Change platforms: Invest more in Britain’s railways to avoid this chaos

 

Saturday 02 May 2015 01:23 BST
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Pity the poor commuter, paying thousands of pounds each year for the ordeal of travelling on Europe’s most congested rail network. Yesterday, the Overground line from London Euston to Watford Junction was closed to rush-hour travellers. Elsewhere, a scattering of broken-down trains, signalling problems and, tragically, suicide caused delays the length and breadth of the kingdom.

Such issues are common around Europe. In Britain, though, the impact is more extreme because of the intensity with which we run our rail network. Passenger numbers are likely to hit an all-time high this year, exceeding a peak set in the 1920s when the network was much bigger. The railway industry deserves credit for extracting implausible amounts of capacity from the nation’s constricted arteries. But it also means that when things go wrong, there is little slack in the system for a managed service recovery.

While commuters from Leamington to Liverpool cursed the system, an event in London’s Docklands pointed towards the future. The opening to the public of the spectacular new Crossrail station at Canary Wharf shows what can be achieved with generous quantities of investment and vision – and the economic value conferred by connectivity.

Crossrail will shrink journey times impressively from Reading to the Thames Estuary, but the project is principally about capacity, not speed: providing a much-needed clearway from east to west beneath Western Europe’s biggest city.

A week from today, politicians are likely to put short-term expediency ahead of long-term planning. But when the democratic dust settles, the nation deserves an early commitment to dramatic improvements in northern England’s railways. The immediate benefits include the creation of thousands of jobs. In the longer term, resilience and reliability will prove essential for a thriving economy – and the frayed nerves of rail passengers.

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