Rail passengers have been delayed or disrupted on more than half of all train services leaving 15 of Britain’s busiest stations over the past year, according to Guardian analysis, exposing the which has been described as a “broken” rail system that cannot be easily fixed.
Experts said the figures, which show rail services in the North and Midlands as worst hit, showed the impact of two decades of privatisation, which increased costs and public subsidies, combined with labor shortages of work aggravated by the pandemic.
The analysis came as industrial action paralyzed the rail network on Christmas Day. Millions who had to travel instead turned to their cars as members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union went on strike as part of a long-running dispute over pay, jobs and conditions. The AA calculated that 15.2 million vehicles were on the roads on Christmas Day.
The railway unions have planned several more strike days in the first week of January. The RMT union plans to strike for four days in early January, and the Aslef union, which represents the drivers, is striking on January 5.
Guardian analysis of rail delay and cancellation data from performance tracking site OnTimeTrains found that Manchester Oxford Road was the worst performing station in terms of the severity of delays experienced by passengers. Of trains leaving the station, 48% were delayed and more than one in 10 were canceled in the year to 18 December.
Chart showing the 10 worst railway stations in Britain by percentage of trains canceled in 2022 Chart showing the worst UK railway stations by delays in 2022
The analysis, which looked at Britain’s 100 busiest stations, found that stations in the North and Midlands tended to receive proportionally more delays and cancellations.
Tom Haines-Doran, author of Derailed: How to Fix Britain’s Broken Railways, said the figures on the extent of rail disruption were further evidence of a completely broken system.
“In every sense of the word, the railroads are not working, they are dysfunctional in every important way,” he said. “And that means that fixing them is not just a simple task of fixing one or two aspects. The whole system is broken and it’s going to take a lot of effort and a lot of money to fix it.”
Figures obtained by the Guardian this month revealed the level of disruption suffered by passengers in the north and the stark regional gap in rail reliability in Britain.
The data showed 20% of TransPennine Express trains were canceled in November, compared with 2.3% for a commuter line in and out of London and 4.5% for the London Overground .
Haines-Doran said the dire state of the railways was due to a “perfect storm”. “We have a situation where railways are costing more than ever, fares are higher than ever and yet cancellations and delays also seem to be higher than ever. The failures of privatization are coming home to haunt us financially and in terms of system dysfunction.”
A spokesman for the Rail Delivery Group, the rail industry’s membership body, said the long-term impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on staff numbers, as well as extreme weather events and rail strikes , were to blame.
The analysis shows that Coventry was the second worst performing station for the severity of delays, with 63% of the station’s trains delayed and 5% cancelled.
Coventry was followed by Milton Keynes (58% delayed, 5% cancelled), Crewe (47% delayed, 6% cancelled) and Preston (38% delayed, 11% cancelled).
Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you through the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertisements and content funded by third parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Other Manchester stations were also among the worst performers. Manchester Piccadilly had 9% of trains canceled and 37% delayed, while 8% of trains were canceled and 32% delayed at Manchester Victoria.
In London, the worst performing station was East Croydon, followed by St Pancras and then Blackfriars. All three stations are on the Thameslink service between Bedford and Brighton.
The figures were collected by OnTimeTrains from open data sources. The website assigns a score to each based on the punctuality of the trains. Those who arrive on time are assigned 100%, dropping to 10% for a delay of more than 10 minutes, and 0% for a cancellation.
Cancellation figures only include those services canceled on the day. Trains pre-emptively canceled up to 10pm the night before do not appear in industry systems and delay refund claims are not allowed in these circumstances, meaning that the true level of disruption to the rail is even higher in some stations.
A spokesman for the Rail Delivery Group said: “The pandemic reduced the number of drivers and other staff that could be trained in 2020 and 2021, while staff absence rates have inevitably been higher since it began pandemic. Unfortunately, these absences often lead to delayed and canceled services. But train operators across the industry have been working tirelessly to recruit and train new staff to improve resilience.”
Extreme weather events also increased, the spokesman said, explaining that in the past 15 months the industry had faced storms Franklin and Eunice, extreme temperatures of more than 40C and flooding. Strikes by three railway unions, meanwhile, had “caused serious disruption to services both on strike days and on both days”.
The spokesman added: “We are working hard to agree reforms to working practices with our staff so that we can fund a pay rise for them and meet the changing needs of our customers, as well as raise awareness of Delay Repay, while making the process easier with automatic one-click compensation for delays as short as 15 minutes.”
The Guardian reported this year that train cancellations across Britain reached a record high, with one in 26 of all train journeys canceled or partially canceled in the year to 15 of October