Caller asks to bring Margaret Thatcher back to fix train strikes
Families’ getaway plans on the last weekend of the school summer holidays were thrown into disarray amid ongoing industrial action.
Up to 20,000 members of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) across 14 operators are believed to have walked out on Saturday – the 33rd day of disruption since the start of the dispute over pay last year.
Increased delays and cancellations have become part and parcel for passengers.
Between October and December last year, a higher percentage of services were partially or fully cancelled than over any other three-month period since comparable records began in 2014 (5.6 percent), data from the Office of Rail and Road show.
Website On Time Trains combines these metrics to evaluate the performance of each of Great Britain’s 2,633 stations. Express.co.uk has mapped the worst of the lot.
READ MORE: BBC Nick Robinson’s heated clash with rail boss over pay for striking workers
Of the top 100 busiest railway stations in the UK, York was found to be the worst over the past six months.
Averaging 23,526 passengers per day across a total of 71,379 services on the London North Eastern Railway, just 41 percent arrived within 59 seconds of their scheduled time, while nine percent were cancelled.
In second place came Manchester Oxford Road, with 42 percent of trains arriving punctually and ten percent cancelled, followed by Huddersfield, with 43 percent on time and 12 percent cancelled.
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This was the highest cancellation rate in the country. Huddersfield is served by the TransPennine Express, the company renationalised in May after mounting complaints.
ORR data show it had the highest cancellation rate of all operators between January and March this year, with just under 9.2 percent of all services either partially or completely struck off.
General secretary of the train drivers’ union Aslef Mick Whelan said: “The Government appears happy to let passengers, and businesses, suffer in the mistaken belief that they can bully us into submission.
“They don’t care about passengers, or Britain’s railway, but they will not break us. Train drivers at these companies have not had a pay rise for four years, since 2019, while inflation has rocketed.”
A Department for Transport spokesperson told the BBC: “Ministers have been clear with operators they need to deliver punctual services, keeping delays to a minimum.
“To help make our railways more reliable, it’s crucial unions agree to reforms that will modernise the industry.”
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