'Rail Misery', Five Live Report/The Observer

Sunday, January 19, 2003

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Minister: no end in sight to rail chaos By James Silver

It is the news which will come as no surprise to Britain's long-suffering rail passengers.

Transport Secretary Alistair Darling admits today he cannot say when, if ever, Britain will have an efficient and reliable rail system.

Just days after the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA), the Government body overseeing the railways, announced that more than 100 trains a day would be slashed from timetables in a bid to cut congestion and boost efficiency, Darling declines to say when passengers can expect to travel on a fully modernised rail network on which delays, cancellations, lack of information, overcrowding and filthy toilets become the exception rather than the norm.

Speaking on today's Five Live Report, a downbeat Darling admits current standards are unacceptable. 'The railways have got a long, long way to go before they're providing the sort of service passengers expect,' he says. 'It would be misleading to pick an arbitrary date and say by that date it will all be perfect.

'In many ways 2003 will be the crunch year for the industry. It's got to show it's getting to grips with these problems. But it will take time. We're sorting out the consequences of a chaotic and botched privatisation.'

Recent figures show that one in five trains on Britain's railways is delayed, while complaints by passengers to Train Operating Companies (TOCs) have risen by nearly 25 per cent.

Darling says: 'Reliability was improving, but following Hatfield and the problems that exposed, performance got substantially worse.'

(BBC Five Live Report, The Observer January 19th, 2003)

Posted by James Silver - On Sunday, January 19, 2003

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