I am acutely conscious that many families would like to be able to use the railway to travel at Christmas (Rail passengers are set to face Christmas chaos, 31 October). So the good news is that over 90% of railway services will run as normal. I am also acutely aware that our passengers want faster journeys with more trains and seats. That is why we are undertaking the biggest investment programme ever on Britain’s railways. Better railways drive economic growth, creating jobs and more housing.
However, you can’t carry out major upgrades to the railway while still running trains – and it is a simple fact that over the Christmas holidays, the numbers of passengers drops by up to 50% on key commuter routes. So this is the time when our work has the least impact on passengers overall. Passengers have shown themselves to be incredibly understanding of planned improvement work, which is why we advertise so far in advance to ensure people can make informed decisions about their travel over the festive period.
We know that things going wrong can be hugely disruptive, which is why we have spent so much time and effort to carefully plan our work this Christmas as we continue to build a better, more reliable railway.
Mark Carne
Chief executive, Network Rail
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