02/01/2008 10:54:11
Thousands of rail passengers struggled to return to work today, as station closures and over-running engineering works led to long delays and extended journey times.
London’s Liverpool Street Station was closed earlier this week so that a bridge could be demolished as part of the East London Line extension project. It was due to reopen today, but work had still not been completed, forcing passengers from Essex to end their journeys in Stratford, East London.
Rail infrastructure group Network Rail said that it expected a normal service to resume on Thursday 3 January, while Transport For London was advising passengers to use alternative routes into London.
Elsewhere, over-running engineering work in Rugby meant the West Coast Mainline was completely closed between Birmingham and Coventry stations, and Northampton. Commuters were offered replacement bus services, adding an extra two hours to their journey times.
Quoted by Times Online, Chris Gibb, managing director of Virgin Trains, rail operator on the West Coast Mainline, said: "This is a major inconvenience to tens of thousands of our customers returning to work and it is not acceptable. It is the third successive day that this project has overrun."
Both the disruption in the capital and in Rugby are further blows to Network Rail – the company was fined £2.4 million last year for failing to complete engineering work in the Portsmouth area on time.
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