Network Rail finally reveals the reason they ruined Christmas for thousands of fed-up travellers: 'We ran out of train drivers'
- Report released by Network Rail into overrunning Christmas work
- There were 'not enough drivers at King's Cross to complete work'
- Drivers reached their shift duration limits and could not be replaced
- Paddington and King's Cross were due to reopen on December 27
- But Paddington was closed all morning and King's Cross all day
- Paddington safety work which should have taken two hours took ten
- King's Cross trains stopped at Finsbury Park, but trains were so crowded passengers could not disembark
- Others had to queue at Finsbury Park for up to three hours
- Row led to National Rail boss Mark Carne giving up annual bonus
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The Christmas train chaos which left thousands of passengers stranded was partly caused by a lack of train drivers, a Network Rail report has found.
Poor
planning, equipment failures and communication breakdowns all
contributed to the overrunning engineering work which led problems at
London stations Paddington, King's Cross and Finsbury Park.
Passengers
complaining of cancelled or severely delayed trains, sardine-like
conditions and unexpected closures, and the ensuing row over the
overruns eventually led to National Rail's chief executive Mark Carne
announcing he would not be taking his 2014/15 annual bonus which could
have been as high as £135,000.
And the chaos at King's Cross was heightened when Network Rail could not find enough train drivers to assist with the completion of work on tracks outside the station.
Work had slowed 'to a crawl' by the end of Christmas Day as there was just one driver for five trains across the site.
Drivers
for the engineering trains that did work were in short supply and had
to go home because they ran out of time after using up their ‘maximum
shift limit’ – with no one available to replace them. Rail bosses shut
King’s Cross and transferred passengers and trains to Finsbury Park,
North London, which was then overwhelmed by dangerous levels of
overcrowding.
'Whilst
all the drivers involved were cooperative and committed to completing
the project, they reached their maximum shift duration limits, which for
safety reasons cannot be exceeded,' the report states, according to the Telegraph.
'The
huge amount of construction activity over Christmas required the
support of over 200 engineering trains. This demand exhausted the
national supply of freight train drivers and some planned work had
already been cancelled in the run up to Christmas because it could not
be supported by train crew.'
At
the height of the chaos there was just one driver to handle five
engineering trains along a nine-mile stretch of track as the engineering
timetable ran out of control and work ‘slowed to a crawl’.
Today's
report has found that while physical work near London's Paddington
station was completed on time, safety validation work that should have
taken two hours instead took ten.
And
when work near King’s Cross overran the trains were switched to start
and finish at Finsbury Park station but 'not enough was done' to manage
passenger flow at Finsbury Park which had to close for a time, so great
was the crush.
Works
should have been completed so King's Cross and Paddington could open on
Saturday, December 27, after being closed for Christmas Day and Boxing
Day.
But King’s Cross remained shut all day and Paddington only opened in the early afternoon.
Network
Rail could now face fines of tens of millions of pounds from rail
watchdogs over the engineering works at Holloway Junction north of
King’s Cross and Old Oak Common between Paddington and Maidenhead.
Mr
Carne, who earns £675,000 and was directing operations from his holiday
in Cornwall at the height of the chaos, apologised for the fiasco.
He
said today: 'A number of things went wrong in these two instances. In
addition it is clear that our project back-up plans and the train
service plans should have done a much better job in protecting the
travelling public from our engineering problems.
'Over
Christmas, we undertook the biggest programme of engineering and
investment work ever, on train lines across the country. Ninety-nine per
cent went to plan but in the case of King’s Cross and Paddington we let
passengers down.
'I
sincerely apologise for the disruption over the festive period and we
are determined to learn the lessons so that we can continue to make the
improvements the travelling public deserve.'
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Anthony
Smith, chief executive of the rail customer watchdog Passenger Focus,
said: 'On the basis of this report and the events on the day the
industry has a long way to go to restore trust in how it handles these
events
'There
was no reliable Plan B at King’s Cross, so Finsbury Park was pressed
into action. At Paddington confusion reigned. Overall few staff were
around, information was patchy at best and no-one seemed in overall
control. Passengers and government are pouring billions into the
railways - they deserve better than this.'
Nigel Harris, editor of Rail magazine, said: ‘Network Rail could not have handled this in a worse manner. It was excruciating.’
The
work affecting King’s Cross was carried out at Holloway in north London
by National Rail in partnership with engineering company Amey.
Today’s
report said there was a succession of equipment failures which stalled
progress and there was insufficient contingency in the project plan to
ensure the work would finish in time for services to run on December 27.
There were also delays in putting together a recovery plan with the train companies, the report added.
It
went on: 'Not enough was done in both the planning and the
implementation to ensure appropriately managed passenger flow at
Finsbury Park; in particular a failure to implement an agreed platform
strategy that would have separated alighting and boarding passengers.'
The
report also said there were 'mutual failings in the communications
between National Rail and Govia Thameslink Railway, who manage Finsbury
Park station, around the implementation of the contingency plan'.
National
Rail said that, by 10.30am on December 27, Finsbury Park had become so
crowded 'that passengers on incoming trains were even unable to alight'.
The
station was shut for around 30 minutes with some passengers having to
queue outside for as long as two to three hours, the report said.
The
work affecting Paddington was carried out at Old Oak Common in north
west London by signalling framework suppliers Signalling Solutions Ltd
(SSL).
According
to the report, the 3.30am December 27 completion of the physical work
on this project should have allowed for a 7am start of services at
Paddington given that the paperwork checks and testing verifications
would have been expected to be completed in one to two hours.
But this work was not finished until 1.14pm.
What
should have been a two-hour job for ‘safety validation, testing and
sign-off’ stretched to ten hours and meant that services from 7am had to
be cancelled ‘without warning’.
On
the paperwork delay, the report said: 'A lack of warning that this work
was delayed and frequent changes to the forecast completion time made
it difficult to plan an effective train service.'
National
Rail added that several thousand passengers using Paddington on
December 27 were affected by 'cancelled and severely delayed services'.
The report said that National Rail was taking action to ensure there was no repeat of the failings.
In
a foreword to the report, Mr Carne said: “On December 27 thousands of
passengers using King’s Cross and Paddington services, many of whom were
travelling home after visiting friends and family over the holiday
period, experienced significant disruption.
'They suffered both inconvenience and discomfort and I want to unreservedly apologise to everyone who was affected.'
He
went on: 'In very complex projects sometimes simple things go wrong and
these can snowball in short periods of time to become major issues.
'Our
contingency plans should address these issues and protect passengers
from our problems as far as possible. And our industry service recovery
plans should minimise the impact of any disruption once it has occurred.
On these occasions we simply did not do these things well enough.'
A
second review of the December 27 failings is being carried out by rail
industry body the Rail Delivery Group. The Office of Rail Regulation
(ORR) has also launched an inquiry.
Mr Carne said the possibility of moving big engineering projects away from the Christmas period was being investigated.
Transport
Secretary Patrick McLoughlin said: 'I am grateful to National Rail for
this detailed and considered report into what went wrong with its
engineering works over the Christmas period.
'I
expect NR to take the necessary steps to ensure its recommendations,
and any further measures arising in the light of the separate report
being prepared by the ORR, are adopted quickly and fully.'
He
added: 'Engineering projects on this scale are vital to maintain and
grow the network. Passenger support is equally vital as they are paying
for the work and bear the brunt of any disruption.
'That
is why the industry must take any and every opportunity to improve how
it manages the impact on passengers caused by major engineering work,
especially the need for good contingency planning in case things go
wrong.
'Passengers will rightly judge NR by its actions and its performance.'
Mick
Cash, general secretary of the RMT transport union, said: 'At the core
of this report is the clearest possible message that more than two
decades of privatisation, fragmentation and under-investment has left
Britain's railways with a backlog of maintenance and renewals work that
is simply impossible to shoehorn in during the limited window offered
over the Christmas break.
'To try and pretend that we can squeeze a quart into a pint pot does no-one any favours.'
He
went on: 'The problems on Britain's railways are compounded by yet
another slab of cuts being demanded from National Rail by the Government
through their agents the ORR.
'Pile
on the ludicrous proliferation of casualised contractors and agencies
looking to make a quick buck and it is no surprise to us that we ended
up with the shambles played out over Christmas and ever since.'
An
ORR spokesman said its investigation would 'establish whether there is
evidence that Natrional Rail or any train operator may have breached
their licences, and any wider observations for the industry in
determining what lessons should be learnt to improve performance for
passengers in the future'.
The
second review announced by Mr Carne is being overseen by a Rail
Delivery Group working party led by Tim O'Toole, chief executive of
transport company FirstGroup.
Mr
O'Toole said: 'National Rail is spending £38 billion over five years to
build a better railway and meet the booming demand for train travel,
helping to drive Britain's economic growth.
'Major
projects such as those completed over the Christmas period are crucial
to the continued improvement and high safety levels of our railway.'
He
went on: 'But thousands of passengers did not get the service they
deserved in the days following Christmas. So it's right that the
industry takes a good look at how it plans improvement works, and the
best time to carry these out.'
The full report can now be viewed at the following link:
http://www.networkrail.co.uk/review-into-disruption-affecting-kings-cross-and-paddington-services-27-December-2014.pdf
See also comment at the following link:
http://www.theconstructionindex.co.uk/news/view/network-rail-blames-tools-for-over-runs
