Tuesday 10th February 2026
I was going to leave this rant until February’s ‘Seen Around’ round up but then I realised it’ll be too late for thousands of other passengers by then.
So I’m ranting now.
It follows last weekend’s travel experiences with East Midlands Railway.
Quite simply, the travelling conditions were an absolute disgrace and those at senior level at Network Rail, LNER and EMR should be ashamed of the conditions passengers had to endure.
I booked a return trip to Derby way back last November, through EMR’s website, innocently thinking my bargain advanced ticket price (with Railcard) of £53.90 return from Hassocks would make for a very pleasant weekend away.
No indication was given of the chaotic travel conditions that must have been known about at that time. Had I been advised, I’d have avoided travelling by train completely.
It was only last Wednesday (with three day’s notice) I received the bad news in an email from EMR that King’s Cross was closed all weekend and its trains “are expected to be very busy”.
What an understatement.
How do LNER and EMR senior management think providing no extra trains on the adjacent Midland MainLine to and from St Pancras to compensate for the loss of the compete service into and out of King’s Cross is ever going to work? All the more so as EMR runs five coach trains as the norm whereas neighbouring LNER runs nine and ten coach trains as the norm. Furthermore it’s public knowledge EMR is suffering from a shortage of trains having withdrawn some of its Meridian train sets without sufficient new replacements yet available due to new train deliveries running hopelessly late.
It beggars belief these “upgrade works” were allowed to go ahead in such circumstances.
Like many weekend leisure travellers I don’t closely monitor train company websites week by week, but had I done so I might have noticed the slimline yellow banner at the top of the home page warning of problems at weekends, which I now see began at the end of last month. Frankly I’d much rather see due prominence given to the fact no trains are running into and out of London on consecutive weekends (which, after all, is quite a thing) than all the marketing guff further down the page.
Interestingly checking LNER’s website last night I see that micro yellow banner has disappeared giving no indication of problems coming up this Sunday and future weekends.
At least EMR’s website has still left it in situ.
The railway fraternity has been in hyper self congratulatory mode this year, including running new bi-mode Evero trains over the Settle-Carlisle line in a blaze of publicity, salivating over brand new (five coach) Aurora trains finally being introduced years late and even getting over excited about new Serenza trains that haven’t even been built yet (and won’t arrive until at least 2028), but for thousands and thousands of passengers who need to travel on the East Coast MainLine at weekends this month when it’s yet again closed for “planned engineering upgrade work”….. it’s all hidden away almost as though they don’t want to promote it.
Instead, just try squeezing yourself on to already overcrowded weekend trains or get left behind on a station platform forlornly waiting for the next one – which will be just as jammed packed because it may have escaped senior managers’ attention but weekend leisure travel is booming and five coach trains are completely inadequate even on a normal weekend.
If this complete indifference to intolerable conditions continues with no suitable contingency plans put in place for the upcoming weekends in February I can see, just like myself after Sunday’s experience, people will turn away from the railway and go back to driving or using the coach.
What annoys me even more about this is we were given the impression during previous closures of King’s Cross they were to complete the “upgrade work” and the new timetable introduced (years late) last December was the result. Yet, here we are, less than eight weeks into the supposed new ‘upgrade complete’ timetable and the line is closed yet again for “upgrade work”. Delving into LNER’s website I see this is all about the “East Coast Digital Programme”. If this means as that programme is rolled out across the entire East Coast MainLine over the next few years disruption becomes the norm at weekends, then it’s not looking good for the railway.
We deserve better than this.
We should be told in a high profile way months in advance of closure dates so alternative dates for travel or other arrangements can be planned by passengers.
The closures dates should be made prominent on websites (including those running trains on adjacent lines which will “generally be much busier than usual”) and printed notices should be installed at stations – far more important than some of the marketing guff we get plagued with.
Better contingency arrangements should be put in place. LNER bi-mode trains should be route tested and added to the Midland MainLine, just like Hull Trains do, to provide additional direct services to Leeds and York.
If there are more closures planned later this year they should be postponed until EMR’s new fleet of trains is fully introduced so that company is not caught short of having enough trains and can run more with 10 coaches. (We’ve waited long enough for other “upgrades”, another year won’t hurt.) Ten coach trains are needed. Five coaches just don’t cut it.
Fares should be reduced to compensate for the poor quality service being offered – what other customer facing industry would charge normal prices while knowingly offering such an unsatisfactory and inadequate service?
Better signage should be in place at St Pancras to deal with additional passengers – for example a separate queue was designated for “Reservations” at the weekend yet EMR had dispensed with reservations – it turns out what it meant was a queue for those booked on a specific timed train with an Advance Ticket but it wasn’t made clear at all to most people.
LNER passengers travelling between London and York/Leeds/Newcastle were advised by notices at St Pancras to travel on a Thameslink train to Bedford (64 minute journey time) then a coach to Peterborough (timed to take 80 minutes) whereas EMR’s half hourly Corby service is quicker by a third (taking 41 minutes to Bedford) and was running with empty seats on trains which had been doubled to eight coaches.
Even more confusing, LNER’s journey planner was advising passengers to travel by EMR to Derby then Cross Country to York – another service renowned for its intolerable overcrowding.
The same was true for passengers to Leeds – go via Derby on EMR and then Cross Country.
Even more worrying LNER deny that’s the case. They reckon the Journey Planner directs passengers to travel via Peterborough and Bedford. When I pointed out that was simply not true on social media…
… LNER doubled down on it, stating it is the case for southbound journeys. But it isn’t true – take a look at the Journey Planner screenshot below for a journey from Leeds to London on Saturday 21st February.
Or one from York to London.
And I had to smile when researching this further to see LNER has had to abandon its prized “industry leading Simpler Fares trial” during these weekends of disruption and bring back the much missed passenger friendly and flexible “Super off-peak ticket” which it so dearly wants to scrap.
Because, yes that offers passengers a choice of travelling between York or Leeds and London by using trains out of Liverpool Street via Cambridge and Peterborough or from Euston to Birmingham and Sheffield and avoiding the Midland Mainline.
How about promoting those options instead of Journey Planners insisting everyone struggles on to trains which plainly can’t cope?
Finally, if you did make it on to an EMR train on Sunday – many were left behind unable to board on the journey on which I returned from Derby – the train ran hopelessly late due to extended dwell times at stations, as it was simply taking for ever to get passengers off the train from inside the packed coaches and controlling those trying to squeeze on.
If you did struggle on you’re “welcomed” on board with the usual inane automated announcements and super new on board screens making a mockery of a train company being in tune with, and empathetic, to its passengers’ plight…
… and new screen displays in a brand new train showing occupancy of the five coaches plainly displaying complete rubbish with every coach rammed yet the display showed widespread seat availability in three of the coaches. What a sick joke.
Then after arriving into St Pancras much later than schedule after intolerable conditions you’re greeted with ….. ticket barriers and the usual menacing staff … well, after all, we don’t trust you’ve paid the correct fare and got a ticket, even though you can’t trust us to run a decent service.
I feel sorry for those aiming to catch the 16:32 departure from St Pancras to Sheffield on Sunday afternoon. Amid all the chaos the journey was cancelled due to a “fault with the train” although to its credit at least EMR ran 10 coaches on the following departure.
My advice – steer well clear of the East Coast and Midland Mainlines on the remaining weekends in February. Use Liverpool Street or Euston instead. Or FlixBus or National Express with whom you’re guaranteed a seat.
And if you’re travelling between York and Newcastle on weekends in March prepare for a longer ride via the Durham Coast line as, guess what, the East Coast Mainline is closed for “upgrade works” north of York each weekend.
Rant over.
Roger French
Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS
BusAndTrainUser 
How miserable Roger. Among other things, it shows the flaw in allowing EMR to buy and run 5 car trains as standard. They aren’t long enough even for a normal weekend
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It’s like this most weekends. 5 cars and 2 of them first class. Leaving just 3 carriages for standard.. for a cross country journey. And it doesn’t matter if you have a reservation as the system is often turned off or faulty leading to arguments with passengers. Compensation was claimed.
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Sadly my experience within the rail industry (although not with the named companies) is that management were and are largely invisible at weekends and thus oblivious of just how busy certain routes are. It’s also a problem that has got worse as what might be called “old school” managers have left to be replaced with people who have never worked at a level where they interact with the public and are quite happy with a Monday to Friday 9-5.
Surfblue
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Very much agreed.
It doesn’t help that even the “old school” managers who were left were the industry’s yes-men and women; the decent “old school” managers at TOC level had long since been ‘allowed to leave’ because they dared to argue the toss with the owning groups.
With EM specifically, the last MD I actually saw out and about on ordinary working days was EMT’s Tim Shoveller. David Horne would appear at events grinning like a little schoolboy on a day out but was never otherwise seen on EMT, and the less said about his succsessor the grinning assassin Jake Kelly the better.As for EMR’s Will Rogers? I wouldn’t know him if he introduced himself, although he apparently does a good line in vlogs for those staff who have time for such things.
I’m retired now so obviously I’m not entirely up-to-date, but I’m told by current employees that EMR are still more interested in self-publicity and painting everything purple than in boring things such as running trains. Given that these are the people who GBR will be relying on to provide a public service, it doesn’t bode well for the future.
Britain’s railway is broken.
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I’ve got a few stories along similar lines but as I’m not yet retired like you I think it’s safest not to share!
Surfblue
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unfortunately this is regularly the norm on EMR at weekends with either the East Coast or West Coast shut.
Huge queues at St Pancras with no customer service staff providing information as to what’s going on, overcrowded trains, reservations not honoured (or even offered in the first place sometimes these days), short formations and cancelled trains.
It does feel like EMR is being run with the mentality of a local metro system catering for events at a stadium or arena rather than a premium priced Intercity service.
That said what more can EMR management do on such days at the moment other than improve the customer service provision?
LNER need to do more work on their passenger routing given the reliance on journey planners and online ticket sales. Just thinking job done by laying on some buses isn’t good enough. They need a technical solution that encourages passengers to use them when booking or alternatively run trains on alternative routes.
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Wierdly since the utterly useless Transport UK were uncernmously thrown off the Snow Hill Lines on February 1st.
WM TRAINS LTD have been running a much more consistent & reliable service with notable less cancellations & short formed sets reducing the overcrowding as pictured above Roger.
Currently at Rowley Regis are trains are running, virtually unheard of in Transport UK days.
The best test tonight is when Brum host The Baggies in a local derby how WM TRAINS LTD cope we will have to see………..
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let us know and report back
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Got to & from St Andrews tonight to see The Baggies.
Have to say it was pleasant change that all was operating well with WM TRAINS LTD compared with the usual previous shambles of Transport UK.
West Midlands Trains are certainly moving in the right direction in this new era under the DfT & TfWM.
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So it’s been a total transformation in TEN days? New management, new staff, new trains… It’s amazing what the public sector can achieve
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Just standing on Rowley Regis Station on Friday 13th February at 11am
Again this morning all trains are on time.
In the 13 days since Transport UK Group was thrown off West Midlands Trains I haven’t seen a single cancellation with WM TRAINS LTD.
You really have to wonder why Transport UK Group was so rubbish running the Snowhill Lines.
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It’s absolutely incredible…. Same staff, same trains, same infrastructure. Thank the lord for state owned, state managed organisations rather than the broken Tory doctrine
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Yes agree – There are certain sectors of society where clearly the aspect of the free market approach is not preferable regardless of party.
I support the concept of Bus Franchising where the London model is preferable in my opinion where there is evidence this will work better than the current approach.
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I’m sure GBR will sort all this nonsense out in time! I’m old enough to remember what the railways were like when last in state stewardship so not holding my breath.
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Ah yes, use the current state of the railways to have a pop at an organisation that doesn’t even exist yet. Bizarre.
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I read it as scepticism as to whether an organisation that doesn’t exist yet will solve these problems, which unfortunately seems justified. I do find some of the ‘nationalisation will solve everything’ talk worrying and also remember that disruptive weekend engineering works and lack of coordination between different lines (or different BR regions in much earlier days) were characteristic of the era when rail was nationalised
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Not really comparing like with like though. The privatised railway has had vastly more funding than BR.
Roger Ford did an analysis back in the days of Railtrack and found the cost of capital projects was four times that of BR after adjusting for inflation.
The last major BR project (East Coast Mainline modernisation) came in under time & under budget. By contrast Railtrack’s West Coast Mainline modernisation was years late & billions over budget and the envisaged 140mph running was never achieved. BRs budget vision for the line would have seen greatly increased capacity with longer trains, cheaper fares & without the claustrophobic Pendolinos but with perhaps a 10 minute longer journey time to Manchester.
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It’s undoubtedly true that infrastructure costs have increased dramatically, but so have health and safety standards. No staff are allowed to be trackside if trains are running these days; things like single line working are long gone, and the result is fewer people killed or seriously injured while working on the railway. The costs would have risen even if BR had remained in place, although changes such as a greater use of consultants and contractors, not to mention the constant “business case” requirements to justify “investment” has probably accelerated this.
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this has to be reported to the transport select Committee and Green Signals vlog..
under dft franchising east Midlands has gone backwards from midland mainline days of proper trains of hst sets from.a proper st pancras Station.
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5 coach trains are becoming the new normal. LNER now operate 5’s from KGX to both York and Newcastle several times a day, every day. That never happened before last Decembers “improved” timetable. The 225 sets have all been reduced from 9 to 7 coaches, just to save a few minutes.
Open access operators seem to run 5 cars as the norm, taking up valuable paths.
This is the future folks. More trains, fewer seats.
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electrification has been slow and a lack of ideas and rolling stock has created a near impossible to use railway. To me now for east midland it is time for 5 plus 5 trains splitting at leister for Sheffield via Nottingham or via Derby every 10 mins and indeed run it like a metro. Corby trains with bi modes now sent via thameslink platforms and run round the Wimbledon loop stopping at Farringdon elephant Streatham. Wimbledon and Sutton though even that is not immune from engineering disruption
network rail is good at planning and doing engineering upgrade works generally on time but the planning for alternative routes or services including trains to routes generally poor , the recent TP route upgrade and emergency closure maybe being and exception where coach and alternate line usage has mitigated flows admittedly on a route with less passenger flows to intermediate stations affected but it can be done
JBC Prestatyn
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Avanti ran IETs under ‘Evro’ brand on the Settle & Carlisle and not Pendolinos
LNER have route test their IET ‘Azuma’ fleet into St Pancras now and believe waiting sign off for future use and then whether they’ll be route conduction or actual driver learning of the route to be agreed with unions.
However, like Hull Trains they are limited to the length of train they will be able to run which, like Hull Trains, will a 5-car at any time owing to 26m car lengths. For reference EMr Aura are 23m
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Thanks for the correction – post now amended to Evero.
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My sister and family were coming from London to Leeds to visit two weekends ago and after a while looking at train options (I work on the ECML so can get them decent fare reductions) they binned the train idea and drove instead. With three young kids, god only knows what it would have been like for them attempting the train
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motorways fail too
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Unfortunately this is typical of the arrogance and complacency of the railways. They do exactly what they like at minimum inconvenience to themselves (any mitigations are of course far too much like hard work to implement) and their customers are just expected to put up with it.
I’m actually surprised that LNER didn’t keep their “simple” fares in place just to add to the inconvenience.
Is it any wonder that unlike most other European railways passenger numbers have yet to recover to pre-Covid levels?
Steve
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It seems to me the railways have got themselves into a (needless?) tizz with all this route specific rolling stock. Back in the day, when carriages could run anywhere, and many drivers on all lines were competent on the class 47, it would all have been so much easier…
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The UK has not got a standard loading gauge due to the historical way the railways evolved in the UK so rolling stock in many cases is restricted o certain lines
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The railway is awful now. I was stuck on Friday afternoon/evening on a LNER northbound train south of York for four and a half hours. It took them hours before a rescue train came alongside which we boarded by a bridge to return to Doncaster. I think this brought LNER to a standstill last Friday.
As a railway enthusiast I hate travelling by train these days.
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Of course once the whole system has been nationalised then it will be marvellous. And the pigs will have been fed and watered and ready to fly!
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Nobody believes that, and only the foolish would even pretend that they do.
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it was missing the irony icon.
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Yes after reading this it all sounds under control 😆
https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/153/transport-committee/news/211808/mps-look-for-certainty-and-end-to-micromanagement-under-great-british-railways/
Peter Brown
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Thanks for the warning . I live in Leicester and wasn’t aware of how bad thigs are. At least I can head for Nuneaton by train or bus if I want to travel to London..
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Don’t think the new Hitachi EMR trains are passed to operate as 10 car sets yet.
Also if you think the S&C diversions were a ‘success’, then you are mistaken. As a passenger / customer who went via Oxenholme and coach as the first train and the train I was travelling on both PINE Preston. Ironically was only 30 later into Glasgow than the planned S&C route.
It was a well intentioned plan poorly executed as a number of details seemed to be missed and in this type of operation, details matter.
Steve
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Corby is much nearer to Peterbrough than is Bedford; it has 8-car trains every 30 mins. Would that not be a better option for the RRB?.
Terry
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I think both on TV and on the internet LNER have adverts encouraging travel with this silly man – sometimes travelling upside down on the ceiling (perhaps appropriate for EMR). Promoting travel is good but surely not when so many people are likely to want to make leisure travel journeys at weekends which may not be possible. It would be nice if the adverts said something like – choose a nice day for your trip and just turn up and go – have a good day and return when you feel like it, but LNER doesn’t want you to just turn up and go.
John Parkin. Carshalton
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Damn pesky passengers, if only Train operators didn’t have to carry them…
I wonder if GBR will make things better – somehow I doubt it!
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Try travelling on Cross Country. Last year I travelled between Sheffield and Oxford one Sunday, with this company. Two voyagers turn up, but only allowed to sit or should that stand in one! My bicycle had more room than I did!
I try and avoid Cross Country as much as possible, and travel via London using GWR or Chiltern to the capital and then LNER or Hull Trains to either Retford or Doncaster. Either that or drive!
Sorry to moan!
Dave
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I use EMR to travel to and from London and even on a good day there is overcrowding (why are the new trains only 5 cars long?) and the terminus at St Pancras is too small (how about taking platform 5 back from Eurostar?). There is absolutely no capacity for additional passenger traffic. Many thanks to the Department for the Prevention of Transport.
A couple of years ago I needed to get from home in the Derbyshire Dales to London, the car wasn’t available and EMR was on strike. So I went by bus. I left at 08:15 and finally got off my 10th bus at Fulham Broadway at 21:30. It can be done!
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Roger
I trust you will hear from Peter Hendy before the day is out.
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Just a side issue to that tale of woe and incompetence but the East Coast digital railway sets fair to become the most expensive IT is the answer to everything of all time. It’s taken years and millions just to get to Finsbury Park let alone Newcastle – and the benefits? Maybe you’d like to do a piece on it with your much better understanding of things railway?
Mike P
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While we are in rant mode who comes up with the daft names for new trains and what are they trying to prove? We have got Azuma, Evro, Serenza, Arterio etc. Do they think that the public notices (or cares?). How much money has been wasted on the focus groups to develop them? At least the Inter City 125 did what it said on the tin (and had seats that were fit for purpose).
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If I recall, Virginia started this with the Azumas?
Peter Brown
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Because those who pull the strings love anything that sounds “foreign”……totally pointless.
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This might have started with the car industry. In the 1950s/1960s, car models had names which were perhaps just a bit staid – the Austin Cambridge, the Morris Oxford for example. Then Ford launched a new model, which they named “Cortina”. It broke with tradition, sounded a bit exotic, perhaps glamorous, maybe even a bit exciting, to tempt people into wanting to buy one.
Malc M
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I spent some time at Peterborough station on the last 2 Saturday mornings observing the RRBs in operation from there to Bedford and to Huntingdon/St Neots/Hitchin..
What struck me was the lack of apparent demand for an apparently efficient operation. The biggest issues seemed to be having to wait in the rain for the next bus, and last Saturday having less layover space in the Acland Street coach park because Stagecoach East were using half of it for local bus routes displaced from Queensgate bus station by “urgent works”.
But reading Roger’s report it is clear that all was not well elsewhere. I suggest we need a named and high-profile department (in DfT or GBR or LNER or wherever) with absolute responsibility for:
a) scheduling planned engineering possession of any passenger carrying route; and
b) modelling the resulting interruptions to passenger journeys, organising compatible TOC resources necessary to accommodate diverted journeys, setting and monitoring standards for passenger experience around journey interruption/diversion, resetting all journey planners to make the best use of actual network capacity during interruption/diversion, reallocating any network paths where deemed necessary, and blocking ticket sales for overstretched route sections; and
c) publishing duly revised train/RRB timings for passenger information.
Ian McNeil
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Whilst I understand the moral argument behind you asking for cheaper fares, I’m not sure that encouraging even more people to travel on already overcrowded services would be a good idea. Had Hassocks to Derby been the normal £80 rather than the £54 you paid, perhaps that might have made a difference to your decision to travel. Perhaps cheaper fares could be used more skilfully on shoulder days.
Jan B
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if you look at TfL’s website the homepage first item is always a service status list for all lines. Currently stating Central severe delays, Metropolitan minor delays. All TOC pages should provide service status as the first item before any marketing slop.
https://tfl.gov.uk/
Peter Brown
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problem here is if all the trains were running as scheduled a “good service” would be reported.
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that is delays to scheduled service sometimes planned closure or partial closure is stated which needs a bit of a drill down
JBC Prestatyn
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We couldn’t agree with you more, Roger. Perhaps the worst thing is the operators carry on as if there is no significant disruption. Will things change under Great British Railways? Probably not, at least not for some considerable time.
Probably, the main lesson for everyone is not to travel at weekends unless absolutely essential.
Hope you feel a bit better now!
Best wishes – and thanks for all your blogs
Mark & Pat Dennis
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I do remember in days gone by at Euston on days they knew it would be busy all Intercity services became mandatory reservations with boardings controls in place. Those walking up without booking could go to the ticket office and pick up a boarding card if there were seats still available on the next departure.
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When the West Coast Mainline was closed some years back with weekend engineering, didn’t Virgin do something imaginative and couple up three voyagers (so 15 carriages), and run this up to the Midlands via High Wycombe? (CH, Oxford).
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depends how close to terminus disruption is. Thankfully Marylebone wasn’t closed despite many efforts so to do , indeed Marylebone to Birmingham the cross country to York would have been useful as alternative route if cross country have space.
I think my idea of using the Wimbledon loop to turn trains from the North back around using weekend either blackfriarrs or west London line should be thought of in these bi mode days i don’t know if blackfriars to South london line thence Wll is feasible. I suppose running into moorgate or Liverpool st via Cambridge for Peterborough mat have paths too JBC Prestatyn
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You’re not thinking of way back when Midland Mainline ran alternative services from St Pancras via the Hope Valley line, are you? It used HST sets. Was run as Project Rio, due to West Coast Mainline upgrades back in 2003 and 2004. I used those service a few times. Slower than the West Coast Mainline but quite quiet and Midland Mainline had a policy of giving out free tea and coffee at the time.
Virgin would also do loco hauled Pendolinos – they regularly ran one from Chester to Holyhead anyway, but a couple of times they ran them over the Settle to Carlisle line.
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Hi Roger many thanks for this, I have forwarded to MP John Whitby for Derbyshire Dales and have heard that he will forward to the Transport secretary.
Kind regards, Chrissy Grocott, (Matlock bus users group) ________________________________
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Thanks.
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For some reason, Britain’s railways regard the provision of information regarding future engineering work as something akin to a state secret. Want to travel over the late May Bank Holiday weekend, but wonder whether you might face a disrupted journey? Keep wondering – of the Inter City operators, only GWR will give you even a hint as to what may or may not be planned.
I simply do not believe that none of LNER, EMR & Avanti have absolutely no clue whether their routes will be disrupted. Given some basic information, a number of potential passengers would make other arrangements, which would also help to ease the crowds of those who do choose to travel
Paul B
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I think network rail work on a planned 90 day advance window JBC Prestatyn
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The irony that LNER can bring back the super off peak tickets just like that! Shows the ‘trial’ is such a farce!
Also, these events really show the need for a set Intercity standard. A minimum standard of service including number of coaches each service must meet. This standard should apply to all LNER, Avanti, Crosscountry and TPE services as well as the main GWR routes, Sheffield/ Nottingham EMR and Norwich GA routes. Everything else is regional or commuter. At least 9 or 10 coaches should be standard for it to be Intercity.
And finally, it’s about time train and bus companies caught up with the programme. Saturdays and Sundays are like any other day of the week now, so why are we still running much less public transport? Makes no sense.
Aaron
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I understand most 5 coach units have more space than previous 5 carriages would be. But generally the days of 12 coach south western electrics seem in the past too. We are told that m to f still has the greatest total passenger flows on all intercity routes something I doubt more as weekenders have more luggage . JBC Prestatyn
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My understanding is that SWR are still short waiting on the much delayed 701 programme and that as more come into service then longer formations on the mainline should eventually resume.
surfblue
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I had fantastic times during my several All Line Rover tours in the 1970s, no complaints let alone writing letters to British Rail! Locomotive hauled trains generally apart from electric units on Merseyside, London and Glasgow. On at least one occasion I slept on the floor of the train’s rearmost vestibule, using the huge BR Timetable book as a pillow. Those wonderful times are long gone thanks to the tsunamis of political pressures drenching the railway industry since full nationalisation was swept away in 1994.
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An entirely justified rant.
Network Rail needs to be seriously challenged about why it has to close over 76 miles of heavily-used route (and associated branches) for several weekends to carry out this resignalling work.
Seven Saunders
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I suspect the atomised nature of Britain’s railways may be a factor here.
LNER will look after LNER’s interests. EMR will look after EMR’s interests. Network Rail will look after Network Rail’s interests. But where is the overall “guiding mind” looking after the railway as a whole, and the overall interests of passengers? That has been lacking for 30 years now.
Would British Rail have organised things differently in this situation? Who knows?
Cancelling or deferring the work might not be as easy as it might first appear. Railway signalling is a highly-specialised skill. Cancel the engineers booked to work, and who knows when they may next be available. Cancelling them (on a particular weekend) may also result in paying penalty payments to whichever contractor is supplying them, which then adds to the cost of delivering the project. If the project budget has enough wriggle room to absorb that, it might be easier to justify doing so.
Not that any of this is an excuse for the severe overcrowding Roger reports.
Malc M
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So they’ve gone from HSTs to some 7-car Meridians to 5-car IETs… and this is progress?!
LNER has basically the same trains. They should have been used from St Pancras. If they need clearing, do that before the work.
Run buses from Corby and tell people to go that way.
It shouldn’t be difficult!
Do you get Delay Repay if you can’t physically get on the train as queues are in operation?
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Another alternative London-Derby would have been Marylebone (Chiltern to Birmingham, then cross country onwards to Derby)
That route has its own issues of course (Cross country for a start), and a decision on how best to get to New street for the direct Derby train (change at e.g. Leamington or do the walk from Moor street to New Street).
Additional options when HS2 starts (longer interchange walk/bus in Birmingham)
many train companies advertise heavily on video channels (not just DfT operated/frachised ones): thameslink, southern, southeastern, greater Anglia, southwestern, sometimes GWR, not EMR recently (or WMR/LNWR).
milest
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Rather ironic!
https://www.railadvent.co.uk/2026/02/think-twice-no-excuse-for-abuse-emr-double-the-number-of-body-worn-cameras-to-protect-staff-and-customers.html#google_vignette
Peter Brown
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Perhaps this overcapacity solution is the ultimate aim of EMR?
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have long given up with EMR overcrowded services between Derby and London. travel via Tamworth, its around half the fare with dedicated LNR & XC fares, and the electric Tamworth trains are usually 10 or 12 carriages. only just over an hour from Tamworth, and Avanti have regular non stop trains on the route now too. only issue can be the Crosscountry connections being busy.
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Regarding the comment about the ‘simplier fares’ price hike on LNER, the super off-peak tickets for Leeds & York hasn’t been touched (yet). It’s only Newcastle & stations north where passengers pay over the odds due to the removal of the price cap. Unless you buy to a further station
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“GreatBritish Railways” So This is what wew should expect as the norm? I belive there are regularThameslink Services to Peterborough, so why send passengers by other routes with ebven more chnages?
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Its not just north of the river that GBR is comprehensively failing, SWR has been missing its cancellation and reliability targets for most the past year. And I don’t think these numbers include the now routine skipping of stops by trains running late, which is reaching a level where ORR must surely be forced to intervene in the same way as they did for the p-cancellations.
https://www.southwesternrailway.com/travelling-with-us/performance/our-performance
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You’re right it is a disgrace. Might not bode well for GBR. For all its faults BR was staffed by full on railway professionals some of whom may have been mediocre but many were really great at their jobs. And it was a life long career spread across many disciplines. Privatisation killed all that.
mikeC
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