Chaos on the railways
The Briefing Room
BBC
4.8 • 731 Ratings
🗓️ 2 August 2018
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In May, what was billed as the biggest ever overhaul of train timetables led to widespread rail disruption - why has this new timetable caused such rail chaos this summer?
Since then, passengers travelling on the services of two rail franchises - Govia Thameslink and Northern - have suffered weeks of cancellations and delays. The overhaul was aimed at improving punctuality and boosting capacity, but what passengers got was hundreds of trains removed from service as the franchises struggled to cope with the planned changes.
Transport Secretary Chris Grayling has defended his handling of the situation and pointed the finger at the rail industry - but who is really responsible? And can long-suffering passengers trust that the disruption will finally be brought to an end - and not repeated?
David Aaronovitch assesses what led to such chaos on the railway and what the disruption says about the state of Britain's railways.
CONTRIBUTORS
Tony Miles, Modern Railways magazine
Dieter Helm CBE, Professor of Economic Policy at Oxford University.
Lord Adonis, former Transport Secretary and former Chairman of the National Infrastructure Commission.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is the BBC. |
| 0:03.1 | Welcome to the briefing room with me, David Oronovich. |
| 0:06.3 | The idea is that you and I enter a virtual room |
| 0:08.9 | and get briefed together on the important questions of the day |
| 0:12.0 | by people who know what they're talking about. |
| 0:14.9 | If you like it, if you don't, or you just have a thought about it, |
| 0:18.3 | please let us know what you think by writing a review |
| 0:20.4 | or rating us on iTunes or your podcast provider. |
| 0:24.1 | This week, we're asking, what does the rail timetable fiasco tell us about the future of our railways? |
| 0:31.4 | And if you enjoy this podcast, you might want to download other editions of the briefing room. |
| 0:35.6 | Last time, for example, we asked what kind of relationship with the European Union Britain is looking for after Brexit. |
| 0:50.2 | Meet Lorna Fitzpatrick, who commutes daily from Burnley to Leeds or this summer has been trying to. |
| 0:57.9 | I have this dread every single morning because I know that the train's probably going to be late |
| 1:02.0 | and I'm probably not going to get to work on time as usual. |
| 1:05.4 | Every single aspect of my life revolves around this train and I'm just absolutely sick of it. |
| 1:10.1 | I'm at the end of my tether. |
| 1:11.4 | It's had such a massive impact on my life, my professional and my personal life, |
| 1:16.2 | and I can't be the only one in this situation. She isn't. Lawner uses Northern Rail, |
| 1:22.2 | which on Monday reintroduced services which were scrapped after timetable meltdowns in May. |
| 1:28.7 | Earlier, down south, Govia-Thameslink unveiled the third new timetable for its trains in less than two months. |
| 1:36.3 | This is Emily Ketching, Harpenden to London via purgatory. |
| 1:41.3 | What that means for real people in the real world is we won't be able to drop our kids off |
... |
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