Rail chaos is now depressingly familiar

It wouldn’t be Christmas without chaos on the railways and jams on the roads. Sometimes these are beyond anyone’s control – Storm Gerrit has played havoc in the North and Scotland, bringing down trees and flooding rail tracks and roads. Trains on the West Coast mainline were halted, while East Midlands and Thameslink trains were also disrupted. Dover saw delays for the ferries and crossings in Scotland were affected by strong winds, with blizzards in the Highlands. 

While the vagaries of winter weather are impossible to overcome, the festive season has also been blighted by engineering works and disrupted services. Two of London’s principal train stations, King’s Cross and Paddington were either closed or disrupted on Christmas Eve. This was justified to carry out engineering works, but did these have to take place on what is known to be one of the busiest days of the year for travelling? 

Elsewhere, we have grown used to “don’t travel” edicts, which are just a counsel of defeat. Many people have no option and resent being told to stay put “unless absolutely necessary”. 

The New Year is about to dawn with no obvious end to the problems. The one saving grace was the absence of strikes over Christmas but the drivers’ union Aslef is still seemingly in dispute with the Rail Delivery Group and has voted for another six months of industrial action, though no dates have yet been announced and two weeks’ notice is needed. Aslef should join the RMT in settling its grievances rather than inflict more misery on train users and an economy teetering on the edge of recession. 

The large pay increases seemingly demanded by the unions will almost certainly be higher than price rises next year with inflation falling rapidly. Moreover, the people who have to foot the bill for this are often less well rewarded and certainly do not have the same job security as train drivers. 

At least regulated fares are going up less than might have been the case after the Government pegged January’s increase in England to 4.9 per cent rather than July’s RPI figure of 9 per cent. As a year of rail mayhem ends we can be grateful for small mercies.