Intercity rail passengers face summer disruption amid slashed services and strike votes | Rail transport
Intercity rail passengers face potential disruptions on Great Britain’s three north-south main lines this summer; drivers are voting for strike action on two lines and schedules are being cut due to broken trains on the other.
East Midlands Railway has announced it will cancel hundreds of services from its intercity timetable on the Midland main line in the coming weeks due to ongoing problems with its Hitachi train fleet.
Train drivers’ union Aslef has called for a strike vote for LNER, which operates trains between London and Scotland, after a pay deal failed. Drivers are currently voting on whether to take a pay cut at Avanti West Coast.
EMR has canceled around 20 high-speed trains a day between London, Sheffield and Nottingham, while others will be short-lived and likely crowded. At the time of its launch less than a year ago, the new class 810 fleet, previously called Auroras, suffered from what EMR called “performance and reliability issues.”
The operator also criticized Hitachi’s maintenance of class 222 trains, the existing fleet the Auroras will replace, saying this “significantly impacts EMR’s ability to operate a consistent intercity service”.
Will Rogers, EMR Managing Director, said: “The performance of the 810 class fleet has fallen below the levels we and our customers expect and it is necessary to temporarily implement a shortened timetable whilst working with manufacturer Hitachi Rail to improve consistency in service.
“We apologize for the significant disruption and inconvenience these issues have caused our customers and we are committed to restoring the reliable service they rightly expect.”
Dual-mode trains running on diesel and electricity were put into service this year after a three-year delay.
Investigations into last month’s fatal Bedford rail crash are still trying to determine what caused one of EMR’s new Aurora trains to stop on the main line before crashing into another EMR train that ran a red light, apparently due to a fault in the automatic warning system.
Train drivers on the other two main northbound intercity lines from London could all go on strike in late August after Aslef votes on the LNER on Friday.
General Secretary Dave Calfe said: “The company’s failure to make a suitable offer is unacceptable and that is why we are voting our members for industrial action.”
The union said the Department for Transport had refused to sign the agreed pay deal with the state-owned East Coast operator.
The vote comes two weeks after Aslef announced he would hold a similar vote amid frustrated wage negotiations at Avanti West Coast. The union’s failure to renew the off-day working contract led to some cancellations.
The DfT has been approached for comment.
