Engineers work through the night to sort out West Coast Mainline
Liberal Democrat transport spokesman Norman Baker said: “Natural events do occur, but NR needs to build more resilience into the network.
“It seems that if there’s a light dusting of snow within 40 miles of a rail line something will go wrong.”
Michael Lee, director of access planning and performance for the Office of Rail Regulation, said: “We sympathise totally with passengers who have suffered disruption over the last few days, and expect Network Rail to resolve these problems as quickly as possible.”
Gerry Doherty, leader of the TSSA rail union, said: “This is the second year running that travellers have had to face new year chaos on the West Coast line despite assurances from NR that the much-delayed upgrade work had finally been finished.
“Passengers should be given full refunds for the past three days and NR should explain why passengers are suffering these shambolic breakdowns after £10 billion of taxpayers’ money has been spent on this upgrade.”
This is the second new year running that rail passengers have had to endure long hold-ups.
Last year three major engineering projects - including one on the West Coast line at Rugby - overran, resulting in travel chaos. NR was later fined a record £14 million by the Office of Rail Regulation.
Chairman of the Transport Select Committee Louise Ellman said: “Network Rail’s current failures on the West Coast Main Line are unacceptable coming so soon after the completion of the £9 billion upgrade.
“This is the third consecutive time that Network Rail has let passengers down at the beginning of the new year.
“Last year Network Rail was fined a record £14 million after it left thousands of passengers stranded.
“Network Rail must conduct an urgent investigation into the reasons for this massive breakdown and take action to restore confidence in the rail system in which so much public money has been invested.”
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