The Chiltern service connects reasonably well at both Banbury and Leamington Spa to CrossCountry’s Birmingham New Street and Manchester Picadilly service thus preventing the need for the walk from Birmingham Moor Street and New Street in sub-zero temperatures. This, was not mentioned however. There were delays en-route due to a trespasser on the line on the Chiltern route and big delays on the route via Coventry due to a cracked rail. 

Now, a personal tip for passengers out there. Sometimes when things are going badly train operators put on special services to try to assist in getting people home. If you are on a different train operator’s train other than the one that is running the special service the existence of this will not be announced to you – you have to physically check the departure boards at stations. This happened to me while I was being diverted via Manchester on CrossCountry even though there was a direct train to my destination just a few minutes behind the service I was on.

The problems with the West Coast Mainline (WCML) seem to have gotten worse with issues at Bletchley, Rugby and now Wembley affecting also the Overground between London Euston and Watford Junction and the Bakerloo line is partly suspended as well. There are now genuine doubts about the ability of Virgin Trains to run its new enhanced Very High Frequency (VHF) service. Indeed, there have now been five days of disruption on the line which does nothing to improve the image of rail as a quick and reliable mode of transport.

An accusation has been leveled at Network Rail by the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) that, “the recent setbacks had occurred because the £9bn upgrade to the West Coast main line had been done in haste in order that it could be completed by the end of 2008.” It has been reported that the disruption has ‘cost’ businesses £38m.

Of course, with the recent inflation busting fare increases, passengers will not be feeling like giving an awful lot of goodwill to the train companies or Network Rail, especially with the all the buggering about train companies do with peak ticket restrictions now. This is shoddy deception from the published figures and a stop should be put to this.

The fare increases on the WCML should be postponed until mid-year as compensation for all, including those that followed advice from National Rail Enquiries not to travel unless absolutely necessary.

• Virgin expects to run a normal train service on Thursday 8th January 2009.

There are to be no rail reopenings considered except at local authority level for the next seven years, the electrification decision has been postponed again, there will be no decision on a new north-south high speed line until 2012 at the earliest, and there is little forward thinking and guidance from the Department for Transport in these matters. It, therefore, comes, also, as no surprise that ‘investment’ in roads is talked about quite a lot.

The Times ran a very interesting article detailing this phenomenum: the road network is growing fifteen times faster than the railway network. According to The Times, “In five of the past eleven years, no track was added to the domestic rail network, and in the peak years for rail growth, in 2001 and 2002, the network grew by only six miles a year.” Reopenings have happened in Wales and Scotland, however. The Highways Agency has 40 new projects in the planning stages and the only seriously considered railway project is Crossrail which only benefits London and the surrounding area.

It may come as another surprise that London is already quite well served by railway connections. What about the rest of the country? As usual, it seems like it doesn’t exist or is not of sufficient importance. A very sad situation. This is despite the fact that rail passenger miles have increased by fifty per cent compared to twelve per cent for roads.

This is hot on the heels of the announcement that BAA wishes to build a second runway at Stanstead and the third runway at Heathrow seems to be a given making domestic flying even more of an option. Flybe announced several new domestic routes recently all of which, there is no doubt, will cost less than the equivalent train journeys.

As the BBC recently highlighted in one of their news reports, it is now cheaper for two people to take a taxi from Bristol to London during peak hours as it costs £137 for a return ticket on the day, if you happen to have to attend an important business event in London, or some other short notice event. Similar prices open up opportunities for airlines to run fifty thousand seats between Manchester and London, despite train services operating every thirty minutes.

The changes to CrossCountry have enabled domestic flights to take off as there have been a massive reduction in the number of through trains to many destinations, almost doubling the duration of some journeys. It is quite absurd that it takes eight hours from Preston to Penzance, for example – and for quite a price too! Due to this, there are now 1,200 domestic flights per day, or 454,000 per year offering something in the region of fourty million seats. This is compared with thirty million in 2001.

The changes to CrossCountry and the changes to the portion now served by First Transpennine Express are starting to really affect people’s choice in how they travel. It seems absurd that a three car commuter train is operating InterCity services that people could be on for up to five hours from Manchester to Glasgow or Edinburgh. These trains are not suitable for such journeys and consequently when they reach top speed they feel like they are going to come off the track, the journey is horrendous according to some reports.

These problems are not going to go away over night. But what can we, the taxpayer and passenger, do about it? The answer is as usual: not a damn thing.

• Spain has the second best network punctuality rate in the entire world – 98.5%;
• It is aiming to have 10,000km of high speed track by 2020, the biggest network in the world;
• Renfe, the railway operator, is entirely stated owned.

One thing to note:

• Britain has 80 miles of high speed track.

The amazing story is that Spain has just started a new 186mph (300kph) service from Madrid to Barcelona. 410 miles (660km) in just 2.5 hours. The airlines are set for some huge competition, especially since all of the airport security hassle is negated when traveling by train and you can also use mobile phones and laptops on this new service. Flying takes about 3 hours door to door compared with this.

By comparison, London to Glasgow which is a shorter distance than this new line takes 4.5 hours with the fastest possible service but usually between 5 and 6 hours.

The other amazing thing is that the single fare that will be charged to passengers will be from 40 to 165 euros depending on class traveled and how far in advance it is booked. The walk on single fare for the shorter London to Glasgow route for second class is £130, or 172 euros. The first class open return fare is an eye watering £379, or 500 euros.

Interestingly, the train operator will give a fare refund of 50% if the train is 15-30 minutes and a full refund if the train is more than 30 minutes late. That is really customer service – from a state company.

It must be all of that private sector innovation that we are paying for these days. Train companies bleat on here about the cost being much lower for advance fares in our overly complex fare structure. Other countries offer low cost, affordable walk-on rail fares.

Spain isn’t just stopping there, however. There are plans as soon as this year to install new signalling that allows trains on the line to travel at 220mph (350kph) making the journey time faster still.

More information:

• Times Online
• Reuters
• Sky News