Widespread cancellations attributed to Covid-related staff shortages are part of a secret government strategy, say rail bosses
By Oliver Gill, Chief Business Correspondent 4 January 2022 • 6:55pm
Commuters are facing chaos on the railways this month because of a secret Whitehall plan to cut more than one in four train services, insiders have revealed.
Tens of thousands of travellers were stung by cancellations on Tuesday that have been publicly blamed on Covid-related staff shortages, with services into London and around the country severely reduced.
However, rail bosses privately accused the Government of exacerbating the chaos through their handling of a secret plan, agreed before the Christmas break, to scale back services in response to the omicron surge.
The Telegraph has learnt that an emergency timetable was signed off by Peter Wilkinson, head of passenger services at the Department for Transport (DfT), before Christmas.
In what was supposed to be a coordinated effort, operators agreed to reduce services to approximately 70pc of pre-pandemic levels by Jan 16.
But in subsequent weeks, senior industry sources say that they have since been met with radio silence from Whitehall amid a backlash against omicron curbs on the Tory backbenches.
Rail bosses complain that there had been no coordination by the DfT while the situation has deteriorated. Operators have started to unilaterally cut services and introduce emergency timetables as a result, it is claimed.
An industry source said: “They [the Government] are owning the problem, not the solution. If you do it [cut services] in a haphazard way, it gives the network a bad name.”
Victoria has been hit hardest after Southern rail cancelled all its trains in and out of London’s second-busiest railway station until Jan 10. This disruption alone is estimated to have hit tens of thousands of passengers.
A spokesman for Southern said that the cancellation would not drag on beyond Monday next week.
The Rail Delivery Group, the trade body for operators, said that 6,000 staff, or one in 10 rail workers, are off work.
ScotRail was among those to announce reduced timetables or warn of cancellations.The operator said 160 of its 2,000 daily services would be culled from Tuesday.
Alex Hynes, chief executive, told the BBC: "Over the last few weeks because of record numbers of Covid cases we have been cancelling too many trains so we have decided to proactively put this revised timetable in to give our customers greater certainty on the service we can offer.
"There will be a few twists and turns in this Covid tale until it's over."
Another operator, CrossCountry, said its staff absences are "worsening each day".
Rail use remains far off pre-pandemic levels
It is understood that the difficulties at CrossCountry, which runs long-distance services from Aberdeen to Penzance, have been aggravated by a row with drivers union Aslef over a “rest-day working agreement” that allows the company to ask staff to work on days off.
Transpennine Express, Avanti West Coast and state-owned Transport for Wales and LNER have also been forced to cancel dozens of services.
The situation has been further complicated by pressure from Whitehall on train companies to cut costs. The end of rail franchising, announced by Boris Johnson last May, means that taxpayers rather than rail operators now foot the bill for running train services.
One industry insider said that the cuts were only partly to do with Covid-related staff shortages. Another reason was the government advice to work from home was possible, meaning operators felt under pressure to reduce the burden on the Exchequer by cancelling services.
The insider said: "The DfT has emphasised to rail operators the need to run more efficient services."
A government source confirmed that it had asked operators to provide business plans to ensure taxpayer money is used efficiently.
They added: “With passenger numbers significantly down, it would be reckless and irresponsible not to ensure that the railway is more efficient and reducing its costs to the taxpayer.”
But officials insisted that investment in the railways is at record levels.
A DfT spokesman said: “We recognise the challenges rail operators are facing and have taken a number of steps to reduce the impact … and will consider temporary revised timetables where there are serious staff shortages.
“It is demonstrably false to suggest the Government is delivering cuts to the railway. We recently announced a £96bn programme to transform rail journeys, and our restoring your railways scheme is expanding, not shrinking, the rail network.”
