Chaos on the railways

The Briefing Room · Aug 2, 2018 · 28m

In May, what was billed as the biggest ever overhaul of train timetables led to widespread rail disruption - why has this new timetable caused such rail chaos this summer?

Since then, passengers travelling on the services of two rail franchises - Govia Thameslink and Northern - have suffered weeks of cancellations and delays. The overhaul was aimed at improving punctuality and boosting capacity, but what passengers got was hundreds of trains removed from service as the franchises struggled to cope with the planned changes.

Transport Secretary Chris Grayling has defended his handling of the…