After the criticism heaped upon Network Rail following engineering overruns in the past, in December 2008 Network Rail were quick to applaud their own "massive achievement" in finally completing the 9,000,000,000 pound sterling upgrade of the West Coast Main Line.
It was a genuine tragedy that the crash of a light aircraft near Little Haywood in Staffordshire closed the line on 2nd January 2009, immediately following re-opening after the Christmas engineering closures. Almost as soon as the line was re-opened, a train brought down the overhead at Watford, causing widespread cancellation and delay on 5th January 2009. On Tuesday, another train brought down the overhead at Bletchley and, for good measure, workmen shorted an overhead cable at Nuneaton. Again, there were delays and cancellations. The passengers had to be evacuated from one train at Wembley after enduring freezing conditions for over a hour. And then, on Wednesday, a train brought down the overhead at Kenton, resulting in cancellation of all services for the day.
On Thurday 8th January 2009 I had to travel to London for a meeting and I approached the station at Wolverhampton with some trepidation (and notes about possible alternative journeys via Chiltern Line to Marylebone and Arriva Cross Country to Paddington). Of course, the beginning of the year has brought the usual above-inflation fare increases (up to 11% for some fares) which the Train Operating Companies justify as the price for improving the railway. At Wolverhampton I was assured that trains were currently running normally and, indeed, the 09:45 departure was only 8 minutes late away at 09:53. This was caused by the late arrival of the down train forming my departure. We were Birmingham New Street in at 10:15, out at 10:19, Birmingham International in at 10:30, out at 10:31, Coventry in at 10:40, out at 10:41. We managed to make up a little time on the journey to London, arriving Euston at 11:38, only 4 minutes late on schedule.
I wasn't quite so lucky on my return. A preceding departure from Euston had failed on the down fast, requiring us to be swopped to the down slow to get past the recalcitrant. This resulted in a 20 minute late arrival. I suppose the prospect of making up time was dashed by Network Rail's decision to impose a 110 m.p.h. temporary speed restriction south of Rugby.
I believe there were further problems on Friday and it's estimated that over 250,000 passenger journeys have been affected in just 5 days. A Network Rail spokesman gushed that the chaos was due to an "extraordinary list of unfortunate incidents". The grown-ups amongst us probably think that phrase is a fair description of what we expect in normal life. I'm ashamed, humiliated and disgusted that, in railways as in apparently most activities, my country appears an impotent laughing-stock.
