Last week’s poll: improving rail in the UK

Last year’s timetable changes on routes operated by Northern and Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) were nothing short of disastrous.

Timetable changes were introduced in May 2018 but by early June Northern had cancelled 165 daily services and introduced an interim timetable that removed six per cent of its services. The situation was similarly dire for GTR, which operates the UK’s largest rail franchise, with 8,000 services cancelled or delayed.

Poor timetable planning, ongoing modifications to rail infrastructure and staffing issues all helped to compound a problem that left thousands of fare-paying travellers stuck on railway platforms.

Northern and GTR are not alone in experiencing high-profile operating problems, but they are indicative of a wider malaise that has led to a call from former British Airways chairman Keith Williams for rail in the UK to be restructured.

We asked Engineer readers for their thoughts via last week’s poll, with just over a quarter (28 per cent) agreeing that rail needs to be put in the control of a body independent of government, followed by the 18 per cent favouring engineering improvements as the sole means of improving the situation.