21st January 2009 -
Independent - Rail passengers face cut in services as recession bites
Train companies hit by fall in commuter numbers as Transport Secretary holds talks with 'big five' operators
21st January 2009 - The Times - Train companies demand bigger subsidies to protect falling profits
Train companies are demanding hundreds of millions of pounds extra a year from the taxpayer to shore up their profits after failing to hit their targets for increasing passenger numbers.
21st January 2009 - Telegraph - Rail cuts threat because of recession
Passengers face the threat of service cuts and shorter trains as a result of the recession.
21st January 2009 - Guardian - Railway firms ask Hoon for state aid as years of growth hit the buffers
Britain's train operators face a "potentially devastating" blow from the economic downturn and need government assistance to stave off disaster, public transport chiefs warned ministers yesterday.
Fed-up passengers demand drastic action on trains.
Train operator London Midland has repeated its claim that staff sickness was partly to blame for cancelled services.
9th January 2009 - Railnews - Host of train cancellations as crew shortages hit operator
Train company London Midland’s launch of extra and newly time-tabled services on modernised West Coast routes were marred by a large number of train cancellations caused by staff sickness, and by a technical problem on one of the company’s electric trains.
9th January 2009 - MK Citizen - West Coast Main Line suffers more problems
Signal fault ends week-long woes for travellers
Rail passengers have endured more misery with delays to services on the West Coast Main Line through Milton Keynes and Leighton Buzzard.
8th January 2009 - Railnews - Major probe launched by Network Rail into West Coast disruption
Network Rail has set up a special team led by its West Coast director Jo Kaye to investigate the cause of three failures of the overhead line equipment which brought chaos to the West Coast main line on 4, 5 and 6 January.
Initial investigations have shown the three incidents to have been unrelated and, with the newest of the components involved installed in mid-2006, not caused by ‘rushed completion of the west Coast project’ as has been claimed in some reports.
8th January 2009 - BBC - Rail chaos 'due to rushed work'
Disruption on the West Coast Main Line was caused by a "rush" to upgrade the route, it has been claimed.
7th January 2009 - Sky News - Travellers Furious At Rail Chaos
Rail passengers have suffered a sixth successive day of travel chaos on a main London to Scotland rail line that has just had a £9bn upgrade.
See full article at the Sky News website
7th January 2009 - BBC - Thousands suffer rail disruption
Rail passengers have suffered a sixth successive day of disruption on a major line after a power cable collapse halted all services to London Euston.
7th January 2009 - MK News - More rail chaos for commuters
Rail users are facing a third day of chaos at Milton Keynes Station this morning (Wednesday), with no trains running to London.
7th January 2009 - MK Citizen - Rail passengers face more chaos
Travellers urged to delay journeys
Rail passengers from Milton Keynes are facing long delays after a power failure halted all trains in and out of London Euston this morning
See full article at
www.miltonkeynes.co.uk
4th January 2009 - BBC - Trains hit by damaged power lines
Rail services between London Euston and Milton Keynes have been severely disrupted by damaged power lines.
30th December 2008 - HemelToday - Commuter threatens rail boycott
A train passenger from Hemel Hempstead has threatened to boycott rail firm London Midland after a terrible late-night journey and weeks of alleged poor service.
See full article at
www.hemeltoday.co.uk
24th December 2008 - Railnews - London Midland ‘sorry’ after big delays
Train operator London Midland has apologised for delays to thousands of home-bound commuters from London’s Euston station on 23 December.
Since the new winter timetables started on 14 December, LM has faced problems with staff shortages and had been forced to cancel a number of services.
17th December 2008 - Guardian - Busiest train operator may reduce services
Britain's busiest train operator has warned it could seek a cut in services if the economic downturn hits demand for travel, amid mounting evidence the rail franchise model is under severe pressure.
The boom on the commuter railways that come into the capital from the south is ending just as City workers are about to be hit with the biggest fare rises in years.
14th December 2008 - Network Rail - New timetable means new services for Milton Keynes
The completion of one of Europe’s biggest civil engineering projects means new opportunities for millions of rail passengers, including to and from Milton Keynes. The last piece of work on Network Rail’s £9bn upgrade of the London-Scotland West Coast main line has been completed, heralding a step-change in the frequency and speed of train services.
13th December - Daily Telegraph - More trains but some losers as new timetable starts
Journey times on some of Britain's key routes will be cut as more trains are set to run on Britain's railway network since the Beeching cuts of the early 1960s. Journey times on some of Britain's key routes will be cut as more trains are set to run on Britain's railway network since the Beeching cuts of the early 1960s.
2nd December 2008 - Railnews - Coucher hits back over hints of West Coast uncertainty
Network Rail chief executive Iain Coucher has hit back at critics who claim the modernisation of the West Coast main line will not be ready for the new winter timetable, which starts on 14 December.
