Consignia halts more mail trains in punctuality drive
CONSIGNIA has dropped three nightly mail trains which pass through the disrupted West Coast Mainline between Glasgow and London because they were failing to arrive on time. The mail will travel by road or air instead.
Two of the trains stopped running last Friday, joining the one terminated in December.
Fears are mounting that more mail trains will be axed as part of Consignia’s cost-cutting review, contravening the government’s stated aim of boosting rail freight.
The former Post Office now uses 55 trains per night to distribute mail via the railway network but may revise this total later this month.
Mail train operator EWS spokeswoman Sue Evans says: “We do not know exactly what is going to happen through Consignia’s multi-modal review. We are hopeful we will find out between next week and the end of the month.
“Our punctuality target is 95 per cent and the trains which ended were consistently failing to do that. There are still 15 mail trains on the West Coast Mainline. EWS will obviously do its best to ensure it does not lose any more.”
The news comes as Virgin sets down the conditions under which it will agree a new business plan for the contentious West Coast Mainline upgrade. The old plan had to be abandoned in the face of rising costs after Railtrack was forced into administration last October. The upgrade on the line will allow ’tilting’ trains to run at speeds of 140mph between London and Glasgow via Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester.
The cost of implementing the changes on the line has already spiralled from £2bn to £7.5bn after a series of blunders.
Sir Richard Branson’s rail company is demanding lower access charges, five to seven new trains from the government, and between nine and 10 ‘train paths’ – akin to take off and landing slots for aircraft – an hour.
Virgin spokesman Will Whitehorn says: “For the business plan to work we need more frequent and faster trains.”
Virgin originally demanded 11 paths an hour but cut back its requirements after discussions with Railtrack and the Strategic Rail Authority.
But Virgin is facing opposition from EWS and other freight organisations who are worried that the needs of freight are being squeezed out. They want enough train paths allocated to service the huge volume of freight traffic which uses the WCM. Failure to agree a plan will mean Virgin sues Railtrack for compensation of up to £1.1bn, the cost of the upgrade will soar to £10bn – and Railtrack will take longer to come out of administration.
Negotiations are set to continue for several more weeks before the plan passes to the rail regulator for approval.
