Govia Thameslink Railway hit with £5m fine over May’s timetable chaos
Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) faces a £5m fine over its role in last May’s timetable chaos, the rail regulator announced this morning.
The Office for Rail and Road (ORR) accused the train operator of failing to provide “appropriate, accurate and timely” information to passengers about the timetable change.
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The new timetables led to weeks of delays and chaos last summer, and the debacle is currently the subject of a number of government-backed reviews.
Failures included removing trains from the timetable but not telling passengers until several weeks later, as well as cancelling trains at short notice without passengers being aware.
Meanwhile “ghost trains” arrived at platforms without staff or passengers aware of where they were expected to stop.
Many passengers were unaware of replacement buses put on along some routes due to “prolonged delays” in updating information in journey planners.
Stephanie Tobyn, deputy director for consumer at the ORR, said: “The disruption experienced by many passengers as a result of the May timetable introduction was awful. When disruption happens, poor quality information makes an already difficult and frustrating situation worse.
“The exceptional circumstances that followed the introduction of the timetable meant that providing perfect advance information for passengers was from the outset an impossible task and GTR’s overriding focus was on providing as much capacity as it could to meet customer demand.
“However, persistent and prolonged failures in information provision meant that passengers couldn’t benefit from the operational improvement it was trying to make.”
GTR chief executive officer Patrick Verwer said: “We are disappointed at today’s fine imposed by the Office of Rail and Road.
“We are making significant improvements to information for passengers. These include upgrades to station screens, issuing frontline staff with new smartphones loaded with real-time service information, and we have volunteer teams on standby to help passengers during disruption. Further improvements in customer information are planned.
“The severe disruption following last May’s timetable introduction was due to industry-wide factors and we are sorry for the serious effect this had on our passengers.
“GTR has paid £18m in passenger compensation and is investing a further £15m in improvements for passengers for its part in the timetable issues.”
A separate ORR probe into Northern Rail discovered similar communication issues in the first two weeks of the new timetable, but found the operator had taken “reasonable steps” to give passengers appropriate information.
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Northern also introduced a new interim timetable on 4 June to stabilise service levels and improve performance, meaning the ORR will take no further action.
The regulator today wrote to all train companies and Network Rail, telling them to review their crisis management plans in light of its findings.