Thousands left waiting as rail delay continues

THOUSANDS of rail passengers in Britain face at least one more day of travel misery today after Network Rail again failed to complete engineering work on a key London to Scotland route.

Network Rail could be heavily fined by regulators for its overrun of the project on the West Coast Main Line in the West Midlands which should have been finished in time for business on Monday.

Blaming “a shortage of specialist engineering and contractor staff,” Network Rail was unable to reopen the West Midlands section of the line yesterday. And by early afternoon, it had to announce the work would be extended into today, although it would not comment on a report that it could be next Monday before services returned to normal.

As passengers spoke of “nightmare journeys” that were compounded by a fire which caused an evacuation at Birmingham International station, opposition MPs joined in the condemnation of Network Rail, while the Office of Rail Regulation said it was launching “an urgent investigation” into the West Coast situation.

The office said it was also looking into the overrunning of Network Rail engineering works which meant that Liverpool Street main line station in London was closed yesterday — affecting services from the capital to East Anglia. It has already fined NR £2.4 million (€3.2m) for the late delivery of signalling work at Portsmouth in 2006 and the rail infrastructure company could face another hefty fine over the West Coast and Liverpool Street incidents.