Rail passengers in Liverpool are "stressed" by widespread cancellations and delays.
The number of cancelled passenger train services is at its highest level ever recorded in Great Britain, with more than 314,000 trains fully or partly cancelled in the year to October, The Guardian reports. Roughly one in 26 rail journeys - or 860 a day - were disrupted nationwide, double the level in 2015.
According to data from from the Office of Rail and Road (ORR), this rises to one in 13 for services operated by Avanti West Coast, which runs services between Liverpool Lime Street and London Euston - the highest level of any operator. Most of those cancellations were because of problems under Avanti's remit, as opposed to infrastructure issues under the remit of Network Rail.
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In just the latest three months for which data is available, 7.8% of Avanti's services were cancelled. For Northern, which runs the Liverpool to Manchester and Liverpool to Wigan lines, this figure was 3.9%. Merseyrail cancelled just 1.9% of its trains in the same period.
All services run by Avanti West Coast, Northern and nine other operators are cancelled this Saturday, November 26 as Aslef members walk out on strike. The union said drivers, who earn an average of £59,000 a year, haven't seen a pay rise since before the covid pandemic.
Cancellations, delays and strikes across the network are making rail travel stressful for passengers. Waiting for a train to Manchester from Lime Street Station this week, Kayla said: "They're always delayed, and then once you're on them, they're more delayed and you can't get a seat. You can never get anywhere on time. I hate trains. I leave it up to my friends, they sort it and I just show up."
Lois, another Manchester-bound passenger, said: "I think for a little while they got better when they got all the new trains, but I think lately, in the last few months this year, it's been horrendous, everything has been cancelled. It's not the strikes' fault. Even when there are no strikes, the delays were horrendous. I think it was staff shortages. It was a nightmare getting anywhere."
Once a week, Will gets a TransPennine Express services to Newton-le-Willows, which he said "has a habit of not turning up". He told the ECHO: "When it's a Newcastle train, it makes a big difference because it puts everyone behind schedule, but thankfully the station staff in Lime Street know their stuff, and the Network Rail staff really know their stuff. Between them, they'll get you moving, even if it's a case of, if you're going to London, it's 25 minutes slower than it would be."
Sat in Central, Owen has had three trains cancelled on him while travelling from North Wales to Liverpool in the last year, which makes him "pretty stressed out" when going to work. The Liverpool John Moores University student said: "I've been late for work a few times. I feel like they're kind of understanding, but you definitely feel the vibe when you go in that you shouldn't have been late because they think you should've got there earlier."
As well as cancelling a higher proportion of train services than any other operator, Avanti was planning to run fewer services to begin with. In the 12 months to October, it was planning to running 60% fewer trains than in the same period in 2019, the largest reduction of any operator. For Northern, this figure was 69%.
An Avanti West Coast spokesperson said: "We know we're not delivering the service our customers rightly expect and we apologise for the enormous frustration and inconvenience caused. Resolving this situation requires a robust plan that will allow us to gradually increase services without being reliant on train crew overtime, which fell dramatically in July."
A Department for Transport spokesperson said: "It's unacceptable that poor levels of service are preventing hardworking people from going about their daily lives. We have earmarked more than £16bn to improve passenger services since the start of the pandemic and are working closely with train operators to ensure long-term solutions are put in place so passengers can travel confidently without disruption."
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