Comment: This is no way to run a railway

Jan 3 2008 by Liverpool Daily Post

TRY to picture, just for a second, an admittedly hugely unlikely scenario for London during the Olympic Games of 2012, and ask yourself just what the consequences might be for those responsible.

Imagine if you will an announcement that, due to major refurbishment work, the key public transport system aimed at delivering visitors from outside the capital to the Games will be subject to massive disruption throughout the event, making it nothing short of an ordeal for spectators to get there.

To suggest that there would be an outcry is an understatement. There would be questions in Parliament, probably a full inquiry, and sackings of those responsible for such a debacle.

Well, that is pretty much what we are facing in Liverpool, right now in 2008, courtesy of Network Rail.

We knew that work on the West Coast Line was going to cause inconvenience.

But it was only yesterday the true scale of the disruption that rail passeng- ers from London to Liverpool can expect to face through much of 2008 became clear. With hapless passengers having to travel via Sheffield to get to London this week, thanks to the over-running of major engineering work, the state of Liverpool to London services could hardly be more shambolic at present.

One can only sympathise with operator Virgin Trains, itself an official Capital of Culture sponsor, when it has to begin 2008 by advising customers not to travel on its services.

But further disruption, over Easter and at weekends throughout the year, is going to have a massive impact on the ability of Londoners to travel here for the wonderful cultural events we will have to offer in the months ahead.

Of course, rail safety is paramount, and tracks have to be improved and maintained, but the work should have been planned to be carried out before now, or postponed until 2009. To cause such disruption in a year of such historic significance to Liverpool is incompetence on a grotesque level. It should not be tolerated.