Towns to lose rail services as Virgin cuts back

Severe disruption to services is forcing Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Trains to reign back a £1bn scheme aimed at turning one of its networks which links 115 towns from "Cinderella to princess''.

About 35 per cent of the newly-introduced Voyager trains on the CrossCountry network have been arriving late on a "good day'' and 60 per cent on a "bad day'', the company's chief executive, Chris Green, toldThe Independent.

The new timetable, which led to a doubling of services in some cases, will be cut back in January, with some towns losing services completely. In May, there may be even more radical surgery, Mr Green said.

The performance of the new timetable – codenamed "Operation Princess'' – was launched on 30 September, but has been considerably less reliable than the old service.

Mr Green said the network, which spans the country from Aberdeen to Penzance, had been the victim of "appalling weather'', prolonged speed restrictions imposed by Network Rail and an increasingly congested system.

Trains had also been held up at stations as a result of a massive and unforeseen increase in passenger numbers. Mr Green estimates there has been a 40 per cent increase in demand for tickets since this time last year.

Amid a deepening financial crisis, the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) is refusing to fund the continued use of older high-speed trains as a back-up to the Voyagers.

Mr Green denied there had been anything other than "teething problems'' with the Voyagers. But he said they had been unable to cope with sea spray washed over the track during high tide at Dawlish in Devon – a problem which caused havoc with services.

In the new year, the timetable will be cut back so that trains will be able to reach their depots earlier at night for maintenance, and to allow services more waiting time at stations.

Virgin will also be attempting to persuade other operators which share the track with CrossCountry trains to prune services to relieve congestion.

Mr Green will attempt to persuade the SRA to allow his express trains priority over local services. "It is better to delay a local train by five minutes than to create much greater knock-on delays for express services,'' he said.

He said the services had been hit by a 90mph speed limit imposed by Network Rail between Wolverhampton and Stafford where trains should have been travelling at 125mph.

The company's other franchise, the flagship West Coast Mainline between London and Glasgow, has fared considerably better, he added. The American project management group, Bechtel, had "got a grip'' on the project to upgrade the route. Punctuality figures to be published this week would reveal that services were now as reliable as those on the East Coast Mainline run by Great North Eastern Railways.

Mr Green said a Government target to increase passengers numbers throughout the network by 50 per cent would only be achieved by even worse overcrowding in the absence of more state-funded investment.