s second busiest station – until January 10 due to high levels of ‘coronavirus isolation and sickness’ among staff
Manchester Piccadilly was close by and was a major north-south hub for the West Coast Mainline. It also saw 16 percent, 20% and 15% of its services cancelled on these days.
Birmingham Moor Street was also affected by 17%, 26% and 22% cancellations, respectively.
The figures for Cardiff Central were 14%, 19% and 14% respectively, while Edinburgh saw 23 percent of services cancelled on 31/12 and 20% the previous day.
Some stations received less than half of their services on days when they were due.
Manchester Airport cancelled 39% services on the 19th of December, an astonishing figure that was higher than the 35 percent the day prior. This caused chaos for train passengers trying to get to the airport via air.
On December 19, 53 percent of Manchester Oxford Road’s services were cancelled. Just 20% of all services reached their destination on this day.
This is a problem for commuters who want to use the network again in the next days. Large swathes of people will be returning to work tomorrow after the Christmas holiday.
Industry body the Rail Delivery Group, which represents operators, insisted only about 5 per cent of services across the whole mainline network were axed on New Year’s Day.