Train Rage: Thousands Stranded But Fares Go Up

Thousands of rail travelers face a miserable return to work today with late-running engineering work causing severe delays, cancellations and station closures.

The disruption, which will affect around 150,000 passengers in England, comes as inflation-busting fare rises come into force for the new year.

The failure to complete the engineering works over the Christmas and new year could leave Network Rail facing millions of pounds in fines.

Worst affected is the West Coast mainline, operated by Virgin Trains, with around 60,000 passengers being forced to take buses between Birmingham International and Northampton, adding two hours to their journey.

Thousands of commuters are also being advised not to travel into London this morning after Liverpool Street station failed to reopen after engineering work.

Transport for London confirmed this morning that the station, which has been closed since December 23, had not reopened due to "problems".

One Railway, which runs many services to the station from the eastern region, had an apology for disruption on its website this morning. It read: "Sorry! Some problems have arisen with the complex engineering work being carried out over the 10-day Christmas and new year period.

"As a result all services will be severely disrupted this morning - Wednesday 2nd January 2008... We do advise not to travel into London if your journey is not important. We do apologize for the inconvenience caused."

Rail fares across the UK are rising up to 11% today, more than twice the rate of inflation.

Regulated fares, which include most season tickets, are going up by an average of 4.8%, with many unregulated fares increasing by much more.

Train operators said the average rise of unregulated fares - such as cheap day returns, advance purchases and long-distance open tickets - would be 5.4%.

But the rail consumer watchdog Passenger Focus said some fares had increased by far more than this.

It said an annual season ticket from Gillingham in Kent to London was rising from £2,496 to £2,740, a 9.78% increase.

An annual season ticket for Canterbury to London was rising by 11% from £3,132 to £3,480.

Some users of First Great Western trains - one of the most overcrowded and least punctual services in the country - are to stage the revolt at the fare hike in the face of poor performance.

The campaign group More Train Less Strain (MTLS) is planning to build on a small-scale protest held in the West Country last year, during which passengers refused to buy tickets, instead producing specially printed "protest tickets".

A statement on the MTLS website reads: "Public discontent is such that a new year fare strike is almost inevitable. We stated that a 10% fare rise at a time when FGW admits their service is in a state of chaos is like pouring oil on the fire.

"We suggested to FGW that the public might hold back on action if they withdraw the fare rise. The ball is in their court. It is up to FGW to rebuild confidence in their train service."

The group will hold a public meeting in Bath on January 15 to discuss the details of the strike, likely to be held this month. Peter Andrews, spokesman for MTLS, said: "This time it looks like the strike might be much bigger. I imagine it will be similar to last year.

"We are seeing cancellations, delays and fare increases that are well above and beyond the rate of inflation. The traveling public has had enough."

A First Great Western (FGW) spokesman said: "Last year was a one-off as far as we were concerned and MTLS made their point on that occasion. We will consider what our policy will be if and when the strike happens.

"Hopefully they won't take strike action, and will find other ways of explaining their problems to us."

London TravelWatch, the watchdog for transport users in and around London, also branded the fare increases excessive. Its chairman, Brian Cooke, called for an independent audit. "The timekeeping of FGW in the London area is by far the worst with, in the second quarter of 2007, almost three times as many trains delayed as any other train company.

"In the most recent month for which figures are available, FGW's London area peak trains were on time on only 66% of occasions, against a target of 88%, which makes the FGW fare rises a bitter pill for their passengers."